| (Image via The Game Awards) Rather, something a little more personal has caught my eye this year in the form of Christopher Judge's comments on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and, by extension, its developers' response. To me, buried within this good-natured ribbing lies an important problem that highlights to me exactly went wrong with The Game Awards 2023 and gives us insight into some of the inner problems of the industry as a whole. Jokey Judge Christopher Judge, for those of you who don't know is the iconicly gruff and sexy voice behind God of War (2018) and God of War: Ragnarok's Kratos. Last year, at The Game Awards 2022, he gave a part-speech, part-sleep-aid that went on for a total of eight whole minutes. Fast-forward to this year's show and, despite this, he was invited back to speak again. I guess Geoff Keighley gets the same bubbly feeling listening to his voice that the rest of us do.  | | (Image via The Game Awards) This year, however, Judge set out on a slightly different tact. He began his speech by joking about his performance last year stating, "I get it. I'm not gonna stand up here making long speeches, I'm gonna stick to the script," which got a chuckle out of the Los Angeles audience. Just after this though, came one moment in particular which has sparked discussion in the last few days. Judge continued on saying, "But fun fact, my speech was actually longer than this year's Call of Duty campaign." This was quickly met with a big reaction from the audience with a mixture of laughter and surprised noises echoing throughout the Peacock Theater. Clearly the audience seated in the theatre were surprised to hear one member of the industry so openly mocking another's work, even if many sounded like they were in agreement.  | | (Image via The Game Awards) The Reaction Following the ceremony, there were a number of reactions to the comment about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the game in question, whose story campaign was slated by critics earlier this year for being only around 4 hours of poorly-paced militaristic drivel. Many current and former developers stepped in to defend the team. Nelson Plumey, an associate art director at Treyarch tweeted, 'Imagine having short user engagement once your game is consumed. Can't relate,' clearly trying to throw one back at Judge by mocking how much more playtime the Call of Duty franchise gets compared to God of War. This, and responses like it, aren't of interest to me though. Saying that one game is better than another because people play it for longer is childish at best and stupid at worst. You can make meals go further by eating your own vomit, that doesn't make it good.  | | (Image property of Activision-Blizzard and Sledgehammer Games) However, Darcy Sandall, a dev with Sledgehammer Games who made Modern Warfare 3, tweeted with a very different response. She said, 'Honestly, as Call of Duty developers, we've heard way worse. But we don't expect it from a peer, at an event that supposed to be celebrating this years achievements in gaming. Especially with all the information that was leaked about its development.' Sandall's tweet refers to the various leaks that have followed the game's release that describe the unpleasant crunch that the development team experienced in trying to get the game out after the publisher, Activision, requested that the developers transform the game from an expansion pack to Modern Warfare 2 into a wholly separate package. These leaks have been denied by both Activision and higher-ups at Sledgehammer but they offer a very good explanation for why the game felt particularly rushed and cut-down upon released both in the length of its single-player experience and with bugginess problems in multiplayer.  | | (Image property of Activision-Blizzard and Sledgehammer Games) This raised questions for me. Were Judge's comments fair on the developers? Is this kicking them while they're down or is this an overreaction from the developers? Well, for me, this issue is a little more complicated than that and, to properly think about it, we need to look at these events in the context of The Game Awards as a whole because, in many ways, this minor spat throws the spotlight onto a problem that has underlined The Game Awards a great deal in recent years. The Whole Picture First of all, it's a good joke. Credit where its due, sometimes with events like The Game Awards, the presenters and speakers can really come across like they're trying too hard when they make jokes about the industry but I didn't feel that with Judge this year so good job on that front. That being said, there is such a thing as being in the right place at the wrong time and, in the grand scheme of things, Judge's comments feel like they came from an entirely different show. 2023 has been a great year for the people that buy games and a very bad year for those that make them. Massive layoffs have rocked the industry over the last year and are threatening to continue into the immediate future, threatening the integrity of the industry and the experiences that it produces going forward. Going into the ceremony, many speculated whether Geoff Keighley or another individual would actually take a stand and acknowledge how disappointing it is that one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world still cannot hold onto its talent.  | | (Image via The Game Awards) Unsurprisingly, Keighley said nothing. This is what I mean when I say that Judge was in the right place at the wrong time. Had a representative at The Game Awards come out and said something about the state of the industry as a whole then I'm sure Judge's comment would have come across as a dig at Activision's mishandingly of the project. Instead though, Judge's joke was forced to dangle in the air alone without any wider commentary to support it. Perhaps this is why it clearly struck some of Call of Duty's developers as a jab intended for them rather than their publisher. As I've said, there is nothing wrong with Judge's joke. The problem was with the rest of the show that made even this small level of critical reflection on the industry look so out of place. Here lies the inherent issue with The Game Awards and this year's ceremony in particular. Keighley has said multiple times over the years that he wants to make The Academy Awards for games but the problem with that comparison is that The Academy Awards celebrates cinema. The Game Awards doesn't celebrate games, it sells them.  | | (Image via The Game Awards) It is no coincidence that, out of everything present at each year's ceremony, the most frequently shared information from The Game Awards comes in the form of trailers rather than awards winners. Every year, The Game Awards rolls out trailers for upcoming games to get audiences engaged and hyped-up about what they'll be able to play in the future. It even has an entire award based around the, 'Most Anticipated Game,' coming out in the next year. These are not choices that reflect a genuine wish to celebrate gaming as a medium, these are choices that were made to encourage you to buy this year's big releases and to get excited for buying next year's too. In this environment, it's no wonder why nobody is willing the criticise any of the industry's biggest and worst companies. Without them, the show would have no trailers, no instrumental renditions of soundtracks, no guest appearances, nothing. Without them, there is no The Game Awards and that's a problem.  | | (Image via The Game Awards) While I have rolled my eyes at some of their responses, I don't blame Call of Duty's developers for feeling annoyed about being the butt of jokes after being worked to the bone to finish their game. I'd feel a little hurt too in their shoes. Equally, I don't think Judge was out of line for doing a bit of critical thinking about the state of the industry and saying something funny about it. Instead, I begrudge The Game Awards for posing as the celebration of everything great about our industry while also failing to condemn everything terrible about it. I begrudge the idea that gaming's biggest awards show is based more around hype for the next big thing than the actual art present in the industry now. Above all else though, what I resent is that The Game Awards relies so heavily on Triple-A publisher support that it protects them from criticism while hanging hard working developers out to dry. Conclusion If you're looking for a simple, 'CoD sux, Judge is based!' take, then you're in the wrong place. As far as I'm concerned, there is no two sides in this conversation, at least not between Judge and the Call of Duty devs. This is a conversation about where we are as an industry and how malpractice is so normalised that, when it is called out publicly, it's such a rare occurrence that people assume the shade being thrown is at the devs rather than the publishers that actually make those calls. You want my advice in all this? Laugh at Judge's joke, it's a good one, but then feel sorry for the developers too because, as bad as Modern Warfare 3 is, it's not their fault. Publishers like having attention off them and making Judge's joke about the developers is a great way to do that. In future, whether it's at The Game Awards or not, I'd like to see more serious criticism about mismanagement in the video game industry because as long as the conversation remains on the ground level between devs or actors or both, they'll get to continue doing what they want to do while everyone else fights it out. I apologise for the length of this article, it was meant to be a short one! If you want to check out any of the places that I sourced information from for this, you can fine it down below. Thanks again for making it to the end! All images and property names belong to their respective rights holders and are utilised here for the purpose of criticism and review. The Game Awards 2023 Plumey's tweet Sandall's tweet Modern Warfare 3 Leaks
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