Since I know for a fact that you don’t live under a rock (unless your subterranean civilization has affordable internet access) I would still find it at least mildly surprising if you knew what the D.I.C.E. Awards are. The “Design Innovate Communicate Entertain” awards are handed out at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ annual convention. The Academy’s mission is to…blah, blah, blah, That doesn’t matter right now. The D.I.C.E. awards, (The Diceys? The Dies? Who knows?) are one of our beloved medium’s oldest awards Programs at 9 years…which isn’t really saying much. The awards were handed out on February 9th at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. This was not a flashy event like Spike TV’s VGA poser-cast, the D.I.C.E. show was a quiet banquet affair.

The big winner that night was my boy God Of War, finally winning a big prize over it’s rival Resident Evil: 4. Did God Of War win solely because it’s a high quality title with breathtaking visuals, tight controls and starring the biggest badass since Shaft? No, it won because RE4 wasn’t even nominated. Why? Did the powers that be notice some kind of fatal flaw in Capcom’s masterpiece? Did they ignore the game due to some ill will toward the purple lunchbox? Did Capcom’s budget for trophy cases run dry? Or is really the fact that that Capcom didn’t want to pay a fee to try and win an award from a show that on its best day was used as filler on the now defunct TechTv channel!

I hate to break it to you my loyal Riders, but this award don’t matter. None of them do. Only sales matters. Bug surprise, I know, and conspiracy theories abound that all of these trophy handouts from D.I.C.E to the VGA’s to the space filling lists of the top games in some rag, are all bought and paid for like (allegedly) Golden Globes. The point is that all videogame awards are ones that the industry gives itself.

Until now.

The Hugo awards are the oldest in the field of Science Fiction. Among their winners are some of the most recognizable names and works in the world. Asimov’s Foundation, Gaiman’s Sandman, the works of Bradbury and Heinlein; Contemporary masters like Peter Jackson and the new Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D Moore. Now for the first time there will a category covering our beloved medium: Best Interactive Video Game.

I can’t express enough how important a development like this is, beyond the millions of players and the billions of dollars, this lead us one step closer to something infinitely more valuable, legitimacy. Legitimacy as an art form, as a medium, as a culture. To be recognized by not your peers but your contemporaries is a massive step forward for interactive entertainment. Not just games, but Art.

THE RIDE BOARD:

My Most Anticipated Game of the Year (of the week): In honor of the upcoming release of “24: The Game” I am writing this section of BotB in real time. Any typs or grammatical errors that I incur will not be subjected to my editor’s red pen. The game 24 promises to deliver the kinf of real time suspence and action that the televisied version (tries to) every week. With driving, shooting and apperantly tourter segments (Consitituion, Due Process? What’s that?) it promoases not to be dull, and I’m holding out for this to be the kind of licenced game that shares more then a name with its mother property. We’ll find out together in March.

Did You Know: The classic video game movie Tron was passed over for an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects because the Academy felt TRON “cheated” by using a computer. (Seven years later, The Abyss (1989) would win for its computer visual effects.) (Thanks, IMDB.com) I think it’s about time they corrected that mistake.

Your Mail: The Mail segment makes a return to let you know that my positive e-mail currently outweighs my negative by a factor of two! Thanks for riding with me.

This is my stop.

Comments?  Questions?  E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com.  Complaints?  Remember, grammar will be counted in the judging

Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.