The Gamecock guys really are cocks

[Rob_Merritt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIDDAtVLRZw

In short, The Gamecock guys storm the stage of the Spike VGA awards to interrupt Ken Levine accepting the Game of the Year award for Bioshock. Hope those guys aren't planning on working for Take Two anytime soon.

[Athryn]

I mean, really we are talking about the Spike TV gamer awards here, where they reveal the winners as painted on naked models bodies. I don't think there's anyone who possibly takes them seriously. But yeah, lame publicity stunt nonetheless.

[AndrewM]

It is unfortunate that they didn't respect the sanctity of the Spike videogame awards, which, it is my understanding, also prominently featured topless women.

edit: too slow!

[Anti-Bunny]

They might be dicks, but interupting the show to storm the stage is the only proper response to an awards show this lame. I can't imagine respected producers actually showing up to accept awards unless their arms were being twisted by the publishers.

[Soapyfrog]

That is quite amazing. No wonder the game industry is viewed as puerile.

[Rob_Merritt]

They might be dicks, but interupting the show to storm the stage is the only proper response to an awards show this lame.

I'm sure Ken is glad they mocked Bioshock's award instead of the award for Mountain Dew.

[Charles]

That is quite amazing. No wonder the game industry is viewed as puerile.

Which is especially funny, because these awards aren't a game industry thing, they are a Men's TV Channel thing.

Puerile indeed.

[Nut]

That awards ceremony is lame beyond words. Who actually pays for it?

I'm assuming nobody actually watches them. How does it turn a profit? Does it exist just so publishers can put "Winner of VGA Award [X]" on their boxes or something similar?

I just don't get it.

[Jon Rowe]

I wonder if my Doritos powered game on XBL will have a shot at the Mtn Dew award next year?

[jerri blank]

I wonder if my Doritos powered game on XBL will have a shot at the Mtn Dew award next year?

Or that awesome Yaris driving game.

[MarchHare]

an awards show this lame



That awards ceremony is lame beyond words.


You fools! Don't you see what you're doing. Some schmuck who works for the awards show is going to find this page, see you two describing it as "lame", and then conclude, "They think the show is lame, eh? Well then, next year we'll have to make it even more EXTR3ME!!!11"

[Anti-Bunny]

I'm sure Ken is glad they mocked Bioshock's award instead of the award for Mountain Dew.
I'm sure Ken would rather be anywhere else then at this Maxim showcase for manboys.

[Rob_Merritt]

I'm sure Ken would rather be anywhere else then at this Maxim showcase for manboys.

True but you would think that for such a lame show, the cock guys would of had some sense not to pick the only non lame moment in the show to make their little protest.

[Reldan]

Wait, Spike TV still exists?

[Menzo]

Wait, Gamecock still exists?

[Ephraim]

The best thing about that clip is that it confirms Ken's assertion here that Pierre Gobbi's (as voiced by Greg Gobbi) accent was real. He's a walking French-accent stereotype!

Ken just looked bemused.

[jerri blank]

The best thing about that clip is that it confirms Ken's assertion here that Pierre Gobbi's (as voiced by Greg Gobbi) accent was real. He's a walking French-accent stereotype!

Ken just looked bemused.

I happened to hit that "Water in Wine" diary again last night, and man oh MAN is that a bad French accent. :) Maybe we're so used to hearing fake ones that when we hear a real one, we think "Damn, where'd they find THAT guy?"

[Anti-Bunny]

True but you would think that for such a lame show, the cock guys would of had some sense not to pick the only non lame moment in the show to make their little protest.
I bet Spike TV disagrees, and think that bioshock looks pretty lame. art deco? pffft, they didnt' have Mountain Dew in 1950!!! Gamecock saved the show!!

[cliffski]

OMG I hate the industry some days. Its bad enough that you cant have an RPG without buxom elf wenches, but this???
I really hope one day that the average age of gamers is high enough that we can grow out of this crap.

