Spike TV’s VGX Stream Was Terrible: Here’s Why

Call me a dweeb, but I kind of liked the VGAs. Sure, they were kind of silly and absolutely pandering; but in some weird way I always had fun watching them. Games like Skyrim and The Phantom Pain premiered there and it became like a mini E3 with more questionable writing and motivations.

But then everything changed: VGX was born. 

Saturday night’s event was embarrassingly terrible. While I have the utmost respect for Geoff Keighley and I usually find Joel McHale hilarious it was like neither of them had any sort of direction. As the night went on their frustration was palpable as McHale at one point turned to Keighley and said something like, “We just said this. Why are we telling them this again?” Keighley responded with a sort of eye scream because they were obviously live, disorganized and boring.

Live.

Disorganized.

Boring.

It’s a trifecta from hell that will lead to disaster every time. But that’s honesty not why the night was terrible – it’s absolutely why it was bad – but not why it was a tremendous bear, bear-sized pile of garbage. VGX was terrible because of what it did to us; the gamers. 

hey make every single person involved in gaming – from developers to players – look like a bunch of fools to the mainstream person unlucky enough to have paid attention to Splike screaming in their faces.

Whether or not you liked the VGAs or hated them no one can deny that there were usually some really great reveals, last year especially. As per usual Spike touted the event as though it was going to make our brains explode from excitement and cause our bowels to loosen from sheer force of awesome. Obviously their marketing department hasn’t picked up a controller since Pong was fashionable, but who cares? What I do care about is that they roped us all into this for some shitty trailers, one “huge reveal” that was already leaked weeks ago and oneannouncement that was actually really exciting (credit where credit is due).

Nothing that was shown was worth any sort of dedicated night. I love some of the series that were showcased: I can’t wait for The Witcher 3 and Titanfall is looking cooler and cooler every time I see it – but those trailers could be released with zero fanfare and still gotten the same amount of attention. Instead Spike decided to phone in the entire thing, mislead the gaming community and waste everyone’s time. Say what you will about the VGAs – at least they delivered something. 

VGX was terrible because of what it did to us; the gamers.

These kind of things paint the entire industry in a negative light. They make every single person involved in gaming – from developers to players – look like a bunch of fools to the mainstream person unlucky enough to have paid attention to Splike screaming in their faces. Spike markets this as the “cool thing” that gamers live for; in actuality it’s hard for most of us to stomach its existence, let alone sit through it. The industry is full of unsung heroes that will never get the kind of widespread notoriety they deserve because Spike has far more power to market something shitty than any of us to do market something worthwhile and real.

A word of advice, Spike: Get some people who actually understand the game industry to write and produce your show. We work for cheap and are by and large an intelligent demographic.

Sound off in the comments down below and let me know what you thought of the VGX whatevers. Meanwhile I’ll be blowing my brains out trying to forget the fever dream that was the three-hour suck fest last night.

Side question: What the hell does VGX stand for anyway? What is the “X” for? Extreme? Who thought that would work?