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Posted By AngryJoe about 2 years, 5 months ago
Geoff Keighley acts completely disinterested and disrespectful as Angry Joe tries to field internet submitted questions and concerns about Spike TV’s Video Game Awards Show.
*Note this is a longer video – queue it up, let it load, grab something to drink and get ready for the main event.
Ugh… Why even bother Joe? we all know the VGAs are glorified advertisements, and lets be honest, spike is a joke. i think you should steer clear of them and their sponsor overlords.
I’m not much for words, and I just made my account to comment here.
The way I see it is that both sides can be put to fault here. Angry Joe came in with the attitude that he was going to get enough time for a good interview, and all of Geoff’s attention, when clearly wasn’t the case. He should have been prepared for anything that was going to happen in that interview, but he didn’t prepare, didn’t properly research, didn’t think ahead. And Geoff was acting like an ass the whole way through, treating Joe like he wasn’t worth his time, and like he wasn’t going to be important, like he was an incompetent. Geoff was too prepared to take down Joe, assuming he wasn’t worth his time, and that Joe wouldn’t show this to the internet when he realized how he looked.
Joe, I love your show, but you always need to be ready for anything when doing an interview, you never know what they’re gonna do. As it’s been said, you probably ruined this interview before it was even started since he seemed to at least know a bit about what you did. He either had someone check out who you were, or looked for himself, and saw your video about your invitation. That probably screwed you over in the end. But still, I commend you for keeping your cool and being polite to him the whole time, no matter how unprepared you were.
Geoff came out and acted like a prick with the “Tow minutes, Joe!” act, and just kept on with it. He talked down to you whenever he was actually keeping his focus on you and the interview itself. The rest of the time, he was focused on the scenery, watching the celebrities, instead of how the interview was going and your questions from the gamers. He even confused you with incorrect information, getting you to even say that Final Fantasy IV wasn’t out. He also jumped around your questions and made you answer his questions, just to make you feel like a fool. And he probably believed that you wouldn’t show this online because of how bad you looked.
Anyway, that’s what I had to say. It’s probably riddled with holes and inconsistencies, but either way, I said what I needed, and finished. It’s also probably stated better by others, on both sides of the argument. Either way, I just want you to know I support you and still believe that guy’s a prick. Either way, I thank you for trying your best. keep doing what you do best.
Yo Joe, I assume you probably had a list of questions and you were hoping for Question and Answer and when he said you have 2 minutes you thought about your list and said “Crap”.
People like this like to answer questions with questions, you say “What about an MMO catagory?” he says “Can you name 4 MMO’s that came out this year?” – Id list my questions with facts next to them to back them up so you can just say “Oh well Star Trek came out in 2010, Global Agenda, Allods Online, Final Fantasy XVI.” and even if all of those are terrible games- he can’t say that. If he said “FFXVI? Seriously you think FFXVI should be on a list for best MMO?” – Well he’s trained not to say stuff like that in case a sponsor happens to be Square/Enix or Sony…
Id practice with a friend- I have a few friends that are really good at getting around with words, you should ask them and get them to deflect the questions, try to spin things how they want. That will give you options to bring them back around and get them to either face a question or look like an idiot who can’t answer a question.
I’m guessing you probably had some ideas for getting into the interview- asking about his background so people know who this guy is, ask some light questions to make sure he knows your a good guy, and get a few tougher questions in at the end once he’s more comfortable talking. So when he rushed you your options were – go with what ya got- be nice- and then end it with a tough question, but you probably didn’t have them in any kind of importance or urgency so you just picked a couple.
I would have highlighted some things based on what was most important and what you had the most on. I think he’ s really happy about getting questions via E-mail because he’ll have plenty of time to skew and check his answers or he can just ignore it completely and it wont matter to him.
Really any interview should have taken place after the show so you could say “Why do you have 2 best music games?” Because best sound track and best music game? Only music games were able to win best sound track? Didn’t even throw in a non-music game to mask it?
On that topic, there were 4 “Music” categories, but only one visual art category. What about best 2D visuals or best concept or most original design? What about the other side- not the music, not the visual art, but the story? Sure they have best character but honestly how many game’s rely on just the main character? Most games put you in as a character that barely speaks or has any real personality, just a husk you control, so where is best Cast? Mass Effect 2, Read Dead, BFBC2, Fallout New Vegas etc etc?
Keep up the good work Joe, don’t let this get ya down. A lot of people are picking at the fact that you ranted so much about the interview- before, during, and after, but that’s what you and the rest do, you rant. It wasn’t totally necessary, anyone who watches the interview will see it but they will also see you stopping it and adding you comments and think your trying to convince them to your way of thinking.
Good luck man ^_^
Dear Joe,
Long time watcher, second time commenter.
I believe that your treatment was a little unfair and very cruel but to be honest you should have expected it. You knew you were entering a world that was cut throat, selfish, and cold. A world that does NOT care about anything but formalities and revenue. They deal with thousands of other rich and powerful businessmen every day. They are master manipulators and have perfected the defensive tactics that keep questionable ethics alive.
The fact that your name even caught their attention astounded me when I saw your video about the invitation. What made me cringe however was the video itself. It was an open statement saying you knew more about the industry than the people who are in the main stream (i.e. Spike) and you almost made it seem like you were saying that you were the only one that could see the light.
You work for yourself, on your own time and own schedule. These people have to manage a constant stream of media attention, mostly those in the easily offended and manipulated main stream, and constantly juggle other schedules. Weather or not they looked good in YOUR interview was of little to no concern to them, Blistered Thumbs doesn’t make enough money to make them look bad and to them you have nothing to offer to make them look good.
I’m sad to say Joe even though I probably would have reacted the same way as you in a “Ok, 2 minutes. Go. Go.” at least I would have been expected to be screwed over. I know he was poking you unfairly but it really does make me wonder how much research you actually did before going over there. You were thrown off way to hard at the fact that you were invited.
I love you as an entertainer and I know most of your audience loves you, but honestly you looked very weak. You seemed to think you would be respected as much there are you are on the internet. Here you have earned your place but over in the main stream media you are an angry blogger that has no money and nothing to offer them.
