IamA Geoff Keighley, producer of The Game Awards, AMA!

I loved the representation of YouTubers this year with presenters iJustine, Boogie2988, and "trending gamers' Pewdiepie and Total Biscuit.

How did the idea for this category come to fruition? How did you decide which YouTubers to use for presenters? What future plans or ideas do you have for my fellow YouTubers?

Jared! I saw your tweet about the show, hope you liked it.

Yes, I want to incorporate the community more moving forward. YouTube was a great supporter of the show this year and helped me a lot. Hopefully we can do more with creators in and around the show...would love to have you involved too.

I loved The Game Awards but there were definitely some points where it felt more like a late year E3 press conference than an award show. Was the show as it was the desired middle ground between awards and presser? Do you think gaming will ever get an award show where the awards take center stage?

Yes I think that's a fair assessment. Gamers like to see forward-looking content and news, that is what drives the viewership. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- the "celebrities" at these shows are really the games and announcements. That is what drives a few million people to watch versus 10 or 20,000.

Your decision to not cut anyone off was the most endearing thing I have ever seen. If you come back next year, we'll be watching. Was the idea of not playing people off intentional and will you continue doing it?

Honestly we never planned to play people off. That's one of the benefits of the Internet -- you can go long and don't have to stick to a tight TV timeframe.

Hi Geoff I was wondering if you remember this picture. https://colchoesdopantano.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/gabe-newell-e-geoff-keighley.jpg

I have two questions, why don't you age and how glorious is Gabe in person?

Of course I remember that photo, I included it in Final Hours of Portal 2! That was taken back in 1997 I think when I was at Valve reporting on the first Half-Life.

Any chance you can get Nintendo to come back for the next VGA's if it's a yearly thing?

Also, what was your favorite moment from the awards?

If we did a show next year hopefully Nintendo would back along with everyone else.

I would say two moments stood out for me:

1.) The Koji Kondo/Imagine Dragons performance. It was so incredible to see this come together in such an organic and special way. The band are huge gamers, so they were really excited when I pitched them on the idea of collaborating with Mr. Kondo. I have to say, it was so special to be at the rehearsals at their studio and see how excited they were to meet Mr. Kondo. One interesting aside: We picked the song It's Time for the collaboration because of its theme and lyrics. There's something beautiful and very Nintendo about the lyrics. Even as times change Nintendo really doesn't -- and that's part of the charm of the company. There's a purity to Nintendo. I am just so thankful that moment came together and the band couldn't have been nicer to work with.

2.) The Sierra On-Line tribute. You may or may not know that I started my career as a volunteer beta tester for Sierra in 1992. They'd ship disks to my house in Canada and I'm play them in-between working on my History homework. Sierra really inspired me to want to work in the gaming business, so it was a true honor to celebrate Ken and Roberta Williams at the show.

I love both these moments because they tie into a theme I mentioned in my closing remarks -- The Game Awards should be about giving back and recognizing those that have made an indelible mark on our industry. Koji Kondo and Ken & Roberta Williams are legends and I hope we made them smile a bit in Las Vegas.

Now we need to just get you to bring back 3D Realms stuff :P

That would be fun. The first trip I ever took as a journalist was to Dallas in 1994 to meet with Scott and George at 3D Realms! I was a little kid. I also met the id Guys.

Hey Geoff,

Thanks for the great show.

What has feedback from the industry been like so far? Are publishers/devs excited about making this "the" annual event that the industry has deserved for so long?

Thanks again.

So far reaction has been pretty good from publishers. Thanks for asking!

Who do you like to play as in Smash Bros?

Pikachu! If you saw the Smash Tournament at E3 you'll know why I said that ;)

What are the changes of there being a Strategy games category next time? What motivated you to exclude the category in the inaugural awards?

