ESA, Game Critics Debate Award Eligibility

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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ESA, Game Critics Debate Award Eligibility


The recent decision by Game Critics' Awards [http://www.activision.com] over eligibility for "Best of E3" awards.

According to a Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/390989/esa-game-critics-awards-debate-best-of-e3-eligibility]report, the ESA had assumed that games from both Activision and Vivendi would no longer be eligible for any of the show's awards, given out annually by a panel of independent judges. But Awards Co-Chairman Geoff Keighley said no decision about which games will be up for awards has been made, and past incidents in which judges voted for games shown outside the official E3 confines complicates the issue.

"A precedent has been set that in the past, judges have voted on games that have been presented off the show floor at hotel suites and across the street from E3," Keighley said. "It would be a shame for me if the best game of E3 didn't win the Best of Show award because it was demoed across the street from the show floor."

The issue is further clouded by the Game Critics' Award's complete independence from the E3 show itself. "The fact we are independent awards [lets us] define our own rules for eligibility," Keighley said. "As publishers revise their part on the E3 show floor, you have to consider the best way to move forward, to ensure we are rewarding the most creative and promising games that will shape the future of the industry."

"Our organization isn't for profit," he added. "It's a volunteer organization, a consortium of journalists, so we can be pure."

Along with Activision and Vivendi, id Software [http://www.codemasters.com/]remains uncommitted.


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Melaisis

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Dec 9, 2007
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Thus, the end of E3 approaches; it finally has shown through as what we all thought it was anyway: Little more than a press conference between ESA elitists and EA loyalists whose only attraction has been previews of Spore for the past three years. Alongside bigger and more independent shows in Europe, many of these companies boast their own events too. Blizzcon is better, fancier and plays out like the most extravagant, bohemian funfair ever created, instead of a few nervous wrecks stood up on stage, shifting their weight and saying 'er... well this is our live update to EA... which allows you to patch... your games... er..', a la E3. Now the very part of the whole overly drawn-out part of the proceedings: the awards, are being contested by the GCA committee themselves marks the final cut-off point.

Get used to drinking German beer, fellow journalists.