Joe, I love you and your rants. I would like nothing better as a gamer to be represented by you. You are the Angry Joe but also the average Joe.
Kohath Star of TheLoadingCrew
You kept it together well Joe, I would’ve probably punched him
Well at least Felicia Day agrees with you that means a whole lot more to people like us, Go Joe!
Of course Angry Joe could have been better prepared… but blaming him for not being prepared enough isn’t right either. Basically Angry Joe brought a knife to a gunfight, without knowing that it would be a gunfight. And how could he have known better?
Obviously Mister Keighley had the agenda to make him look like a fool. I mean, which decent guy does such a thing? I expect an entirely different behaviour from someone who is the VGAs Executive Producer. You DON’T invite someone to your party just to make him look like a idiot – but exactly that happened.
…and by the way, putting up that interview entirely, without any cuts was the best possible response to the way he was treated.
Geof Keighly is not only part of the VGAs, but he’s been a part of the video game industry for years, and he’s been in front of a camera for many of those years as well. So he basically knew how to withstand Joe’s questions with as little damage as possible.
So in short: A-game. Bring it.
After reading through all these comments, i thought i would leave my opinion of all of this…
Isn’t it rather possible that Joe was invited to the VGA’s since he represents blistered thumbs, and maybe Spike thought “hey this is an up and coming website, lets invite them and give them a chance”… And Joe’s response to this was to put up a somewhat aggressive video saying hes been invited, disrespects Geoff by purposely mispronouncing his name, and basicly asks for questions so he can slam them.
And isn’t it rather possible that spike had some researchers looking at his site, seen that video and thought “we give them a chance and this is how they respond” So they brief Geoff that Joes coming with an attitude and could be troublesome, (and possibly inform him that Joe took the piss out his name)
So come interview time, Geoff sees Joe dressed in his usual attire and is prepared for tough questions, and watches Joe fall to pieces and decides that Joes a joke… Though saying that Geoff was nice enough to give joe advice of he needs to do more research, which is valid
Joe could have possibly turned the whole thing around by just apologising to Geoff and explaining he thought he was going to get longer and was totally unprepared for a short 2 min interview, hell maybe Geoff would have been easier on him and gave him some help.
As for joes rant, that screams unprofessionalism, Joe fucked up the interview completely, never had a backup plan just in-case he never got the full time he expected to get, his questions were not researched and full of holes and is not man enough to accept his mistakes and blames everything completely on Geoff… Newsflash Joe he was prepared for you, like i said he probably had researchers looking at this site, they seen your earlier video and and prepared to destroy you.
Joe if you want blistered thumbs to succeed and be taken seriously, you better change your attitude and try to make bridges in the gaming community and not burn them. Because at the moment Blistered Thumbs pretty much comes across as youtube bloggers pretending their, joystiq or kotaku and if you continue to pull stuff like this no other gaming site or community is really going to take you guys seriously !
No. Fact is that Geoff was doing that thing of looking over at the red carpet and was pretending he had better things to pay attention to.No matter what agenda Joe had, Joe wasn’t screaming or going crazy. I know Geoff didn’t want to have negativity focused on during his show, but I think his retorts were satisfactory. He didn’t have to act like he didn’t care on top of that.
I think the best thing is for Geoff or some VGA representative to have an interview with Joe next year sometime before the VGAs.
Wow, just wow. I actually registered just so I could leave a comment on this and that’s saying a lot coming from me.
I can not believe how you were treated, that is completely unacceptable. You try to be professional and act polite and you always get a slap in the face. Although, I really shouldn’t have excepted much more.
He made himself look like a joke and obviously had no idea what he was talking about with the Final Fantasy comment. I’m a very heavy player in MMO’s and just hearing that….wow. Then he tried to turn it around on you to make you look stupid! Which made him look even worse. Also, I definitely would have lost it when he said Final Fantasy didn’t come out this year. I would have called him out on that in a second! You’re a way better person then me.
How the gaming press was acting shouldn’t surprise me either, I must have really been out of touch with things lately. I’ve always felt like the people who are in charge have been immature and made the gaming community look bad but recently I really started to think things were getting a lot better. Obviously I was wrong and my respect is completely gone now.
So don’t be upset with yourself Joe, I probably would have come at him the same way you did. Since I also like to, you know, be professional and act like we’re both adults here but this never seems to apply to these people. You did what you could and really, the joke is on him. This just shows us what kind of respect this guy has and how he cares little about what we think.
Anyway, you did what you could and thank you for trying. I hope things go better with the email interview and he actually sticks to his word.
Joe, you need to be more prepared.
Thats the bottom line.
You where unable to ask hard questions, you are angry about the past while he stands for the future.
You lost this interview even thou it is clearly visible that he was a jackass, but that is normal and should be expected.
You need to up your game if you want to represent “us”, because most of “us” would have probably be able to do some research and ask some hard hitting questions directed at the events he managed.
ps.: “Somebody needs to answer what happend in the past!!”
Really Joe? Somebody “needs” to? I guess people that work now don’t bother with the past and people that worked on it don’t want to.
You should not bother about the past but the present Joe.
Wow…. that guy was really being an ass…. Oh and about the song categories. I think they should trash that entire idea because if I wanna watch a music award show thats what i’ll do.
Why don’t they have a category for orchestra pieces and not shitty 5 minute songs by My Chemical Romance or another band? I even like them, but I think the orchestrated music in Video Games are much better. Oh and for a final verdict I HATE THE VGA’S!!!!!
Wow, just wow. Even if you were some youtuber he shouldn’t have treated you that way. He didn’t even respect you as a normal person, he acted like you were his most hated enemy. It just boggles my mind at how little respect this man has for you, especially if he did watch your videos and found that you only wanted to help.
I don’t think you did bad Joe, I mean, lets look at the situation- You were told you had only 2 minutes to interview this man, in a noisy area filled with distractions and he wouldn’t even pay attention to you half the time. I’m taking a guess that, that got you flustered, it think it would do that to anyone who expected a proper interview environment and a person who actually gave a shit. You may have stumbled over questions, but who wouldn’t? This guy didn’t even give you a chance to think especially with his two minute time limit.