Genre categories are always tough. Usually we look at a category and try to figure out if there are five great nominees in a given year that all deserve to be nominated. In many ways I wish we could move more toward looking at craft category than specific genres, but it's tough. You never want to exclude any games, but you also don't want to end up with 30-40 categories. (Already it's a challenge to cover the categories we do have in the show). Part of me dreams of a world where we just have 10 Game of the Year nominees and leave it at that.

This years approach was very different (and much much more succesful, id say) than last years, do you think youll stick with this tone moving forward?

Yes.

Hey Geoff, I was wondering if you could clear up this tweet?: https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/525847243765448704?lang=en Bethesda didn't do anything at the awards and they left us all hanging. They didn't even show any gameplay from DOOM. Thank You for your time and I just wanted to say that the game awards was amazing and you did a fantastic job!

Not sure there is a lot to clarify, I meet with publishers and developers all the time to catch-up and plan things. I never said we were planning anything specifically for The Game Awards, in fact I think when I put out that tweet I hadn't even announced the show yet. Of course I ask Bethesda (just like every other publisher) about showcasing new content at the awards but timing didn't work out for them.

Mr. Keighley, first of all, amazing job on the show! I feel you guys really hit it out of the park where it mattered most: celebrating video games as an art. I really loved how you guys recognized Ken and Roberta Williams, and the final piece by Imagine Dragons was really special. A main criticism was how long the show was; someone joked that it was so long that Destiny now takes place in the past ;) Now my question: what was something about the show that you (as the producer) thought would fall flat but actually went better than you expected?

Yes the show was long -- although a lot of awards shows are long. I'd like to make it shorter, but then again another big piece of feedback is that people want to see more awards be presented on stage. We'll work on the balance.

As for what would fall flat. You never know. I was a bit concerned about how the bit with Ron Funches would play, but I think it ended up being kind of fun. (Loved his mentions of EGM and Reggie). I also didn't know how people would respond to our new trophy designed by WETA. But everyone seems to love it!

I imagine you are but I'll ask anyway: Are you aware of the dorito jokes about you? And as a follow-up, what do you think of them? Do they irritate you or do you just kind of laugh about them at this point?

Of course I'm aware. It feels a bit played out at this point, but hey, if it gives people some laughs then go for it. Hopefully my legacy will be a bit more profound than that!

Hey Geoff,

Great show, man. Good luck topping that final musical act. That was the stuff of legend (ha!) right there.

I want to know what the deal was with that Zelda U footage. Did Nintendo come to you to show it off? Did you have to hustle to get them to show something? If the second, how hard was it?

Again, great show. I think if you can get it to be a bit leaner and meaner you definitely have something that I see going for a long time.

Oh, and fuck the haters!

I talk with all the publishers about their titles and that starts a process where teams evaluate what they will have ready, what the right venue/timing is to show it off, and so on. Of course I ask for certain games but don't always get a favorable response. (Believe me, some of the games you'd like to see at the show are ones I would too -- but it's not my call).

The Zelda Wii-U footage was one of the best surprises of the show. I knew Miyamoto and Aonuma were going to film something for us, but I had no idea about the length of amount of content they planned to show. I was blown away when I saw the video a few days before the show! Over the years I've been lucky enough to work with everyone in the industry on world premieres, but it was an absolute honor to have Nintendo pick The Game Awards as the right venue for Zelda Wii-U. (Especially since this is a new show and I'm just starting out).

Hey Geoff, I really enjoyed The Game Awards! Good job!

What award do you think was most deserved by what/who won it?

What was your favorite thing you had to do to prepare for the event?

The Industry Icon award for Sierra was probably the most deserved. I was also happy to see Shovel Knight win for Best Indie.

Favorite thing? Probably the rehearsal with Koji Kondo and Imagine Dragons at their studio in Las Vegas. Really magical. I filmed a video of it on my iPhone, maybe one day I can get everyone to OK releasing it.

How difficult was it balancing the promotional aspects of the show with the actual awards? Was it difficult to receive funding for the show? Do you have any regrets about how it went?