[NowhereDan]

I just think if they were going to go to such lengths to get attention they should have thought of something funny to say when they got up there.

[The Bitter Cynic]

Wait, Spike TV still exists?

I was suprised to find this out too.

[Fugitive]

I think they're still waiting on the paperwork to rename it The CSI Channel to go through.

[Bill Dungsroman]

There's really a company called Gamecock?

No wonder Dave Long is full of self-loathing. What's next, a company called Playaz that makes games targeted to African-Americans?

[Zuwadza]

Oh god. I was flicking through the channels when this was on and caught a couple seconds of this. They were announcing a long list of celebrities who would be appearing. I didn't recognize most of the names on the list but the ones I did recognize had absolutely nothing to do with gaming. Needless to say I immediately decided to turn it off.

That clip was one of the lamest things I've ever seen. Wow. Just... wow. The guitarist shredding along with the orchestra, the casino meets rock & roll meets video games theme, the presenters, the naked woman envelope stand-in. It's just too much! I feel like someone just injected a huge dose of douchebag straight into my eyeballs. If it gets any lamer they run the risk of alienating even their moronic Mountain-Dew-swilling man-boy demographic.

[z0diac]

I was suprised to find this out too.

UFC does very well for them I hear.

[Anti-Bunny]

I was at the show.. Those guys were a huge hit with the crowd for the whole show and actually made it fun to be there, but after they walked off stage, as they were exiting, I heard one of them say " you weren't supposed to grab the mic man!"
Proof that this show is nailing its target audience far better then we are giving it credit for.

[Guido Jones]

I mean, really we are talking about the Spike TV gamer awards here, where they reveal the winners as painted on naked models bodies.

I thought everyone was kidding about this for some reason, until I watched the clip. It's just to stupid to actually be true, yet it is true.

[Bahimiron]

I'm sure Ken would rather be anywhere else then at this Maxim showcase for manboys.

Hey now. Don't compare it to Maxim. Maxim gave Bioshock a 3/5.

Ken just looked bemused.

I donno. Ken looked more amused than confused.

There's really a company called Gamecock?

I could be giving them more credit than they deserve, but a gamecock is a an actual word used to describe any fowl bred for fighting. It's entirely possible that they named themselves for their colorful plumage and fighting spirit. Or they're big fans of General Thomas Sumter, who was known as the gamecock for his prowess on the field! ...yeah, I'm probably giving them too much credit.

[The Bitter Cynic]

Now if the award painted ladies were pornstars I think it'd be interesting to see BioShock bobble a little more when she turned around.

Might even have to watch more award shows like it.

[tromik]

The guitarist shredding along with the orchestra
I'm pretty sure the guitarist is TommyTallarico who plays (http://youtube.com/watch?v=UuvT3WNA8eo) with Marty O'Donnell at VGL, which Tallarico is the co-creator of.

[Anti-Bunny]

Gamecock Media Group is an Austin, Texas-based video game publisher founded by video game industry veterans Mike Wilson, Harry Miller and Rick Stults who all launched Gathering of Developers. The publisher claims to use a more hands-off approach and allows developers to keep their own intellectual property.
I guess Substance TV didn't work out.

[Matthew Gallant]

I have to say, I liked the ladyvelope. It was a well done painting of the game's logo. On a lady. It required more effort than some doofus opening an envelope and reading it, anyway.

[BDGE]

I have to say, I liked the ladyvelope. It was a well done painting of the game's logo. On a lady. It required more effort than some doofus opening an envelope and reading it, anyway.

Especially when the audience is waiting with baited breath for the lovely painted assets moreso than the actual winner.

[Athryn]

I'm pretty sure the guitarist is TommyTallarico who plays (http://youtube.com/watch?v=UuvT3WNA8eo) with Marty O'Donnell at VGL, which Tallarico is the co-creator of.

Yeah it is, he tours with the VGL, which is a pretty awesome show to go to, if you can catch it in your town.

Edit: Don't knock the VGL orchestra :( They're really super awesome, even though they participated in that horrible awards ceremony.