I really had high hopes for the VGAs, thinking they would give you a good interview and give us all a chance to see the inner workings of the VGAs and try to make it better, but instead the treated you like shit, and that just really got to me. You seem like a genuinely nice guy, and anyone can see that from your videos, but Geoff was ready to shoot down everything you said.
But all in all, I think you’ve shown the people something just as good- how the VGAs treat its own people, like dirt, I think that’s a step closer in it’s own way.
I’m sorry, Joe. Even though Geoff was in no mood to deal with you, you FAILED.
You brought up MMOs and yet couldn’t name many. C’mon, Joe! I think that Geoff, like he said is putting things in the right direction.
I don’t watch the VGAs, because I don’t care, but I don’t think Geoff is THE villain. He’s definitely a doucebag, though! He’s wearing a bowtie!
He wanted no bad press from you, and he wanted to minimize the damage you would bring. Hey, you’re “Angry Joe:” how many people would want to stand up against someone with that title? He knew about your opinion of the VGAs to boot!
Also, Joe, the “press room” includes a guy who sounded like he had never completely put together a sentence since he was in high school. He was the guy who spoke just before you end the clip.
Finally, WHY do you keep bringing up FF XIV? It’s not going to be a contender for any awards, besides “worst MMO” or “biggest disappointment”
id love to see how you acted in such a situation Smiling Ugly Man
At the very least, I’d be wittier than you.
I’m not here to impress another MAN with my looks.
if you don’t care for the vga’s then why are you so bothered about the way joe took the situation, geoff was a jackass, he made apperent that he wants to give us no respect. If i was in joe’s situation i would have been harsher and made sure he damned listen. I’m not joe though so good luck next time.
joe you did what you could with the terrible situation that was given to you, you made this video to show us how geoff really is and you also put in an apology, we lost this one battle but theres still plenty youve always got your email questions.
joe all I can say is don’t be diplimatic this geoff is a douche and he doesnt deserve diplomatic anymore, be angry be what you normally are “ANGRY JOE” give that douche what he needs to know and dont let him back you into a corner.
The only complaint joe i can find for you is that you wouldnt let up on the mmo, i admire your perserverince but don’t concentrate soley on mmo’s.
I think Joe could have cut him down, but being an actual “Angry” Joe and fly off at the handle would be the worst move for Joe. To be on video and lashing out at Geoff might make gamers cheer, but then we might not see Joe on a red carpet anymore.
I’m sorry, Joe. Even though Geoff was in no mood to deal with you, you FAILED.
You brought up MMOs and yet couldn’t name many. C’mon, Joe! I think that Geoff, like he said is putting things in the right direction.
I don’t watch the VGAs, because I don’t care, but I don’t think Geoff is THE villain. He’s definitely a Mid-boss.
He wanted no bad press from you, and he wanted to minimize the damage you would bring. Hey, you’re “Angry Joe:” how many people would want to stand up against someone with that title? He knew about your opinion of the VGAs to boot!
OF COURSE he’s a doucebag! He’s wearing a bowtie!
Sorry, But this is wrong. Your whole point is like telling a guy who just got sucker punched that he failed for getting punched in the face.
From the beginning of the interview to the end, Geoff showed absolutely no intention of trying to get Joe’s fans to watch a better VGA, which is something he should have been doing. Instead we get a passive aggressive teenage girl who is pretending Joe just bashed on Twilight.
The only thing I have against Joe in this video is something he already holds against himself, he was too nice. It’s not his job to tell Geoff about games and categories Geoff should already know about. It’s his job to point out the hacks who try use shitty games for shitty marketing ploys.
Joe is a gamer, and he took it upon himself to speak on behalf of people like him who have been disappointed with the VGAs. When you debate someone or you want to take someone down and say “You fucked up. You should do this” I don’t expect you to be perfect, but it sounded like Joe knew just as much about MMos as the staff at the VGAs does, for instance.
Joe actually ended up making me like what the VGAs is currently more than I thought I would. I still will not watch them, and I don’t care, but it sounds like they aren’t the total ad whores they first were.
It only appeared like Joe didn’t know anything because (in case you forgot) Geoff gave him an impromptu two minutes to do an interview (which in no way is an interview to begin with) and then proceeded to ask Joe questions followed by not even giving Joe any kind of attention. As a representative and the face of this ceremony, Geoff should be explaining why he picks certain categories and what makes this and future VGA’S something people should watch. Instead of focusing on how to disrespect someone who validly criticized the first VGA.
You stated that Joe made you like the VGA’s more yet you still don’t really care to watch them. Should I even bother pointing out how redundant that point is?
OK, OK, fair. He was put under the gun and that tripped him up. That’s a good point.
As for my point about the VGAs, I know my point reads odd but from what I’ve heard of the VGAs past (some comments, of course, from Joe) this seems better, but it still does not seem like a show I would want to spend time with.
The thing is, we support you Joe because you are our voice. I’m actually quite impressed that you managed to keep your cool, because if someone showed me that amount of disrespect on camera…I’d want to punch them out.
However, you know that we’ve go your back, and now you know that the internet knows what a douchebag he is.
I’d like to thank you for trying your hardest to get it done amigo.
At least felicia knows what she’s talking about gaming
i also noticed that this douch bag never looked u straight in the eye and most of the times he was rolling his eyes.
i seriously hope this guy looses his job for this shit or atleast loose ALOT of respect from alot of people.
Don’t feel bad Joe. I used to work for an Anime news site. Sometimes you feel like people are treating you like crap sometimes. Other times you meet people that really know their stuff like Felicia. But regardless, I say just keep ripping the VGA’s apart. I mean seriously. My only question is…King Kong as game of the year? KING KONG!
VGA’s are a joke and they obviously only care about playing down to lowest common denomenator. It’s what spike has become. With Shows like MANSWERS you expect integrity. Shit…these are the same people that got a name for themselves playing Star Trek, then started making fun of nerds that FUCKING like Star Trek.