I'm happy with where we landed and grateful for all the support. It's always a delicate balance between world premieres and awards. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I do think we probably had a few too many premieres. But this year we wanted to welcome everyone with open arms to show that this is a new kind of show.

Were you aware of the super loud guy in the audience during the Game Awards? It sounded like he was right next to a live mic and it was very annoying.

Wooooo Woooooo!

Yeah, I heard that on the playback....it's in our post-mortem notes :)

What was the most difficult part of organizing The Game Awards?

This year it was the financial aspect of it. It was not an inexpensive show to stage.

Thanks Geoff. Over the years I've noticed you have an interesting relationship with Reggie Fils-Aime from Nintendo. How has this developed over time and would you say that you have a greater level of access to the inner-workings of Nintendo compared to other journalists in the industry? Are you guys buds when the cameras are off?

I first really interacted with Reggie back around 2004 when he joined the company. I had written a pretty scathing piece in a magazine named Business 2.0 about the state of Nintendo based on an interview I did with Satoru Iwata....this was in the gameCube era before the Wii.

I have a great relationship with Reggie and do consider him a friend. He's always fantastic on camera and we have a lot of fun together...even when he yelled at me at E3 that one year!

Great show, enjoyed it a lot more than other gaming award shows!

What are some things you would like to improve on for next year?

Lots to improve on. The show ran longer than I hoped, and I think we probably did too many premieres versus awards. (We had something crazy like 17 premieres this year). There were also some issues with the sound mix. I think the general tone of the show is where it needs to be, but there's some work to be done on the formatting. As much as you plan for these shows everything sort of changes in the days and weeks leading into it.

Congrats on the big success on the show!

I recently read The Final Hours of Half-Life 2 (having never read any of the others yet), and really enjoyed hearing about more of the insides of Valve, even though that was a decade ago. Any other stories you can share from that, or any of the Final Hours series?

I love writing those stories! I wrote Final Hours of Half-Life 2 when I was just out of college. I had actually planned to write the story in two parts: The first one was going to be called "The First Hours of Half-Life 2" and be released around the game announcement. I don't completely remember what happened, but I think Valve decided to push the game announcement back, so I ended up holding the story -- that reporting just got factored into the Final Hours piece that came out around launch.

For a long time, your Twitter bio simply said "journalist," but I noticed it doesn't anymore. Do you still consider yourself a journalist?

(Big fan of your 'The Final Hours' pieces, btw!)

On some levels I'm more of a producer or host now than a journalist, although from time to time I do still dip into writing with The Final Hours series. I just finished a piece for Fast Company not long ago too. I'm less concerned about the label and more about working on cool projects.

Any plan to have audio achievement awards in future shows?

We had a Scocre/Soundtrack category. Sound Design is something to think about for sure.

Were all the awards that were given on the side stage handled that way deliberately, or was some of that to make up for some production mishap?

A combination of factors. Some of those side-stage moments are there so we have enough time to clear the stage between bands and what not.

Inevitably we aren't going to be able to present EVERY award on stage. The Grammys doesn't do that, nor do the VMA or the Tonys or even the Oscars. So we are faced with a decision: How do you present these awards? Do you just run a graphic calling out the winners? Do you present them at an earlier ceremony? Do you somehow incorporate them into the show? This year I decided to recognize those other winners but via the side stage.

Was it the best approach? I'm not sure. I thought it was better than just mentioning a winner in a graphic because we let the developers give a speech. Yes they didn't get to walk up to music, but they were able to address the audience, hold the trophy and have their work celebrated.

I agree we should have had a few more "fully presented" awards on stage, but I don't agree we should do every award that way. It can get pretty repetitive, especially if you have the same developer getting up again and again.

There is no perfect solution to this. But I'm thinking about it. And would welcome feedback.

Hi Geoff, I really like the show. Hope that you can do it next year. For the questions, what was the hardest part about producing the show?

