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Thanks once again to TOMY, we have some more NARUTO Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 goods to giveaway as part of our 25 days of giving contest series! Up for grabs for the next 24 hours we have four copies of NARUTO Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 for the Wii, two Deidara figures, two Naruto figures and four NARUTO Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 shirts!

To win one of these four prize packs (made up of the game, toy and shirt), simple tell us your favorite character from the Naruto anime series. Oh yes, it’s that easy. Believe it! You can answer as many time as you’d like, but you have to wait for at least three other people to leave a comment before you can enter again. We’ll be picking four random comments after the contest closes at 11:59 PM CST tonight!

What do you all want from a Crackdown sequel? The same great I-am-a-badass-hear-me-roar style of play? Possibly with more options for cooperative multiplayer? That’s pretty much what I want out of it.

It’s hard to tell what’s going on with this new mutant stuff, but it certainly looks like there’s greater emphasis on you being an all-powerful entity of destruction in Crackdown 2. A major plus, in my book. With Ruffian developing rather than Realtime Worlds, I am somewhat cautious, to be frank.

Like I said, the mutants could be fun, or they could be totally silly. If it means more bodies in the city for you to fight with your co-op buddies, that could potentially provide an adequate challenge for the agents.

So it wasn’t Battlefront III or Star Wars Legends that was the big Star Wars reveal at the Spike Video Game Awards. Instead, it was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Surprised?

The trailer, as trailers go, looks nice but reveals little. What we do know is that you’ll once again take control of Starkiller, Darth Vader’s apprentice. But from what we hear in the trailer, it seems you may have choice — along with Vader’s voice, we also hear Yoda giving sage words of advice. 

How this will all play into the gameplay of The Force Unleashed II remains to be seen. The game is set for release next year.

And the Spike Video Game Awards show started off with the promised bang– in the initial seconds a follow-up to Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum was unveiled. Nice, right?

Here’s the scene: A massive present was rolled onto the main stage while large men equipped with smoke machines plodded through the walkways, puffing the substance throughout the room. As members of the crowd acted like they came to the wrong awards show, Mark Hammil’s Joker spoke, teasing a sequel before a trailer made it a reality.

The teaser didn’t do much more than reveal a location — it appears this Batman follow-up will be based in some sort of carnival atmosphere. The words “Arkham Asylum has moved” appeared the end of the short tease, before revealing that there’s a Web site you can go to get more information.

The game which everyone was teased and thought to be a titled called Red Lotus turns out to be… a new True Crime game. Yes, as in True Crime: Streets of NY and True Crime: Streets of LA. A new one. 

Developed by United Front games and published by Activision, the game looks to put the lead character in Hong Kong as an undercover cop. As part of the Triads he must “think like the Triads.” Also, there are strippers in this game, and guns. 

If anyone remembers the original game, it took an interesting… twist. We have to wonder if this new title wil follow suit, or if they’ll keep it a bit more down-to-earth.

[_{Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.}]

Videogame developers have big imaginations, but when it comes to storytelling there must be some kind of Manchurian Candidate-style switch in their head that forces them to put on some jet-skis and jump over a well-educated shark. It seems incomprehensible for a medium that is increasingly emulating its cinematic influences in an effort to gain mainstream acceptance, but in reality, it’s all down to a constant struggle between servicing the needs of the narrative and the involvement of the player through interaction.

Yet for no reason at all, even the most seemingly level headed games must push the extremes of plausibility when there is little need of it.

Take Fahrenheit a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy for example, the story involves an average office worker running from a ritual murder he committed while possessed. Eventually he dies and comes back as an un-dead guardian for some autistic, prophecy child. That’s all well and good, but all of a sudden some AI program in a glowing robot body pops up and wants a piece of the action. In the famous, albeit paraphrased, words of James Cameron on the set of Aliens:

What is it with a videogame writer’s need, nay necessity, to type up something that pushes a balanced story into the realm of alienation?

There’s usually a moment or an entire arc in these stories where, ultimately, they serve no purpose at all. Those ‘jump the shark’ (or ‘nuke the fridge’ if you’re the 13-20 age bracket) moments must seem entirely plausible and mind-blowing to developers. I mean, how else do they try and use the word ‘mature’ while keeping a straight face all the time? Though sometimes we can take something bad and embrace it to the point where even the developers will ironically get the joke and make a career out of it, a la David Hasselhoff making a living off The Hoff persona.