Joe, I seriously think Blistered thumbs could run a better VGA then Spike. Seriously you should get on that, do your own VGA’s…I at least wouldn’t feel like Im ashamed to be a gamer.
Joe, i am outright proud of you for how you composed yourself when you were faced with Geoff who was, frankly, acting like a complete d***head. I would have acted similarly in that kind of disrespectful environment. Keep on fighting the good fight!
guys, ive been wondering about this for some time now, do you guys think that geoff knows that the gaming public outright treats the VGA’s as an insult to our hobby? i mean i dont think it’s a secret that gamers hate this award show. most people/posters(GT,youtube,BT, etc) that do watch it only do so for the game premieres and 1 poster(GT) watch the show because of hot chicks(i dont know why, since the internet has LOADS of hot chicks pics and vids).
i understand that its not easy to hear someone criticizing your work, but if geoff knows that something is worng with the VGA’s then why be rude to AJ? its not like AJ is the only guy that thinks the show is a joke. it just so happens he’s only guy that has the guts to say it to his face. maybe geoff is naive enough to think that gamers love the VGA.
Geoff Keighley, gamers hate the VGA. so when gamers(you know gamers, the people that plays video games that this show gives awards to?) actually want to improve the show by asking questions and giving suggestions, YOU LISTEN AND PAY ATTENTION. its means there are gamers out there that havent lost hope for the VGA, they still care enough to actually go to the show spending theri own money to make the show better. Criticism is good geoff. it forces us to be better at what we do. also, if you have a show to run, then talk to AJ and tell him to wait, and enjoy the show because you are busy. and you’ll talk to him when you have time to do the interview.
When pretty much every discussion about this show on every major site (including Spike affiliated ones, it seems) ends up a slagging match against it it’d be impossible not to know what gamers think.
And the show goes on regardless. It should be pretty clear by now that gamers are not who this show is marketed to.
That was… painful to watch. He got you pretty hard there, however it was because of the reasons you mentioned. I feel you’re pain entirely. When you have so much to say to someone and they manage to maneuver around ever question and put you off your guard, then they walk off defiantly and you’re left there feeling like a fool thinking about the numerous things you could have and should have said. I could tell right when he said “two minutes”, that you immediately got flustered in your rush to decide what to ask and how. All downhill from there.
Going into this, I knew what to expect. I knew you had your piece/view, but I wasn’t convinced that Geoff was being a douche. I figured you might have taken something the wrong way or something to that effect. I happened to like Geoff going into this interview, so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. While watching however, it was blatantly obvious (even without your commentary) that he really didn’t give a shit/was being an arrogant dick and knew how to deal with you. Everything you mentioned seemed entirely true.
The only reasons I can think of for treating you like that are either he fears you in some (large or small) way and set the scenario up to make you look bad/make an example of you or just plain doesn’t take you seriously as a journalist. As much as I’d like to say it’s the first reason, it’s probably largely the second. Although there’s some evidence of the first. He obviously knows how to deal with “haters” (for lack of a better term) and had some previous knowledge of you.
In the end the only advice (though I’ve never been a journalist of any kind) I can give you is:
- Expect this tactic next time (there better be a next time) and come fully prepared for it. Know exactly what to say if/when he tries it. In fact, at the risk of sounding like a marriage counselor, tell him exactly what you just told us. It’d be interesting to see what his response would be (unlikely that he ever did or ever will watch this video) and would certainly show what kind of person he really is.
- No diplomacy. Be relentless, but not to the point of coming off as a rabid fanboy. Wipe that cocky smirk off his face.
- Let it go and learn from it. What’s done is done. Dude was a dick, you know his moves, time to get back in the ring.
After all this, GT has been permanently taken off my bookmarks (though I haven’t been there in months anyway) and BT has become my number one place to get gaming news. I have massive respect for you and what you’re trying to do and wish you well.
You would do the same thing if you were approached with the same aggressive behavior you approached Geoff with, Joe.
Pissed Jose would have done a better job than you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_dFaNUmJc
You must really love the guy to have his name and then proceed to post a video.
Which comes into question you do not like this place yet you had the time to make an account to post it here.
So in conclusion this was for only a spiteful attempt.
The guy said he would not want to be part of this community so im assuming your not him
Dude, Joe, I’m sorry that Keighley did that to you. You are one of the most passionate people I see when it comes to truly representing the core gamer. The thing with Keighley though, is the fact that he IS a tool. He puts on the facade that he’s into gaming when in truth since back in 2006 when he was first doing interviews with GameStop and Spike, you could tell he never gave a damn about the games he was discussing with the programmers or PRs of them. He has ridden the bandwagon of the climb of video games as an underground culture to its now mainstream status and lined his pockets along the way. Joe, you are dealing with someone who doesn’t give a damn about gamers or games. He was a tool then and he’s a tool now. I do hope you get a sit down with him though. It’d be nice to see how much more of an ass he can make himself. You conducted your self well for being blitzed like that. It’s sad to see someone like Geoff Keighley be successful as a “voice” for gamers, I can’t believe I said that but that is how Spike portrays him, when there are so many others who truly care for gaming and have a passion for them to be recognized by fans who actually care. It’s sad to see the way that gaming has gone. Don’t get me wrong, there is a great many a game out there, but it seems now it’s been taken too “Hollywood” and now the experience seems hollow to how it used to be not too long ago. Sir, you are respected for all that you have done in the name of gaming and while you are still probably upset, go with the knowledge that EVERYONE here who cares about gaming is proud of the way you handled yourself and the drive you have to wanna go again. so I guess all I can really say is Thanx bro. Keep doin’ what you do and DAMN!!! Felicia Day FTW!
That asshole. That fucking asshole. Oh, I am not in the mood for his disrespect tonight.
First and foremost, you did not disappoint me. Geoff disappointed me, oh yeah, but you did not. You were trying your best to get back on your feet and this slick slimy bastard just wanted to beat you- and us- down. I am so glad you got mad at him. He just repeated the same things over and over, dancing his way around your questions, and you pursued him and let the ENTIRE INTERNET see this guy has no respect for us, and that is going to kick him in the ass so hard. You say the VGAs are getting better. I wouldn’t know; I don’t watch trash, but I’ll take your word for it. However, just as I wouldn’t read a blog if I disliked the person who wrote it, I’m not going to watch his fucking show. And I’ll be damned if there’s not thousands of gamers who boycott that piece of shit.