No question the hardest part was doing this on my own and taking the personal risk. It was scary to not to do another VGX and go out on my own, but I thought it was the right thing to do. I loved working with everyone at Spike on the awards and they spent a decade supporting the gaming category, but their business (and the gaming business) is evolving in different directions.

How did you survive this dark day in E3's history?

Love Mega64!

Would you ever consider rotating the venue to other places? Maybe even Europe?

Definitely. I'm open to other cities and going international. I've thought about having a second stage in Europe or London. Maybe even Japan. The biggest challenge is costs....

Huge respect to you Geoff for doing TGA's i enjoyed the show a lot. Zelda reveal was insane. Where do you think the show can improve and grow from here? Do you think more moments like the sierra tribute will feature next year? I loved the celebrating of an art form, thankyou for doing it!

I would hope to find moments like Sierra, but those are rare gems. It's sort of like that great Far Away performance for Red Dead at VGAs years ago with Jose Gonzales. As a producer you LOVE when those moments happen, but they are few and far between.

Hey Geoff!

Firstly, thank you for the game awards, and most importantly, thank you for your E3 coverage over the last few years. Thanks to you, E3 has become something akin to a yearly sporting cup final for my friends and I - we love it, get Jack Tretton back as well (and Molyneux, it's all great fun)! ;)

My question is about Bungie - what's your take on everything that's happened there in the last 18 months (Joe Staten leaving and joining Microsoft, Marty being fired, and Destiny being quite 'flat', and not up to the standard of previous games from the studio, Halo's ODST and Reach for example)? I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts. :)

Thanks! Glad you liked E3.

As for Bungie, I'm not really sure. It does seem like there has been an unusual amount of turnover for the studio over the past couple of years. I did talk to them about writing a Final Hours story or something along those lines but it never came together. I'm as curious as you are to learn more. But in order to write a story like that a studio needs to be ready to tell its story.

Geoff! Hi!

Did you get to meet up with Kiefer Sutherland before/after the game awards? My twitter filled up with you and Hideo Kojima hanging out, so were you with Kiefer at all?

You know no, I never got to shake Kiefer's hand. But I thought his remarks were so perfect and inspiring. I've gone back and watched them a few times on YouTube since the event. He nailed it.

Why nothing from Microsoft? I was hoping for a new H5 Trailer.

I almost thought this Show was Sponsored by Nintento and Sony :(

Phil Spencer from Xbox is on the board of advisors for the show and Xbox did do a lot to support the show behind the scenes. The Game Awards aired on Xbox Live (with some great placement) and Major Nelson was there -- Xbox even ran a fan event the night before the show to give away tickets. I wish Phil would have joined us in Vegas, but now that he's head of Xbox worldwide I know he has a busy schedule. My dream was to have Phil, Reggie and Shawn present Game of the Year together but that didn't happen....maybe next year!

We certainly had a lot of conversations with Xbox about a first party world premiere. Sometimes things just don't work out for a variety of reasons. A lot of the public thinks these premieres are locked down months in advance but often these conversations happen in real time right up until the event.

Was The Game Awards a lot harder to put together than the VGAs?

How hard is it to get an exclusive for these kind of events?

Each show I do has its own challenges. This one was more personal for me because I put my own money into it, but when you do a show like the VGAs there are lots of other pressures and more cooks in the kitchen too.

As for how "hard" it is to get an exclusive, that's a difficult question to answer. I certainly spend a lot of time meeting with developers and publishers to talk about the show. This year I was on my own with no proven history of success, so the publishers who bet on me really didn't know what to expect. I am grateful so many of them entrusted me to deliver on my promises.

How the hell did Jeff Gerstmann get into trending gamer category I really want to know?

People voted for him! And no, Jeff did not vote for himself.

What fan feedback did you take from previous years and try to incorporate into this years show, and assuming there is a show next year, what feedback would you like from fans as far as what they'd like to see improved?