For me, something like Resident Evil’s plot is like the equivalent of watching a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie after watching a movie by Wong Kar-Wai; it’s alright to turn off the brain cells once in a while. There’s no shame in it at all, since nobody can be that ‘on’ with every game they encounter. Sometimes however, it seems that writers are just being too clever for their own good and this is where things truly fall apart.

Honestly, I didn’t particularly care for Okami on release since it was a game that concerned itself with style over substance; the re-skinning of enemies, the pattern memorising of bosses, their needless reappearances (you have to fight variations of same spider boss about five or six times) and the general reliance of acquiring skills to use on backtracking puzzles. I wouldn’t have minded the obvious Zelda and Metroid nods/homages/rip-offs if it wasn’t for the story though.

So if I paid attention from the last time I played it (on release and now collecting dust), you play a demi-god that gets re-awakened in a time when the world is about to be plunged into darkness, which is seemingly caused by an old enemy and along with an inch-high sidekick, you travel around Japan to stop the spreading darkness. It’s all based on a mythical story and it’s completely fair to take liberties with interpretation. Well, until the writers decided to pull a bizarre un-foreshadowed twist that contradicts much of the tale.

You eventually find out in the last ten or twenty hours in the game that all the monsters and your cute ‘demi-god dog that could’ are actually space aliens from the Moon (or at least something to do with a rock floating in space) and they crash-landed on Earth in a giant spaceship that looks like an intergalactic Noah’s Ark…

Excuse me?

EXCUSE ME?!

Actually, the idea of people worshipping other beings as gods and demons isn’t such a crazy idea in itself (see also: Stargate, many Doctor Who serials and the videogame Forbidden Siren), but it’s the execution of Okami’s twist that was the real problem for me. It all comes out of the leftfield blue and that, my dear reader, is not good writing.

It’s like when this guy in my film class wrote a short script about a journalist who goes to meet an aging sportsman. They talk about this guy’s achievements and his life in general. All of a sudden, the sportsman turns into a bloody werewolf and eats the journalist. Then there’s a hard cut to black and some credits. Did you see the twist coming? Only if you read ahead! Okami is exactly like that awful script in its final hours. After all the mythical deity talk, you’re given this factual occurrence and you soon question the first few hours of play. If there’s the science of extraterrestrial life, why is your sidekick an inch-high human sprite? How does an alien control the sun itself now that we know it’s not an almighty being?

Why should I care about this if it’s just a game?

Well, the idea of having to settle for shark jumping isn’t exactly ideal either.

We’re basically an audience who just accepts the limitations just as much as price hikes because we have bad teachers or even decent ones struggling with awkward answer books. Games developers can emulate everything they see from cinema, but are really unable to grasp the themes behind the imagery. Videogames aren’t, naturally, hastily put together without communication; but the writers don’t exactly go about researching themes and ideas in the same way film writers do. They’re mostly there to come up with some dialogue and cutscenes, you have other departments to come up with the expensive set-pieces and stunt-work.

Currently we have game writers who are naive idealists who reluctantly co-exist with their developers, designers who misinterpret themes they ‘pay homage/steal’ and the people that understand the assimilation of interaction with narrative. The poster child at the moment for game writing is Rhianna Pratchett, but it’s hard to take her seriously. I mean, how am I supposed to agree with her critical comments when she’s written something as awkwardly mid-90’s as Mirror’s Edge.

Tattooed outsiders with daft cyber-hippie names fighting against The Man or an out-of-touch, glorified courier service who know every line to Point Break, Hackers and The Matrix on repeat? You decide.

I’m not sure why magazines don’t request interviews with better writers like Sam Lake (Max Payne and Alan Wake). He’s an amazing writer who comes across as the opposite of Rhianna Pratchett. His work is very post-modern because he understands the assimilation of narrative and interaction, unlike Pratchett, who seems to fight against it. The same goes for the Hideo Kojima, who understands the design and works it into his narration; even if most of the time his messages become smothered with over indulgence.