Yes, you need to harden up as a reporter. But he KNEW that too. He KNOWS you aren’t used to that, he employed every sick trick in his little bag of goodies to get a petty revenge on you for bagging his show. He probably thinks we are the mindless masses and listen to you without thinking for ourselves, so we also hate his show when you say it is bad. If that’s what he thinks, he is even more ignorant than he is an asshole.
I say show no mercy. Hit him hard, tear him down. You mean business, and you know that being nice isn’t cut out for journalism.
Totally agree with RidgeAldain’s post above.
This just made me EXTRAORDINARILY mad. First of all, the obvious.
Its absoloutely ridiculous. I simply cant see somebody, a large member of ANY company, literally turning away from the camera and not listening whatsoever to the speaker whom he was supposed to spend a whole 15 minutes with. I dont care if the speaker is from the largest corporation in the world or an individual who has never been heard of by a single soul, it was wrong. The whole “two minutes” thing was insane- for gods sake, why do it on the red carpet? Why do it when the show is about to start?
Anyway, as far as driving your point home to him, I’d say youve lost the battle but are quickly progressing to winning the war with the enourmous quantity of angry commenters here. Give him hell.
Hey Joe,
You do come off as a little flustered but as a journalist (I applied to BT, check it out) I understand. I understand because YOU”RE RIGHT.
Where’s puzzle games?
Where’s the memorial to the gaming titans who died this year?
Where’s the awards for innovation?
Where’s the award for Strategy and Tower Defense?
How about some clips about the year as it happened? Honoring the resurgence in the fighting game scene? Or how Meatboy brought the indie game scene to consoles with its unlockable characters and unflinching in-jokes? How Starcraft 2 shut Korea down for a day? How the iPhone has dominated and changed the gaming scene forever? How PC’s have become the casual players home for free MMO’s?
You are right. (Call me) mrdrofficer@gmail.com
I admire Geoff’s ability to be the world’s biggest asshat. Seriously, you should have been legally within your rights to knock the shit out of him for the way he treated you.
Wow, Joe. Just… wow. That level of disrespect is simply unacceptable – whether he’s talking to a celebrity, big name magazine, or a YouTube reviewer shouldn’t matter. The fact is that you were a journalist, and he was a producer, and he should have been giving weight to your questions instead of dismissing them. I can understand if something went wrong and he all of a sudden couldn’t give you the time you initially requested, but not looking at you while you were asking questions is so unprofessional it boggles my mind – a PR director would get fired for pulling that kind of shit at a press conference!
Definitely go into the next interview full steam – you’re ANGRY Joe, after all. Ask them tough questions and don’t relent – if someone tells you that “Final Fantasy MMO” didn’t come out this year and you know that Final Fantasy XIV came out some time ago, KILL!
“The fact is that you were a journalist,”
This at least partially stems from the fact that most of the industry do not view internet reviewers that way. Some random blogger of YouTube vlogger with no journalism degree isn’t going to get a free pass into this very elitist industry.
What they are most afraid of is the level of respect Joe has from the average gamer. And as he (and the rest of BT) continues to grow in skill and popularity he will slowly force his way into this industry, whether they like it or not.
for fucks sake joe get over yourself, it’s a video game awards ceremony, people have better things to do than do your poxy little interview, cry moar
They probably shouldn’t have invited him then.
Like commenting on a form telling others I have better things to do
Geoff taught me something.
Passive aggressive attitudes are not just something teenage girls do.
Well Joe, ya did good in there man. You took a bit of a tumble, but use it to fuel your next run,
We’re all behind ya man, , you did the best ya could with what you were given to work with. He poorly portrayed himself and his little show by playing you the way he did. While you’re not mainstream, There is a significant following for you and Blistered thumbs in general.
Do your research, be ready and stand firm on getting a sit down interview next year. I know you can put this jerk on his back. If nothing else, even if the VGA’s are a lost cause, take heart in the fact that you are one of the shepherds of a whole new wave of gaming information and Journalism.
It’s people like you that will be blazing a trail and respected in due time.
Stay solid Joe, and Stay Angry.
Wow the 17 pages of comments sure show Geoff made a teensy miscalculation huh?
I had the misfortune of visiting a hate site, whose defence was that they get more comments, somehow implying they were more popular than Channel Awesome.
Yeh, I know, comedy gold in so many ways.
Joe I support you and all, but there are some problems:
1You keep pushing the MMO category like your last defense against a cannon of douchebaggery, I know what youre triying to do man, but your always talking about the MMO category, even in the second interview.
2Asking categories that dont exist Best Fight, Best MMO, more PC,” can you put everything I want Geoff?”
3I think you try to give an explanation a reason to explain the shitty interview. Triying desperately to make everyone understand why HE WAS WRONG.
HE WAS A DOUCHEBAG JOE I GIVE YOU POINTS FOR THAT, all your mistakes will not change the fact that he is a douchebag, and the VGAs are a joke, just fueled by popularity and guys that dont now shit about games. You needed more time, thats the point, the interview would have been awesome with a lot more time. Doing an interview in the middle of the show is not the way to make an interview. Points for you Joe, because even with little time he acted like a douchebag the whole time he had an encounter with you. SALUTES JOE from a Big Fan from Mexico
Right, I’m not sure everybody was watching properly so…
Joe had all the right to be angry about this (Especially after the whole “lets have an interview” on Geoff’s part) Its clear, from expressions Geoff makes that he fully intended to throw Joe off or at least piss him off.
Also Joe didn’t enter in character as he said, “I approached the interview diplomatically” If it truly was the Angry (that being the keyword) Joe then he would have hit him harder similar to his other interviews or in fact what he says he should have been like within the.. ‘interview’ with Geoff.
Lastly to anybody who said, “What did you expect Joe? to get an interview right in the middle of the red carpet!?”
