A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Stuttering Craig’s The Real Game Awards will both celebrate positive achievements in gaming and shine a light on some of its most abysmal failures.

While Geoff Keighley’s coat and tie affair, The Game Awards, claims to represent gamers and give them a voice, it’s actually anything but that.

The star-studded corporate-backed event doesn’t actually speak for the gaming community at large. Nominees are decided by a committee of industry insiders from shill media outlets like Polygon, IGN, and Variety. And despite Keighley claiming that players can vote on award winners, their votes only count for 10% of the results. A whopping 90% is determined by that same panel of journalists.
Al Pacino at The Game Awards

A screenshot of Al Pacino presenting at The Game Awards 2022 – YouTube, TheGameAwards

That’s what caused Stuttering Craig of Side Scrollers to launch The Real Game Awards, a show designed to give gamers their voice back. But, according to Craig on X, this new showwill do more than celebrate the positive achievements of the games players love. It will also shine a spotlight on abysmal failures and DEI disasters in the gaming industry.

 

Former World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern, AKA Grummz, posted an edited photo of The Game Awards website with a parody category called  “DEI Slop Flop of The Year.” The image lists Concord, Dustborn, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Star Wars: Outlaws, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Unknown 9: Awakening. Each of these titles failed spectacularly this year, and all are deserving of this hypothetical award.

Stuttering Craig responded to the post and noted that while Keighley would never do an award like this during his show, The Real Game Awards will have such categories for players to vote on.

“I said this in another thread but Geoff would never do that because he needs the industry’s acceptance for his show to work,” Craig said. “We don’t and aren’t asking for it. The @RealGameAwards
certainly will have plenty of awards focusing on how great games are, we most certainly will have several categories to showcase the s***, including: Biggest Industry Failure, Biggest Cash Grab, (and) S***** A** Game of the Year.”

A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios

Unfortunately, Craig’s show might be in danger if Geoff Keighley manages to get his way.

The IMAX fortune heir and longtime access media games journalist filed to copyright “The Game Awards” with the US Patent Office. If successful, Keighley would own the term, which means smaller independent creators wouldn’t be able to use it in the title or description of their shows.

Keighley even went as far as to send an email to fans asking them to sign a document in support of his quest to own the term.
Geoff Keighley from The Game Awards

A screenshot of Geoff Keighley from The Game Awards – YouTube, TheGameAwards

It’s unlikely Keighley will succeed as the US Patent Office has safeguards in place against trademarking common terms.

While it’s unknown whether Craig has anything to do with Keighley’s attempted trademark, it’s interesting that after hosting the event for a full decade, he’s just now trying to lock the name down.

Do you think awards that celebrate the worst in gaming should be a part of The Real Game Awards? Do you think Geoff Keighley will succeed in owning the term? Sound off and let us know!