I think the biggest piece of feedback was to really respect the industry and our hobby. I tried to do that. Honestly the VGAs did do a good job at that over the years too, I just think VGX is all that a lot of people remember. The Sam Jackson/VGAs in 2012 (the 10th anniversary year) was a pretty good show too.

How tough is it to secure "exclusive world premieres" in December, 5 or so months before E3 and 6 months until GamesCom? It must be incredibly tough and taxing.

You did an excellent job this year by the way. This is the best it's ever been. I just think it could be shorter and more focused.

It's actually a good time because you are exactly 6 months from E3. So there's enough room on either side. Once you get into the Spring/Summer months all that content gets held for shows the E3 and GamesCom. Thanks for the props!

Does Peter Moore smell as good as he looks?

Yes. Whenever I film with Peter the makeup people swoon over him. True story.

First off, I wanted to say thank you for making The Game Awards happen. I can't tell you how refreshing it was seeing something like this without having unrelated advertisements and plugs shoved down my throat or some "talented" star guest hosting it who doesn't know a thing about games. You got a bad rep from the previous award shows but I hope this shows people the flops of the Spike broadcasts weren't your fault and that you really do care. You're a good guy, Geoff!

Question time: How did it feel getting Steam to stream the event AND have a concurrent sale for the featured games?

Valve is amazing and has always supported me in a big way. It's hard to believe I first met Gabe almost 2 decades ago when they were just starting out. When I decided to go out on my own Valve was one of the first companies I called. Doug Lombardi and the team instantly stepped in to brainstorm ways to innovate around a show like this.

The Steam Sale was a really great idea and I hope we can build on it in the future. Consumers get great deals on games and the publishers love it because it helps them sell more games.

Thanks for the nice words on the show.

What made you decide to put together The Game Awards? Did it have anything to do with how Spike did it last year? Has it just been something you've always wanted to do?

By the way, Thank you for the Game Awards. This years was SO MUCH BETTER that last years. I can't say this enough but thank you!

Thanks! Spike did a lot of great things for the industry over the years. The Game Awards came about for a variety of reasons. The audience for game programming is really shifting to the digital platforms, and Spike is focusing on an older and broader audience now. So it felt like this was the year to try something bold and different. Thanks for supporting and I'm glad you liked the show.

I really respect you for defending Mass Effect against those ignorant reporters, my question is, Did your issue with AngryJoe get resolved?

Yeah, Joe and I have spoken a few times since that VGA run-in and had a good chat that next E3. I invited him to the awards this year but he couldn't make it.

How confident were you in this show leading up to it and what do you think of the reactions? Do you think The Game Awards could grow and become "The" industry awards like the Grammys are to music?

One complaint I've seen a lot is how many of the nominated games weren't released when those nominations were announced. Do you think this show could still succeed if it weren't held in November/December?

I was a bit nervous about the show. After last year's VGX I knew it was a make it or break it year with the community and the industry. I knew moments like the Sierra tribute would speak to ME, but I wasn't sure if the wider public would care about that award. I'm so glad they did.

I think Smash was the only game that was nominated but not released when we put out nominees. You have to remember that judges get the games a few weeks early to evaluate, not unlike how Oscar voters get to see movies in advance screenings.

The December timing works pretty good, but I think the show could also work in January too. I do love that we are the "first" awards of the year, so it's fresh and exciting to see who wins.

Do you have any plans to organize something similar to The Last of Us One Night Live? I was in attendance and it was truly a special night thanks for making it happen.

Yes there's another One Night Live I'm working on. Probably too soon to talk about it in detail, but pretty sure it will happen in 2015. Glad you liked the event, it was a very special night -- and in many ways inspired me to produce The Game Awards the way I did.

What game studio would you say to keep an eye on in the coming years?

Good question. I'm excited about a few new upstarts. Alex Ward (creator of Burnout) has a new studio called Three Fields in England. I visited him a few months ago and I'm psyched to see their first game.