Well, pretty much! This guy REQUESTED Joe tell them what was wrong hell, What we all thought was wrong and why? just to attempt to shoot down what we/he was saying (possibly in anticipation of a harder interview but it still applies)
Simply put everyone he said, “Fuck off real gamers, Were running the show and you want to know how much you’re opinion matters? Diddly”
Joe, If you read this – Hit the fucker hard next time.
Just to clarify for those new to AJ, from what I’ve been following, Spike invited Angry Joe, but Joe requested the interview. Spike agreed on set conditions for the interview, which as you can see were not met.
I also created an account just to leave a comment on this video.
Really, Joe, I’ve tried to collect my thoughts about this, to find what it was that really bugged me about this video. I tried siding with you, but that didn’t work. I then tried to side with Geoff, but that left me dissatisfied, also. Basically, I ended up with this one conclusion:
Neither of you were in the right.
I’ll probably get down-voted or flamed for saying that, but I feel as though it’s the truth. It does appear as though Geoff was trying his hardest to disrespect you, that he didn’t take you seriously because you are an “amateur.” I don’t call you an amateur as a slight against your reviewing abilities, though; I want to be perfectly clear about that. I just mean that as the person before me said, you don’t work for an industry and therefore they don’t consider you a professional. I don’t know if Geoff was being a douche to you because of your name or because of your background in being critical of his award show, though. Overall, I just think that he didn’t take you seriously. If I were going to give you any advice, though I feel it’s not my place to, I would just say that the next time you get an interview with these people you should make them take you seriously. As you said yourself, don’t be so nice to them.
They haven’t done anything to deserve your generosity and they should have thick enough skin to tolerate one person being critical of them, so don’t worry about it. If you have to be that guy, the guy who will piss people off and will hammer people, then that’s fine. We’ll all still love you for it and you hopefully won’t end up in this situation again. My favorite part of the video was when you went into survival mode and lost your cool, anyway. You might have started the interview off on the wrong foot by admitting that you had a bone to pick with Geoff, but the guy is a veteran who was himself overly prepared for a tough situation. I don’t believe what everybody says in his defense that he was too busy to answer your questions because major productions like that have multiple producers, directors, etc. that can and will take over if something goes wrong; Geoff shouldn’t have been that busy. Sure, he might have been really stressed out, but he shouldn’t have been too busy to field more than two minutes worth of interview time. He had done nothing to deserve your respect because his show is indeed a joke, right down to the very network that airs it, and he’s never really proven that he’s some valiant warrior, fighting in our honor. Even in the Fox News interview he came off as a douche who didn’t completely understand the plight of gamers, so I wouldn’t have given him any props for that.
However, I really need to sum this up.
So, I do have to make a few obvious points about this. If you do become some hard hitting reporter, then you need to also yourself be overly prepared and to have some tough skin. It’s obvious that this event has really bothered you, but it shouldn’t because journalism is a growing process and your still trying to develop into a better reporter every day. All I have to say is that if you do ever get a repeat interview with him, even if it’s over Skype or through email, then for your sake and all of ours, hit him back harder and harder and don’t lay off. Otherwise, people like him are going to take advantage of you and try to make an example out of you.
I’m so sorry for the inordinately long message that I’ve left, but I myself have been stewing on this since you posted the video and I just wanted to voice my opinion over what everyone has been saying. Thank you.
Joe I know how you feel and that really gets me upset.
However, you’re still the best, I really love your work as a passionate gamer (and I think I’m not the only one), so keep going on like that!
I just registered to leave this comment, but to put it bluntly:
Watching your interview with this guy and the follow-up you did really just cements everything I’ve been learning about the game industry and business for the past year.
Angry Joe has every reason to be pissed off at what happened. He was told to come out there *on his own dime* to get a chance to talk with the decision makers of the VGAs. Irregardless of what Joe has said in regards of his criticisms of the VGAs, that does not excuse a public figurehead for the VGAs to show such outright disrespect and contempt for someone he told to come out to speak with.
The reason Keighley clearly tried to put Joe in a disadvantageous spot can be traced back to what happened in your follow-up after the show. You pointed out how some of the gaming press goaded on Keighley’s underhanded jabs at you. That is because these people are “industry” journalists. They are not paid to give accurate reviews, but to deliver customers to a a product. The greatest example of this was with Jeff Gertsman in regards to Kane & Lynch. He tried to deliver a fair review but the goal of the industry was not to deliver a fair review but to deliver customers to the game, regardless of the quality.
What frightens and pisses off people like Keighley is that you, Mr. Vargas, are not in the industry. You are not an industry journalist. You yourself are a gamer, representing other gamers, and not trying to be the industry’s friend. That means you will ask tough questions, and will not kiss the industry’s ass. This scares most people like Keighley because they’re used to being treated with kids gloves by the press (which hardly does any real journalism these days anyways, hence why the traditional media outlets are in massive decline).
The mocking contempt shown to you by those amongst the gaming “press” during the follow-up only serves to reinforce this. The reality is that many gaming magazine outlets have every reason to be afraid of sites like this.
Your (Mr. Vargas) greatest asset is that while people may or may not agree with your reviews, they *TRUST* you. They know that your goal is to play games of the highest quality, and to not be ripped off by the game industry. You don’t just expect quality, you DEMAND it. This upsets the industry because you can’t be bribed, manipulated, or controlled. Keighley knows this. The people that mocked you in the follow-up conference sure as shit know this. It’s penis envy. You can do what they can’t, or don’t care to do. And for this the industry does everything it can to shout you down into silence and treat you like a fool. When an industry goes into decline, it blames everyone else but itself for its destruction.
The VGAs are a lost cause because traditional media outlets are rapidly becoming obsolete. What people like you, TGWTG, AGVN, Spoony, and countless others are doing is very likely the first tentative steps towards establishing a new media frontier that will eventually yank the carpet out from underneath the old. The future of TV will be the internet, and the future of entertainment will be new business models established on the internet. What many of you are doing is paving the way towards that day becoming a reality.
People like Keighley are irrelevant because they’re just representative of everything that is wrong with the TV industry, and with the game industry at large today. But their time is about up, and a new age is dawning, one that will be much more exciting and refreshing than we could possibly imagine, and they aren’t going to have a place in it because they have no interest entertaining others, only entertaining themselves.