[jerri blank]

The guitarist shredding along with the orchestra, the casino meets rock & roll meets video games theme,

Ooh, I'll bet you missed the most l33t part of all, when the guitar player and the conductor leapt from the conductor's podium at the same time after playing the Halo 3 (and Halo 2 and maybe Halo) theme. It was AWESOME!! I threw up in my mouth a little.

[tim edwards]

My favourite memory of Blizzcon is watching Videogames Live, led by Tommy Talarico trying to shred as the orchestra played the Goldshire theme.

I think he was trying a little too hard.

[jerri blank]

I didn't even recognize Tallarico. I was watching on my itty-bitty TV.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I could be giving them more credit than they deserve, but a gamecock is a an actual word used to describe any fowl bred for fighting. It's entirely possible that they named themselves for their colorful plumage and fighting spirit. Or they're big fans of General Thomas Sumter, who was known as the gamecock for his prowess on the field! ...yeah, I'm probably giving them too much credit.
I know what a gamecock is, but thanks. And yes, giving them any credit above COCK HURRR GEDDIT is too much. I bet their games are great, too.

[Bahimiron]

I know what a gamecock is, but thanks. And yes, giving them any credit above COCK HURRR GEDDIT is too much. I bet their games are great, too.

Check out last week's 1up show. They talked about Dementium: the Ward quite a bit.

[tromik]

Yeah it is, he tours with the VGL, which is a pretty awesome show to go to, if you can catch it in your town.

Edit: Don't knock the VGL orchestra :( They're really super awesome, even though they participated in that horrible awards ceremony.
I saw Play! here which was decent, but I've heard that VGL is generally a better show. True?

[tromik]

Check out last week's 1up show. They talked about Dementium: the Ward quite a bit.
Which is a pretty dull game. Yea it moves at 60fps, and it controls really well for a first-person DS game, but there's nothing to do. You move down a lineral path made up of narrow hallways with your flashlight, and when you come across a monster you back up and swtich to your weapon. Then you wait for the monster to enter your field of vision and hit it a bunch of times. There are little puzzles, but they're really easy and obvious. I'll admit I didn't play for very long, but there was nothing to hold me.

[Athryn]

I saw Play! here which was decent, but I've heard that VGL is generally a better show. True?


I haven't seen Play! but I loved VGL to pieces.

[BobJustBob]

Especially when the audience is waiting with baited breath for the lovely painted assets moreso than the actual winner.

I am repressing my rage right now.

[tromik]

I am repressing my rage right now.
Our you the new Mogg?

[Talisker]

Nah, he's just a homonyphobe.

[interman]

Get the latest (I think) Gamasutra podcast for an interview with the lead gamecock guy, who explains the name amongst other things. He actually does sound like a funny guy.

[Lum]

To be fair, watching this Youtube it's somewhat less stupid than I thought* - the version Destructoid posted was that Gamecock was so disruptive Levine and Gobbi had to be escorted off the stage.

* It's still pretty stupid, though. But, then again, Spike TV.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

I happened to hit that "Water in Wine" diary again last night, and man oh MAN is that a bad French accent. :) Maybe we're so used to hearing fake ones that when we hear a real one, we think "Damn, where'd they find THAT guy?"

Different dialects, that's my guess.

[nabeel]

Gamecock apologises. (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3164869)

[Alex Handy]

I think Tommy Talarico tries a little too hard at EVERYTHING he does.

[mrkilowatt]

I thought this stunt was pure genius and I don't believe for a second it was JUST a cheap publicity stunt.

Award shows like this respresent everything that's wrong with the game industry right now, in my opinion. I'm glad there are publishers like Gamecock who are willing to put their reputation on the line to make fun of this crap.

Gamecock are the same guys who had a funeral for the old E3 (http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comment/up-for-grabs-game-cock-e3-funeral-and-more-good-stuff/) this year, celebrating "the resurgence of independence, originality, and creativity to come." They're all about the power of the independent game developer with fresh ideas, which, in this age of endlessly recycled FPS dookie, couldn't we use a little more of that?

