“And the winner is……huh? Wait, that’s not how you spell Shadow Of Mordor is it?” I wasn’t in attendance at last nights prestigious (stifles laugh) BAFTA game awards and consider my exclusion a very fortunate privilege. Now that’s not to suggest that developers admirable exertions should go without suitable recompense for their exulted contributions. Many titles are deservedly honoured for their exuberant services to interactive medium, lauded with glamorous adulation, rapturous applause of gratifying self-importance and appraised with elegant concertos that helps usher a celebratory event that ultimately plunder’s any inert decorum such a ceremony should preserve. With the faux perception of solidarity of its elected representatives, that then congratulate everyone participating. From their mothers, publishers, spouses to their pet cat scruffies! Sorry, I guess I’m just a little ambivalent to this gregarious, pat yourself on the back mentality, the formal extravagance of gaming adoration and the kind of sanctioned endeavour to assimilate gaming into collaborative mainstream communal, rather than the appropriate nerdy parish to which it belongs. So with these kind of errant affairs of conceited modesty, there is very little that leaves me speechless. A judo chop to the throat, sure. But I think I’d rather have suffered such a savage violation on my gullet rather than watch Destiny win “best” game!
There was an audible gasp of surprise that rippled through the well-respected crowd, that is only further punctuated by the rather curious presenter of the award, Dynamo (an illusionist) which so far has not been advocated as one of his many confounding deceptions. You can almost make out the red reflector sight on his lapel from some concealed assassin, employed by Bungie as he vocally rendered the successful winner. Seeing that Destiny had won was for me like looking into a back up toilet! I was just like “ugh!” Now I’m not saying Destiny is a bad game, I actually had some good fun with its precision shooting that made me look half competent. But it can’t even be categorised as a nomination for such a comprehensive accolade. Shadow of Mordor, for me absolutely. Dragon Age: Inquisition, sure why not. Alien: Isolation……pushing it, but I wouldn’t be totally aggrieved. But for Destiny to generate such recognition with its farcical grinding and absent content appears less based on eccentricity, and more contesting gamers integrity by exhorting the general gaming sentiment (that it wasn’t very good!) denoted with a figurative middle finger that derogate’s gamers lingering protestations as mute and ignorant. Destiny’s success here is almost a mocking indictment of the industry, on an evening that actually awarded accolades to some credibly laudable applicants. But for Destiny, a divisive, critically impoverished game to attract such esteem is the antithesis to the meditative examination we’d expect. It’s probably not fair of me to criticise an event that celebrates such a breadth of diversity into its selection process, but it does make question whether Chelsea FC could be awarded for their sportsmanship or “Transformers” would obtain the cinematic equivalent of a BAFTA for “Best Picture”?
Destiny winning best game was either some intricate ploy by BAFTA, a genuine choice by the delegates that selected it or BAFTA is governed by some of the most highly dubious envoys outside of North Korea?! I just don’t know?
What do you think was the best game of last year? And am I being to critical about Destiny’s success? Let me know what you guys think. Cheers.

Chuckle, chuckle guffaw! Oh us gamers certainly are a frivolous and funny bunch. If we are not striving for graphical fidelity or consolidating parity between consoles, we inevitably kindle an alternate fire to cauterise an extraneous wound we’ve been picking at like some narcissistic pyromancer. The lingering context that appears etched on granite, descended from the virtual deities on a golden plinth blanketed in rose petals is one of abstract aberration of forced compliances. That a game must adhere to specific formula, that no one has ever specified? This months most effusive transgression is a games longevity. I’ve seen gamers bicker at the brevity of The Order: 1886, reverting to explicit use of derogating someone’s sexuality, intelligence or race to accentuate their point. Many, perhaps incensed by the vocal castration of a game they paid in excess of £45 for, feel dutifully obliged to contend the repugnant protestations with their own derisive rebukes. Like contradicting the concise (short) length of The Order by insisting that conversely Dragon Age: Inquisition lingered long after everyone had lost interest in exploration. That there was just too much auxiliary content to indulge in. I don’t think gamers have a cogent notion of what constitutes as “bad”. Sometimes I wonder whether we are capable of formulating an adroit thought without being reduced to the defamation of another’s persons integrity? Could it be that gamers are as dismissive and captious as any knitting circle?