Mr. Vargas, as a representative of those that view your site, and gamers everywhere, you did right by them, and have consistently showed greater journalistic integrity than any so-called “game journalist” has in a long, long, long, long time. I salute you, good sir!
God, the level of sycophancy on display here is incredible. Joe’s fundamental mistake was going as “Angry Joe” and not just “Joe,” and the fact that people can’t see that this kind of “internet persona” crap doesn’t play out in real life is incredible.
I’d say Knight treated him with all the respect he deserved.
Youre a special kind of idiot if you think the VGA award are anything close to a reflection of real life. Angry Joe is well known throughout the gaming community as a whole and has never tried to push what you call his “Internet Persona” on anyone. From everything I have ever seen, even up to this point, ANGRY Joe has shown nothing but respect to the people he has interviewed and his questioning has always been direct and fair. If the guys reasoning behind the bullshit he pulled there was his name, then hes even worse than I thought. Its no different then someone saying you cant do a job aswell because you have a tattoo. Joe is Angry Joe. Sure maybe he doesnt freak out in realife as much as he does in videos, but his blunt questioning and honest opinions are a true reflection of his true self.
I never said that I gave them any value at all. But that does not change the fact that going in there in the way he did is not the way any actual journalist should carry themselves.
Being “ANGRY” Joe does not actually work if you’re trying to conduct actual interviews in a serious manner, or produce the kind of reporting that actually informs people actual events and information. And this is not a defense of “gaming journalism,” merely a statement of my belief that Angry Joe is a typical example of it, simply in a different format.
Spike specifically invited Angry Joe, not Joe Vargas.
Dude angry joe i assume by now you have moved on to looking at your next videos comments but seriously dude. i watched the first 6 minutes of the video. give the guy a freaking break. hes trying to run a show. you come to him at the beginning hes trying to start running a show and he obviously is trying to make it run good. hes shown hes willing to give you time but dude you should have picked a less busy time for him to. How would you feel if doug walker said hey joe you need to make a video by 8 tonight and at 730 you were still making the video and i walked into your house and started interviewing you. i assume you would say dude go the (blank) away let me finish my stuff. thats what he is doing your also asking him stuff about previous shows that they have apparently changed he even says it. dude honestly for first 6 minutes i think you are the one being the jerk.
If Joe had specifically invited you to his place and told you you could ask him questions and when you got there he told you to f off, THAT would lend your poor analogy some credence.
Every time I watch this guy, I can’t help but think, “Punch him Joe. Just bitch slap that douche-bag.” But you did the best you could with what he gave you. You’re not going to get honest answers when the individual is a complete douche who isn’t the least bit interested in you. But, here’s an Idea. Why not have a Blistered Thumbs Gaming Award show, with the audience casting their votes and nominees. Show them what a real game show should be like. I don’t watch the VGAs, because it’s nothing more than one big advertisment. But, grats to you for keeping your cool, cause to be honest… I would have ripped him a new one.
I have to say that both parties are to blame in this situation.
But Joe created the catalyst that put Geoff on the defensive. Amongst Joe’s first words to someone who works hard putting a show together (regardless of how good or bad it is) are:
“..I have a bone to pick with this particular man..”
ANYONE is going to be defensive or maybe decide to avoid answering questions after that.
And calling the show he works on a “..big joke..”, right to his face, is the worst start to an interview I have ever seen. You were not diplomatic in how you started off Joe. The damage was done, which is why it went downhill from there.
I completely agree that it was disrespectful to look away while Joe was talking, but to be honest I don’t blame the guy. He’s obviously pissed off at Joe and seems to have decided to co-operate as little as possible.
If you want to address concerns with the show, don’t fire off insults at the guy. You need to be professional and ask the questions in a constructive manner. Put them across as suggestions on how to improve the show, and explain why you think certain parts of the show are weak or whatever, and how they might be improved.
As if your chances weren’t already bad enough of ever getting a repeat interview, you then decide to upload a long rant repeatedly attacking him. He has no obligation to answer any questions you have. After displaying the whole sorry episode in drama queen fashion in the video, I wouldn’t blame him if he never accepts an interview with you again. Plus it creates divison amongst your fans as they argue the toss about the rights and wrongs of what happened.
I feel like you’re trying to make as many enemies as possible Joe, as you even take a pop at the other gaming press in attendance during the later press interview.
If you manage to make it up with him, you might get some good pointers from him on interviewing techniques. Wouldn’t that be ironic!
Let’s not forget that Geoff Keighley has been a champion of truth for gaming in the past. FOX news revelled in their sheer ignorance while Geoff tried to set the record straight. And oh my god, what a pointless in-studio “debate” they had at the end. It was a completely one-sided discussion, everyone practically agreeing that Mass Effect was “Luke Skywalker meets Debbie does Dallas”. Sheesh. Go to Youtube and search for: Geoff Keighley Fox News, if you wanna watch it.
Regarding that video, maybe you should actually listen to what they say and their conclusion. That is without a doubt the most level headed and responsible ill informed panel I have ever witnessed on the subject of video games. Even those claiming that they simply can’t pay their kids the attention they need all agree at the end of that panel that that’s their responsibility despite the difficulties that it presents.
Meanwhile, Geoff interrupts his opposition and throws aggressive questions at the ‘impartial’ host knowing full well what the answer would be, even despite her showing a concerted effort to do some research on the subject matter when she had the chance.
For a FOX show, this panel was -amazing-. As far as I can tell, Geoff on the other hand has always been an arsehole.
I agree that both parties communicated ineffectively but I don’t believe that Joe was the “catalyst” so to speak. Technically, based on the given information, Geoff was the one late to the interview. When he did arrive we cannot tell if he is apologetic but we assume not by his statement of “You got two minutes”. Whether Geoff’s tardiness and statement was a conscious strategy to control the interview or simply self-centered behavior is unclear to me, but in either case disrespectful.