How might one get involved with the Game Awards next year?

As a fan? On the crew? What were you thinking?

Hey Geoff! Writing has always been a small passion of mine, especially game journalism. In todays world it seems to be harder than ever to get started and to become noticed. The market is saturated with people building their own websites and starting their own careers. How does one try to make themselves stand out in a world now filled with so many?

I would agree with that. My advice is to find a unique niche you can own -- be THE authority on some aspect of gaming.

Hi Geoff, it was a great show! Who was that awesome ballet violinist and how did you find her?

Oh that's Lindsey Stirling. She's a pretty big deal on YouTube. She came to us through Dragon Age since she did a music video with them.

Hey Geoff! Great job with The Game Awards this year! You can tell it was built from the ground up for gamers by gamers. Two questions:

1. What game(s) would you list as your personal favorites? Not necessarily the best, but the guilty pleasures and most enjoyable.

2. How did you go about approaching the Koji Kondo/Imagine Dragons performance? Were they excited to work together or was it something you had to sell them on?

1.) This year? Shovel Knight is amazing. Another game I got addicted to was an iPad game named Hundreds...although maybe that came out last year?

2.) The Koji/ID performance happened pretty organically. We knew he was coming to the show and I pitched him on some kind of collaboration. He was open to it, and I was also simultaneously talking with Imagine Dragons about participating in the show in some way. The rest just happened naturally. I was actually surprised how smoothly it all came together. AMAZING moment!

How are you feeling in the aftermath? That must have been a huge financial risk for you, and it seemed to go well.

I'm feeling good. Just now recovering from what was a crazy few weeks leading into the show.

How do you feel about the level of participation (or, honestly, lack thereof) from the Entertainment Software Association with your show?

Do you feel like having the ESA sanction The Game Awards would provide any sort of additional prestige to the awards given?

The ESA is involved in the DICE/Interactive Academy awards in February. That's a great event. We have a different board of advisors for The Game Awards but I know the ESA team well and they are great guys.

Are you friends with Reggie? It seems you always give him a hard time on stage, but kind of in a joking way.

Yeah, Reggie and I are good friends. He's a great guest and we have fun...no hard feelings. Honestly I miss interviewing him for GTTV.

What were you happiest about regarding the Game Awards, and what do you wish went better?

I was happy that we did a show that the audience responded to. I wish it was a bit shorter and that we had a bit more focus around the awards.

Hey Geoff! The Game Awards were great and exactly how a video game award show should function. That being said, are there any games you know about that no one else besides the devs know? And what game are you most excited for next year?

I don't know if I'm the ONLY person who knows about games besides the developers, but from time to time I'm brought into the loop on upcoming projects before the public. That happens more in the months leading into the awards.

Next year? Good question, I'm pretty psyched to play Batman and Uncharted. Splatoon also has piqued my interest lately. 2015 should be a pretty great year.

How did you feel about all of the audio issues that occurred several times throughout the Award show?

Why were some awards given off-stage, or not onscreen at all (Developers of the Year)?

The audio issues were unfortunate. We sort of did ourselves in with so many music performances in the show. Those sound checks ran late on the day of the show so it cascaded to a bunch of issues.

Off-stage awards -- I've answered elsewhere, but a variety of factors.

The audio issues were unfortunate. We sort of did ourselves in with so many music performances in the show. Those sound checks ran late on the day of the show so it cascaded to a bunch of issues.

Honestly, audio was the only problem I actually had with this years show. Everything else was fine. VGX was... pretty harsh, so I'm glad this year went well.

I've answered elsewhere, but a variety of factors.

Yeah, I read your answer elsewhere after posting!

Secondary question (if you don't mind): Would you invite Joel McHale to co host with you again if he wanted to do it?

Thanks for the response. :)

I'd love to find a way to involve Joel down the road if we can find the way right way to include him.