There are plenty of writers who deserve more focus and the more they speak about the process, then the more likely games will be taken more seriously. Just off the top of my head, there’s a few examples that show the potential of videogame writers – Left 4 Dead 2’s subtle take on post-Hurricane Katrina and the ineptitude of FEMA, Silent Hill 2’s noir-like examination of relationship breakdowns, Steambot Chronicles cautionary tale of industrial advancement and Max Payne 2’s painful introspection of moving on are all great examples of storytelling. They mostly create their tales through mise-en-scène and not straight forward sign-posting, e.g. Payne’s world is full of references to Norse mythology though he never stops to remind you in his narration.

When writers know how games work they help contribute towards an idea that you wish was a film, but even better as a game. Just look at the Uncharted franchise, which was considerably more fun than the last Indiana Jones movie it takes its cues from. Videogame writers help shape imaginary worlds for you to inhabit, create fictional characters you can connect with and build up the set-pieces that you remember for years to come. Best of all, these games are creating theatrical ideas that speak to you in the way cinema sometimes fails too (and hey, let’s not be biased, it can be vice versa too). Do you think Halo would have been made as a film first and have been just as successful? It’s somewhat unlikely, judging by Hollywood’s cold feet of a big screen outing and Half Life 2 made the alien invasion genre more engaging than it ever had right to be, post-‘Martians equal Communists’.

We get the stories we dream of from subtle, amalgamated influences and when it works, it’s something we personally enjoy as much as if we were sitting in a darkened cinema. So here’s to loving and hating all those videogame writers who have the unsung job of having to create a suspension of disbelief for every shark baiting moment and fleshing out the iconic characters that other media outlets would like to think of as ‘two dimensional’. We wouldn’t have so many fond memories without you.

So basically what’s happening here is that MTV.com is running a video of digital Green Day avatars rocking out to the band’s song “American Idiot” in Rock Band. The end of said video clearly displays the words “Green Day Rock Band.”

A slew of downloadable Green Day tracks have been rumored for Rock Band, with only a handful appearing, all from the band’s most recent album, 21st Century Breakdown. If what this video is hinting at is true, it looks like Green Day, like The Beatles, may be getting its own Rock Band game. 

Of course, Harmonix could be offering up a big Rock Band DLC add-on, which would add Green Day avatars to your existing game. But who knows if that’s even possible with how Rock Band 2 was originally designed; we’ve never seen downloadable venues, avatars, or clothing made available for the game. 

Really, I haven’t got a clue. But considering Green Day will be attending the Spike Video Game Awards tonight and won’t be performing, it’s likely we’ll see more (and hopefully learn more) tonight. 

I played it, reviewed it, loved it. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is easily the best experience I’ve had on the Wii, and one of the better ones in the Silent Hill world. And speaking of worlds, I was in my own little one until I began reading the comments on the review. It was then that I found out that some were having difficulty with the title. Later, I read many other reviews and found that while some shared the same enthusiasm, others seemed to have had some issues with the game. Why the disconnect? What were they missing that I saw?

For some reason, I feel passionate enough about this game that I find myself wanting everyone to enjoy it. There’s an excellent game here, and I hate to see some misunderstandings or control hang-ups getting in the way of everyone having the great experience I had.

In an attempt to remedy this, I’ve put together five spoiler-free tips that I feel are key to enjoying Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii. Hopefully this will benefit both those that have played the game and those that are still considering playing it.

Take your time

It’s so short, they say. And at eight hours, tops, it isn’t the longest game, though that’s actually on par with the other series games. They’ve always been pretty good at spending enough time to tell a story, but not adding any extra fluff. Much like most of the other Silent Hill games, you’ll get the most mileage and enjoyment out of Shattered Memories by taking your time. As a story-based exploration game, if you’re running past elements that further develop the story, you’re only cheating yourself. So walk, look around, read thing and think about things.

One of the most interesting story devices in Shattered Memories is Harry’s mobile phone. While there’s a few mandatory story elements that come through it, there are many more that are optional. Seek them out. There’s phone numbers on posters and signs everywhere. Call them, listen,  and bring yourself deeper into the game’s world.

Also, don’t be afraid to poke around. The first-person zoom mode uncovers lots of interesting things, and Harry’s commentary on these items is always fun. You’ll also come across hidden mementos, many of which have some pretty deep symbolism. Don’t just collect them, look at them. The developers put a lot of work into the story, but it’s up to you to take your time and enjoy it. 