I also find it ironic that the creator of Halo is a Gamecock developer (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/15/joystiq-interviews-wideload-games-alex-seropian/).

[Rob_Merritt]

Gamecock apologises. (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3164869)

Thats good to see.

[Robert Sharp]

I've baited my breath to catch some gamecocks before but none of them ever entered. I swear I never swallowed, either, contrary to rumors.



Doesn't apologizing actually make the whole thing even MORE stupid here?

[tim edwards]

I thought this stunt was pure genius and I don't believe for a second it was JUST a cheap publicity stunt.

Award shows like this respresent everything that's wrong with the game industry right now, in my opinion. I'm glad there are publishers like Gamecock who are willing to put their reputation on the line to make fun of this crap.

Gamecock are the same guys who had a funeral for the old E3 (http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comment/up-for-grabs-game-cock-e3-funeral-and-more-good-stuff/) this year, celebrating "the resurgence of independence, originality, and creativity to come." They're all about the power of the independent game developer with fresh ideas, which, in this age of endlessly recycled FPS dookie, couldn't we use a little more of that?


You're only as good as your last game. Gamecock's last game was Fury.

[tim edwards]

This whole thing is incredibly funny/depressing.

I'd love to have been in the two host's head* as they came to the end of their announcements. Just as the weirdness finishes they turn to congratulate an orchestra that just TOTALLY ROCKED out to the Halo tune. Then they have to act excited as they open the awards enve... I mean, turn the naked lady**. Then, as the winners begin to mount the stage, a GIANT MAN IN A DIVING SUIT WEARING A DRILL BIGGER THAN HIS THIGH ENTERS STAGE LEFT, while two grown men dressed as chickens try and ambush the microphone. Amazing.


*They looked like soap stars with no real connection to the industry. If they're not, wow. I didn't realise such vacant expressions existed in the real world.

**Important question: what's next for exciting award show reveals now they've done the branded naked lady? And when, exactly does it become unacceptable? Is painting women fine, but dangling a sign from their labia not? Can you tattoo a corporate logo onto their forehead, but searing their flesh with a branding iron is going a little too far?

[Coca Cola Zero]

Thats good to see.


Good to see them getting even more publicity for apologizing for a stunt that was obviously premeditated and occurred as planned? No it isn't.

Fuck Gamecock.

[RichardC]

Important question: what's next for exciting award show reveals now they've done the branded naked lady?

The developers get frozen in carbonite to preserve their genius forever. Magazines everywhere start clamouring to declare shit European adventures GOTY, in the hope of taking advantage.

Award shows like this respresent everything that's wrong with the game industry right now, in my opinion. I'm glad there are publishers like Gamecock who are willing to put their reputation on the line to make fun of this crap.

They have no reputation. They're loud mouthed failures with a string of terrible games behind them, whose last attempt to set up a publisher they wanted to be awesome and wacky and out there wound up giving us KISS Psycho Circus and underage boobs in The Guy Game. They're exactly as edgy and awesome as Dave Perry*, the day before he decided to dress like a pirate and call himself the Games Animal.

(* Not the Shiny one)

[quatoria]

My favourite memory of Blizzcon is watching Videogames Live, led by Tommy Talarico trying to shred as the orchestra played the Goldshire theme.

I think he was trying a little too hard.

Those nine words could define his entire television career.

[DoomMunky]

I'm disgusted that I know as much as I do about EVERYone involved with this sordid mess. Just as the weirdness finishes they turn to congratulate an orchestra that just TOTALLY ROCKED out to the Halo tune. Then they have to act excited as they open the awards enve... I mean, turn the naked lady. Then, as the winners begin to mount the stage, a GIANT MAN IN A DIVING SUIT WEARING A DRILL BIGGER THAN HIS THIGH ENTERS STAGE LEFT, while two grown men dressed as chickens try and ambush the microphone. Amazing.
Perfect and true, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves.