Thanks for bringing some legitimacy to awards for video games.

In hindsight, what do you hope to improve upon for next year? You looked distracted at times, like 10 people were talking in your ear, but you adapted very well.

Secondly, I know you had a lot of personal investment in this. How did you come out, when all was said and done?

Yeah, there was a LOT going on that night. That's why I wish I could be more behind the scenes. But then again, I was glad I was out there to be able to pull Eric Dodds out of the audience to accept his award for Hearthstone or to bring Marty on. So it all worked out.

Thanks for asking, everything will end up ok I hope. I'm proud of what we put together.

What are your long term plans for the future of The Game Awards?

I'm not sure yet. I'll keep you posted.

Do you think they will ever ban a video game in North America (again)? It's been a bit much hearing about Target and K-Mart of Australia not selling GTAV and it makes me feel like there will be this second enlightenment when it comes to a game and how far they push the limits. This has a lot of history behind it, but I was wondering what professionals like you think about the subject of censorship and banning video games.

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding out there about the content in games. Part of the problem is that it's not easy to SEE what's in a game. You can fast forward through a movie or flip through a book and pretty quickly "skip" to where there might be a concern. In a game you have to play it for HOURS and HOURS. That's rarely done, so what happens is a game of telephone. Same thing happened back when I was on Fox News years ago talking about Mass Effect. The anchors were convinced there was an "explicit alien sex scene" in the game. But I'm sure no one in the newsroom had the time to actually find that part of the game and actually SEE what the scandal was all about.... Maybe it's a bit easier now with Let's Play videos on YouTube?

You're a big old school adventure fan but I wonder if there will ever be a chance to see a 'best adventure game' category in the future? It was a very good year for the genre with Telltale, Broken Age, Ace Attorney and other titles.

We have Action/Adventure. Best Adventure could work, but were there really five great nominees? That's always my metric...I want it to be an honor for game to be nominated. It should be nominated de facto.

Good show Geoff, really adding some class to the whole shebang.

how did the economics work out? do you think you'll be able to do this year by year, build the brand, without losing money and such?

what would you improve for next year?

how will the categories be honed and modified going forward?

I think the show worked out OK this year. Like any new business you have to invest in year one and hope to build something that can sustain and pay off in the long run.

Next year there are lots of little things I'd improve on. The hardest part will be finding great new moments to stage, and it won't be easy to top the Sierra and Nintendo bits.

Categories are open for discussion. Someone suggested an Art Direction category. I like that idea.

My category suggestions:

Axe "Trending Gamer" and replace it with 2 fan voted categories -- Social Media Icon (Twitch/YouTube/etc.. folks) and Best Gaming Publication (for fans to vote on their favorite publication/website).

Fan GOTY -- You've got "Most Anticipated Game" .. Give the fans a Game of the Year vote too. You can keep the panel one as the official TGA Game of the Year.

Yeah I was thinking of a Fan's Choice award for favorite game of the people!

Was there anything you wanted to make happen for The Game Awards this year that didn't work out? If so, will you try to make it happen next year?

Oh there are LOTS of things I wanted to see happen. With a show like this there are always ideas that don't come to fruition. There are great days on the production and days where you want to cancel the show. What I will say is that a lot of great stuff came together this year. But you can't count on it.

Sometimes ideas push to the next year. I was working on a really awesome musical number for the show that just didn't get done in time -- hopefully we'll do that in the future.

Was starting and ending the show with music always intended to be the order of things? If so why?

The open/close of the show always fluctuates. I really liked the idea of starting with Koji Kondo on Piano....i thought it would e such a different way to start the show. And once I saw the Zelda footage I knew we had to close with that....

Does Peter Moore get hyped before taking the stage by listening to Koko B. Ware's entrance music?

Peter is great, I don't know -- you should tweet him. I bet he will answer!

which game won an award you were most surprised to see win?