Mind your controls

I’ll be honest: My first session of Shattered Memories didn’t go so well. I loved the exploration side of the game right away, but when it came to the frantic chase scenes I was having some trouble with the Wii controls. You see, in this game, there’s no combat. Instead, you’re using your Wii Remote and Nunchuck as hands, using them to push off monsters as they tackle and attach to you, trying to bring you down.

The key here is to not use the grand, forceful movements you’d normally use if this situation were real. What happens when you go nuts with the controllers is that the sensors don’t respond as well, and your arm flailings do little more than have the controller cord slapping you in the face. I found what works best is smaller, more firm movements.

If an attacker comes at you from the front, push the controllers forward in a solid but controlled gesture, and you’ll find that the game responds nicely, and the monster will fall back on his ass. If one comes from the side, give a quick but firm flick in the direction they’ve come from, and you’ll shake them off easily. There’s a small learning curve, but once you’ve got it, you’ll find that it’s quite reliable.

Making sure that you’ve positioned yourself so that you can move freely also helps. You’ll want a clear, working view of the sensor bar, as you’ll need to be able to reliably transmit controls in those crazy chase scenes. Limiting your moving room is like limiting your enjoyment of the game. Keep your cursor within the confines of the imaginary zone your television sets. Going beyond that is going to leave you stuck, and that usually happens at the worst time.

Don’t get discouraged

Run. Run your ass off. That’s my best advice in the nightmare sequences, where Silent Hill becomes a frozen, convoluted hell version of itself. One of the main complaints I’ve seen is that players become discouraged when they get lost in the nightmare world. What they’re not realizing is that was the intended effect. You’re supposed to feel lost and helpless, which is supposed to convey the feelings that the game’s story is trying to tell.

Instead of being discouraged with being lost and not being able to attack, go in prepared, knowing what you need to do to survive. Here’s a few points that kept me from getting discouraged in the nightmares:

• Screw the maps – you’ll never make sense of them anyway
• Run, but don’t run in circles
• Shut off your flashlight – less monsters will chase you
• Trial and error works best – looking for the nearest exit is better than dying
• Turn the sound down – that screaming is only stressing you out

Have an open mind

Many of the issues some had with the game tell me that the bigger picture is being missed. And while I can’t divulge many of the story details without spoiling the story, I can say that there’s a reason for the game play elements/controls in Shattered Memories. Many complain about the lack of weapons and attacking, but there’s a very specific (and good) reason for this. The enemies themselves aren’t as varied as in other games, and again, there’s a good reason for this. Even the way the  story elements unfold has been created with the end result in mind. You’ll see what I mean.

Having an open mind should even extend to the fact that this is a re-imagining of the first game’s story. Those shooting down story segments for a lack of continuity are missing the point completely. You’re best served by not comparing this title with other Silent Hill games. Shattered Memories’ story is more about the human mind and less about some fictional history, and when you look at it that way, it’s pretty easy to appreciate, and definitely easier to understand.

Play it more than once

If you were to take all of the above into consideration, I think you’d enjoy Shattered Memories. But this is a game that’s just begging to be played more than once. Sure, there’s multiple endings, but the entire experience can be different depending on how you play the game, and seeing just how much things can change goes a long way toward making the most of this game’s story.

Climax has designed the game so you can’t see everything the first time through. The trick to accessing everything is through your actions as well as your answers to the psychological profile and tests. Events, locations, and even characters can change greatly depending on your profile. Even what you look at in-game is factored in. My recommendation is to do things exactly opposite of the way you did in your first play through the second time around.

My second time through was packed with plenty of a-ha! moments, but the clarity I gained from knowing where the story ended up the first time is what really made this a spectacular experience. Only then did I recognize the symbolism in everything, and there were several times that I had to pause the game and reflect on what the game was really saying about its characters. And wow, a lot was said here. This game is telling a pretty complex story, and I’m glad I spent the time to go deep enough to really enjoy the tale they’ve spun. Some of it is pretty damned creepy, so look out for that.

Oh, and there’s a dog/UFO ending, just like the other Silent Hill games, so you should really play it a third time.