[quatoria]

Why would I be ashamed of myself for the fact that spike is retarded? It does nothing to diminish my own personal awesome. Spike may keep getting dumber, but I abide.

[DoomMunky]

Spike has tarnished everything and everyone involved: like an overinflated balloon full of shit, it gets its mess on everything.


And I feel dirty. Not good, "punish me I'm a bad boy" dirty, but "I just saw 2Girls 1Cup and need a mental enema" dirty. Bad dirty.

[quatoria]

No, I just checked, I'm still refreshingly shit free. Then again, I didn't watch the thing.

[quatoria]

Their apology was awesome, too.

"The award acceptance they interrupted was the LAST one we would've wanted to interrupt , ("most addictive game fueled by mountain dew" would have been a wonderful choice) as we have the utmost respect and love for Bioshock and all who were involved in it, and it totally sucks that Ken Levine didn't get to speak after making such a fantastic game."

If it was the LAST one you would have wanted to interrupt, why did you interrupt it, guys?

[Wobbo]

Plagiarizing the performance art of a Dead Man FTL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS181X4F3bw
Gamecock -1

[jerri blank]

I'll say this about the guy in the Big Daddy costume - he's a Bioshock fan, and the pretty impressive homemade costume came to the attention of the 2K folks because the guy is a regular on the official boards over there.

So if I'm not mistaken, Big Daddy wasn't part of the Spike stupidity but rather an effort on 2K's part to do something special for a fan by inviting him to be part of the fun. And that's kinda cool.

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding.


jb

[mrkilowatt]

They have no reputation. They're loud mouthed failures with a string of terrible games behind them, whose last attempt to set up a publisher they wanted to be awesome and wacky and out there wound up giving us KISS Psycho Circus and underage boobs in The Guy Game.
Do not speak ill of The Guy Game. It was a visionary title, way ahead of its time. Gathering of Developers saw this, even while others scoffed at/sued them. The gaming community laughed at G.O.D. for releasing a game based around boobs, and now look, a mere three years later, we are revealing Game of the Year ON A PAIR OF BOOBS! Visionary, I tell ya!


Just as the weirdness finishes they turn to congratulate an orchestra that just TOTALLY ROCKED out to the Halo tune. Then they have to act excited as they open the awards enve... I mean, turn the naked lady. Then, as the winners begin to mount the stage, a GIANT MAN IN A DIVING SUIT WEARING A DRILL BIGGER THAN HIS THIGH ENTERS STAGE LEFT, while two grown men dressed as chickens try and ambush the microphone. Amazing.

I used to be worried that video games would never be accepted as a serious art form, but now -- at last -- I have hope.

[chumpface]

I'll say this about the guy in the Big Daddy costume - he's a Bioshock fan, and the pretty impressive homemade costume came to the attention of the 2K folks because the guy is a regular on the official boards over there.

So if I'm not mistaken, Big Daddy wasn't part of the Spike stupidity but rather an effort on 2K's part to do something special for a fan by inviting him to be part of the fun. And that's kinda cool.

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding.


jb

this is true, we invited the guy, not spike. and he was a fan of all fans...check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0Dx1un9LY to see him.

what you didn't see is how the poor guy (who couldn't see out of the suit, really) nearly fell off the stage because the spike guys had no plan for him to exit. when corralled us off the stage at quick march, the big daddy was almost a casualty.

[flyinj]

GameCOCK get it COCK LOL PWNZ)R#D ROFL

jesus fucking christ.

[jerri blank]

what you didn't see is how the poor guy (who couldn't see out of the suit, really) nearly fell off the stage because the spike guys had no plan for him to exit. when corralled us off the stage at quick march, the big daddy was almost a casualty.

Yeah, I think he alluded to almost having fallen off the stage. Big Daddies: Built for power, not grace.

Edit: Okay, I just watched the video, and I take back what I said about the grace.

[quatoria]

Are there any better videos of that costume? Like, not taken at night? It looked really incredible.