While there’s 
no pleasing all of the people all of the time, by most accounts this year’s Video Game Awards on Spike TV were an improvement over previous installments, with several big new game reveals, developers actually making it on stage to accept their awards, and obvious sponsor pimping (like the “Most Addictive Game Fueled by Mountain Dew” from last year) jettisoned.
But for Mark Hamill, they were still pretty crummy.
Spike TV’s annual 
Video Game Awards program always tends to divide the gamer audience, which grumbles about the flashy nature of the programming, but the event is still very much a can’t miss event among those players.
With several announcements of new game franchises, including Epic Games’ “Fortnight” and Sony/Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us” making bows this year, it’s a second E3 of sorts. But the real focus is on the awards.
Today’s revelation 
that Spike TV has tapped Survivor creator Mark Burnett to exec produce this year’s Video Game Awards was just the tip of the iceberg.
The show, which is the highest profile celebration of the industry each year, has also teased a few of the world premieres it plans to unveil and announced its contenders for Game of the Year.
Award season in 
the video game industry is underway.
The Writer’s Guild of America has put out a call for submissions for its Video game writing award, which will be presented alongside similar nods for film and television writing Feb. 19. Submissions are being accepted through Dec. 1.
It’s not just awards season in Hollywood. The video 
game world is honoring its best with a series of ceremonies in the first quarter as well.
Last night, the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards took place at the ongoing DICE Summit in Las Vegas, with “Mass Effect 2” walking away with the year’s top honors. The title won “Game of the Year” from the organization – while Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, founders of the studio behind the game, were inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
[Analyzing the weekend’s Spike TV Video Game Awards, 
Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris reveals this year’s dwindling ratings for the show — despite “minimal signs of improvement” in quality and diversity.]
It wouldn’t be the holidays if the gaming world wasn’t in an uproar about U.S. cable channel Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. For the eighth consecutive year, the network has raised the ire of industry gadflys and gamers, who feel the show does more to set back video games than celebrate them.
Ratings for the VGAs are never spectacular. This year’s installment, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, attracted 627,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s 20,000 fewer than last year and marks the fourth consecutive year of declines. Since 2007, ratings for the show have fallen 32 percent.
The annual Video Game Awards show in 
Spike TV is always a divisive event in the gaming community. While publishers enjoy the publicity of a glitzy television extravaganza, gamers tend to grind their teeth in rage, upset with how the show presents the industry.
This year’s show – broadcast Saturday the 11th – boasted Neil Patrick Harris as host and some solid choices for winners. (“Red Dead Redemption” took Game of the Year honors.) But was it able to attract an audience?
Chris Morris: Journalist 