[_{Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.}]

Don’t get me wrong, I like the VGAs.

It’s undeniably fun to see the creators of some of your favorite videogames on TV looking uncomfortable with Kiefer Sutherland and Doogie Howser. It’s also undeniably interesting to watch celebrities talk about videogames. Some clearly love the medium, and others are just faking it, but either way, it’s satisfying to watch them try. Oh, and I guess the actual awards are interesting, too, but… not really. For the seven years the show has been on, the year that more than two games that I actually liked won something was in 2005. The VGAs just don’t reflect my taste in games.

That’s fine. For something to gain my respect, it doesn’t have to be tailor-made to my tastes. The VGAs do a great job of providing the Spike TV viewership with a recap of games that year that were made to appeal to that channel’s demographic. I mean, I don’t particularly like playing Uncharted 2 either, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t see how well-crafted the game is, and how well it entertains fans of that sort of game.

So, what’s my problem? If the VGAs are so great, why am I writing this? Well, I guess I’m just an idealist. Although I accept what the VGAs are, I can’t help but think of what they could be.

Okay, this intro’s already rambled on for too long. Hit the jump for my full take on Spike TV’s Video Game Awards.

In the title of this post, I brought up the idea that the VGAs may be a bit self-loathing. Honestly, I don’t think they are, but like any award show, they are not entirely self-loving either. As a rule, awards shows put things down more than they build them up. For every game that was nominated for an award in a  given category, there were hundreds that people loved just as much that get no recognition. To say that you love some videogames is to inadvertently say you don’t like other games. It’s the nature of the awards show beast, and the reason why they tend to piss off so many people.

In the case of the VGAs, the ability to piss people off is further intensified by the show’s relatively narrow scope when it comes to what types of games are “good.” Again, part of this is due to the fact that this is Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. This isn’t Adult Swim, Syfy, or NBC. For better or worse, this is the “man” channel. If it’s not stereotypically “manly,” it doesn’t belong here. That’s probably why New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game almost universally appreciated by critic and gamer a like, wasn’t nominated for Game of the Year this year. It’s a fantastic game, but other than the difficulty in later levels, there isn’t anything particularly “bad-ass” or “testosterone pumping” about it.

I do wonder if there is more to it than that though. When I look at the games that are nominated this year, I can’t help but notice a pattern. All of the GOTY nominees go for “realistic” graphics and a “cinematic” experience. All of the games consist mostly of running around and punching/shooting humans or humanoid creatures in a game world that borrows heavily from Hollywood movie logic. Now, I know that Uncharted 2 gets sort of supernatural towards the end, but it does so in a very Raiders of the Lost Ark way. In fact, in terms of underlying content, every game this year could have been a Hollywood blockbuster.

What does that say about the VGAs’ concept of a good videogame? To me, it says that maybe, just maybe, some of the creative minds behind the show think that a good videogame can “transcend” being a videogame, and become something “better” — a popcorn movie.

It makes sense. The Oscars do the same thing, albeit in a slightly different way. If you look at which movies have won Best Picture over the past 60 years, you’ll see a pattern. Period pieces, biopics, adaptations of famous novels, and dramas have a near-monopoly on the category. Movies that really take full advantage of what the medium can do are almost always ignored. Instead, the highest honors are reserved for for movies that replicate the feeling of a slightly more respected medium (books) or the most respected experience of all: real life. If a movie makes you feel that the people on the screen are really back in the 1800s falling in love, or that Nicole Kidman really has a big nose and a depressing life, then it must be good. If a movie is filled with creative visual metaphors, amazing action sequences, painstakingly crafted comedic performances, or terrifyingly horrific moments, who cares? That’s all “gimmicky movie stuff” in the eyes of the Academy. It’s got to “transcend” the world of movies to be really worthy of praise.

That’s where the self-loathing comes in, this need to “transcend to the next level.” On the scale of respectable, stigma-free, “adult” ways to spend your free time, real-life experiences like traveling across the world or having a life-changing, dramatic conversation are #1, reading an amazing book or poem that’s totally smart and deep is probably #2, seeing a “great piece of cinema” is #3, and going to a “beautiful concert/art gallery/Broadway show” is probably #4.

Then there is a huge gap.

