Since I’m stuck at home with a sick kid (pink eye ftl), I thought I’d share some random thoughts that I had while watching this years  2009 Video Game Awards.

What can I say?  I’m a glutton for punishment.

• Could Zachary Quinto sound more excited about being in Star Trek Online?  I don’t think so.  ”Have fun with that,” he says with a voice that could put my hyperactive three year old to sleep.  I could just see the marketing reps for Cryptic smacking their foreheads. “Gee.  Thanks for that wonderful plug, Zach.”
• Kimbo Slice has to have the most amazing neck beard ever.  It is the neck beard to end all neck beards.  Even Noah would have to agree.
• If the announcement of The Force Unleashed 2 has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t have to have a quality game to warrant a sequel.  Money buys sequels.  Dollar signs baby.  You sold a zillion copies of a crap game? You’ve got your sequel green lit.
• I pity the fool if I see another Mr. T World of Warcraft commercial.
• Spike TV used it’s power during this years award show to promote some of it’s incredible original programming.  I look forward to watching the first full (and only) season of Blue Mountain State.
• EA Sports winning any sports video games award should just be considered a given. They essentially hold a monopoly.  Besides 2K, I bet you couldn’t name me three other studios who make sports games off the top of your head.  Go ahead.  Try it.
• Kind of bizarre that Borderlands is nominated for an RPG.  It will be even more bizarre when Diablo 3 wins the same category in a few years.
• Green Day Rockband –  Really?  The Beatles only worked because…it’s The frakkin’ Beatles. I’m not sure who is in charge of making these decisions, but I predict Harmonix will be letting more people go in the near future.
• What happens when you get a guy who has taken way too many blows to the head to present an award?   “And da winner is… Koala Duty: Modern Wafear 2.”  Poor Mike Tyson.
• Stevie Wonder makes a plea to game developers to make their games more accessible to disabled gamers.  I wholeheartedly agree.  I can’t imagine what they could do to make them accessible to blind people.  Maybe Microsoft can get to work on projecting digital images directly to the brain or something.

At the end of the event, I’ve concluded that Spike TV’s main goal was to appease every studio that showed up by giving everyone an award. There’s nothing wrong with that, but let’s just call it what for what it it really was, shall we?

A decent excuse to party with a bunch of game developers and celebrate a year of gaming goodness.