I was psyched to see the wins for Valiant Hearts and Shovel Knight. Game of the Year was interesting. A month ago I would have guessed Shadow of Mordor was going to win, but Dragon Age came on really strong in November.

In the movie industry, the academy awards are very renowned and sought after - but its almost impossible for big block buster movies, specifically super hero movies, to get nominations/awards in any of the "big" categories. What is something you are doing to try and prevent this from happening with the VGAs? would you care if this happened? I've been playing Indie games for awhile, and I haven't bothered to look into the VGAs(or the VGX I believe they were called in the past) that much(anytime I have they've been oddly disappointing), and I'm not sure if you have an "indie" game category, but if you do, its already sort of alienating them from any of the "big" titles.

Great question. I've had indie games be up for Game of the Year too in the past when I did the Spike VGAs. Journey comes to mind.

But you bring up a good point. A lot of people ask me why we don't do "People's Choice" style voting for the awards. The honest answer is that we'd run into that same "blockbuster" phenomenon where the most popular games would likely get all the votes. That's never fair to first party games or platform exclusive games -- they are at a disadvantage because of the smaller installed base. So that's why we go with a press board to hopefully level the playing field.

When do you think Bethesda game studios next title will be announced?

That's a question for them, not me.

Hey Geoff, congrats on TGA, looking forward to the next one if its more of like it this years.

Now my question, what's up with all the giraffe teases you kept posting about. Is this leading to mind blowing game reveal or something else?

The giraffe was a tease for The Last of Us before it came out. I won't spoil it if you haven't played the game.

Did you enjoy participating in the PlayStation Experience? I sat in on the FarCry 4 panel you hosted and thought you asked some good questions.

Side note: What a crazy panel. What was the inspiration for FarCry 4? Elephants.. They made a game because of elephants.

I had fun on that panel but man was I tired! Thanks for coming out.

Hey Geoff! First off I just wanted to congratulate you on the Last of Us live performance in July.

Anyways, how did it feel getting Ken and Roberta Williams to show up at this year's TGAs? Pretty special moment.

I was so excited when Ken called me to say they were willing to come to the show! They don't make many public appearances at all, so I was really honored they said yes. Ken emailed me after the show to say they had a great time, so that was really nice to hear.

Out of the big 3, who would you say is your personal favourite?

Do you feel that this shows in your interviews, etc at all?

I have good relationships with all the "big 3" console platforms -- I work with them all. No real favorite, I have all systems and play them all.

Great job at the Game Awards!

I thought it was by far the best show by far! Though a lot of people complained that it was too long and certain people should have being on stage to receive certain awards, instead of offstage. I know both of these problems exist due to all the complexities that you must deal with, so how do you see the next game awards to be like?

Yep that's good feedback and consistent with what we've heard. It's a juggling act to get everything to work within the show format.

Have you ever considered actually working in the industry? What made you choose journalism over taking part?

I've toyed with it, but I don't really have a lot of interest in working for one company or on one game. Part of what I love about my job is that I get to work with everyone across the industry and pull together something like The Game Awards. My mission is to share gaming with the widest possible audience.

You have a great voice for doing reviews and they've always came off more professional than almost any other website who have also featured video reviews.

Today, it's really hard to tell who actually enjoys the video game hobby and those who will take advantage of it for dollars from their advertisers..and even if Gametrailers ever did that, the presentation of almost everything on that site is fantastic and I'm glad it's kept up for the years that it has.

I'm glad that of all the years that VGX happened, for once it seemed like a HUGE stepping stone for the video games to be presented in the way they were a week ago at the video game awards. How do you plan on futher making video games a proper form of entertainment that can be celebrated outside of video game culture?

I think that's a great point -- the Spike VGAs and VGX were a great stepping stone to what I did this year. Spike did so much for the game industry over the years and they kept betting on the games when the ratings weren't really there. I think it's all worked out for the best.

By the way I'm not the voice of reviews on GameTrailers, that's Brandon Jones :)