After the gap, there are things like reading a comic book or playing a videogame. Below those two are watching pornography and playing with toys. Below that, you get stuff like pulling the wings off of flies and eating boogers. How far below picking boogers is from playing videogames is definitely a matter of whom you talk to. I’ve told many people over the age of 40 that I work for a videogame Web site. I have told a slightly fewer amount of over-40-year-olds that I sometimes like the smell of my own farts. Overall, I think I’ve gotten a better reaction from the fart-smelling admission. It at least gets a laugh. Tell someone in their 40s that you work for a videogame Web site, and you’ll likely get some stares, awkward pauses, and maybe an “Oh yeah, my kids really love those things” token acknowledgment.

Videogames may carry a lower stigma than they used to, but they are still something that the powers that be see as childish, primitive, and stupid. Want to say that a movie is shallow and over-stimulating? Say that it’s “just like a videogame.” Want to quickly show that a character in a movie/TV show is anti-social and lonely? Show them playing a videogame. And what kind of videogame? Well, it shouldn’t be a driving game, or a 2D platformer, or puzzle game. It’s got be be something with a lot of violence, with some guys punching/shooting each other, and a lot of explosions.

In short, it’s got to be a videogame that looks like a Hollywood action movie. It’s got to be a game that looks like one of the VGAs’ Game of the Year nominees.

Despite the fact that “Hollywood” games try very hard to transcend the world of gaming and offer an experience as respectable as a movie, they aren’t getting much respect from mainstream entertainers for their efforts. Hollywood doesn’t even respect Hollywood movies; why would they respect a Hollywood game? Imitation may be the best form of flattery, but it’s not always the path to respect.

You know what’s also not the path to respect? Getting celebrities that have next to nothing to do with videogames show up at your videogame awards show. All that tells people is that you wish you were making an awards show that was focused on something cooler than videogames. I mean, I like Kim Kardashian’s behind as much as the next guy, but unless I can get a 1up for uppercutting it, I don’t see what it’s doing at the VGAs. It’s certainly not doing anything to pay tribute to videogames.

I know that celebrity appearances are a must for any televised awards show, or else the general population won’t pay attention to them. More so, like I said at the start of this post, I love celebrity appearances. I wouldn’t want them to leave the show entirely. I mean, I like the Super Bowl halftime show, too, but that doesn’t mean I want that to be the whole show.

I wouldn’t want Hollywood games to be totally ignored in the GOTY category, either. Those games may not be my thing, but they are absolutely worth of praise and recognition.  What I’m thinking is that the VGAs could take a few more risks to better represent the full spectrum of gaming and gamers. The show could do a bit more to take pride in videogames as a unique medium, and the people that play them.

Here’s what I’m thinking; what if, between appearances from Mike Tyson and LL Cool J, you got to see a a three-minute fight between two of the best Street Fighter IV players on the planet? How about a battle between the two best Rock Band players in the world? What if, for two minutes, the show had an interpretive Tetris dance, with people dressed in tetramino costumes interlocking, combining, and disappearing? What if, among the multiple new trailers for games that are either based on Hollywood movies or look like Hollywood movies, you get a trailer for something like Mega Man 10 or No More Heroes 2? Why not at least try to show that along with celebrities and male power fantasies, videogames can be a lot of other things too?

Celebrities may bring in the ratings, and Hollywood games may be popular with with the Spike TV audience, but they don’t have to be the whole show. I think the minds behind the VGAs would be surprised to see how much more respect (and higher ratings) the show would get if it reveled a bit more in the fact that the show is, in fact, all about videogames. Being yourself and expressing your thoughts on the things you are passionate about is the real way to win people over.

You know those 40-year-olds I told you about who look at me funny when I tell them I work for a videogame site? Well, most of the time, after I tell them just how amazing videogames can be on both a primitive and sophisticated level, they don’t look at me funny anymore. Whether they “get it” or not, they can’t help but see how much I genuinely love games, and genuine love is something that demands respect above all else. It doesn’t matter how boring a topic may be; if you talk about it with respect for yourself and the listener, and genuine passion, people are going to be interested.

That’s what I’d like to see from the VGAs, and who knows, maybe this year that’s what we’ll get. The show starts in just a few hours. Let me know if you think they pulled it off.