Based on Geoff’s behavior, I was impressed with how controlled Joe was throughout a majority of the interview (though some of it was due to shock, I assume). He rolled with the punches and tried to make the best of a bad situation. This was a difficult task as Geoff would look in other directions, poke fun at his “lack of knowledge” (with added support of a female by-standard at one point), interrupt, etc. This behavior I do feel was a conscious strategy by Geoff to control the interview and make himself look good.
Like Geoff, Joe wasn’t without his poor choices which is mainly seen in the use of attacking statements like, “I have a bone to pick with this particular man” and “You have a lot of questions to answer for”. Normally I would say that it is this type of behavior that causes others to become defensive and attack back, but this situation is different. It is key to point out that Geoff is the executive producer, the face of VGA, and is deliberately involving himself in an interview where hardball questions are expected. This atmosphere combined with his behavior before the interview, suggests that he would act defensively regardless if Joe used attacking statements or not.
With that said, I feel this situation illustrates the importance of being an effective interviewer than anything else. Interviewees can say and do anything, so it’s up of the interviewer to be in control and prepared which comes with knowledge and practice.
Based on what I saw in the interview, Joe is mainly interested with promoting change. If so, one tip that I would suggest is not to complain to the interviewee (ex- Everyone is outraged that there are no MMO’s). This can cause defensiveness and doesn’t foster an environment for consideration or change. Instead of complaining the interviewer can ask questions such as, “Are there any changes in the future that the VGA are considering?”, followed by “Has there been any consideration as to the addition of MMO’s?”, “Are there any pros or cons to this addition?”.
Similarly, I would suggest focusing on the future and if needed, refer to the past to get the point across, since no one can change the past. For example, “Are there any changes in the future that the VGA are considering?”, followed by “75% of viewers taken from a Blistered Thumbs poll were disappoint that MMO’s weren’t included last year. Has there been any consideration as to the addition of MMO’s?”.
Furthermore, I would suggest staying as neutral as possible as this shows respect for others’ opinions which encourages them show respect to you and to consider your ideas. I imagine that this could be accomplished by asking several neutral open-ending questions like, “Are there any changes in the future that the VGA are considering?” with leading questions sprinkled in like, “Has there been any consideration as to the addition of MMO’s?”.
All in all both Joe and Geoff made mistakes, they’re human. Again, I am impress for the most part by the way Joe handled himself. I also applaud his courage and humility in posting this video giving us insight into his thoughts and feelings (admitting his own flaws at the end) and asking for our honest opinion regarding the situation. I truly feel that Joe wants to do right by us and I have the utmost confidence that he can grow into a great interviewer.
Ok,so, i just made an account to voice out my opinion on this matter. i apologize in advance for my English, since it’s not my 1st language so bare with me.
I cant say i know that much about the VGA since it’s not broadcasted in my country(at least i think its not) but as a fellow gamer, i understand where AJ and most gamers is coming from, VGA sucks. its almost unanimously criticized by gamers in forums, blogs, vlogs etc. so if your target audience doesnt treat you seriously, then there is a huge problem. the show is treating gamers as stupid horny violent outcasts. sex jokes? killing spree in the opening act? really? REALLY?
also, it seems that most people that defend Geoff in forums(GT) and other sites(youtube) think that AJ is just another butthurt reviewer nobody so he is lucky to be given 2 minutes of interview time. Is this the kind of people that the VGA attracts? so because they have never heard of AJ, it means he deserved this kind of treatment? its true that its all just a popularity contest isnt it?and they think AJ is claiming to be the representative of ALL gamers. dont they realise that AJ meant he is the representative of his fans at the award show? AJ’s questions are from his fans after all. another defense is that Geoff is busy running a show! so why not just postpone the interview until after the show then?they didnt even know AJ even spent his own money to get to the show. no wonder the VGA is still around. *sigh*
so, to AJ, just keep doing what youre doing buddy, youre good at it. you are one of the few reaviwers that i listen to nowadays. ive seen your other interviews and no one acted like a D-bag in those video. good luck AJ and keep playing.
Joe, today’s video ruined my day, i became so effing pissed when i saw how he treated you!i was angry all day and i thought why any decent person would try to fuck with anyone who was just trying to interview them?? i think the answer is simple now.
You’re too nice
no seriously you’re to nice. As you said in your video this was your 3rd or 4th interview and it was obvious that you weren’t as skilled as other interviewers on the web. Your problem is that you weren’t as strong to them as you usually are on your show. You weren’t too sure to what you were saying that you fell right into the douche bag’s trap. Example??? The final fantasy mmo. You knew that it came out this year and yet you agreed to him when he said that it wasn’t out thin year. Now i don’t know if he did that intentionally or if he really was that stupid. But i think that from the moment you started agreeing to him and started to mess up your arguements was the time when he started messing with you. How do i know??? It’s because i like to mess with people too. Anyway, what you need to do is start being rude and loud, you need to be sure of what you are saying, that way you can make him seem like idiot. Example again: Final Fantasy, is you said that final fantasy mmo came out this year you would have made him look stupid and you would have kept you’re cool. But since you didn’t, it seems to us like you yourself wasn’t sure if it came out or not. You need to be prepared to be interupted or intruded. When he says stupid things like that or when he doesn’t pay attention to you, you need to cut through his arguements and interupt him, and remember that these guys are professionally trained douchebags, never underestimate them
Joe i hope you read this and i hope you don’t start beating yourself up over this because everyone already knows that VGA’s are unreliable. Next year i hope you bash these dicks brains in!!!
The guy beated you, you just go to get over it.
This video was kinda pathetic a 30 minute long rambling about a 2 minutes interview? who does that? the worst part is you were pretty much rigth in your questions(VGA caters to the worst of the gaming industry,) but your own ineptitude made you totally lost the argument, maybe you are not good in interviewing people.
And of course you have to be diplomatic in a interview, the questions have to be harsh not the guy questioning, well unless you wanna act like a 12 year old boy.
The guy really care about you at all, and took you like a joke and i can’t really blame him.
My final comment is: stop deluding yourself, if you really want to get better in this don’t say things like “i’m the hero of the people” “i represent the hardcore gaming” “i got it right were i wanted”, just learn about your mistakes and next you won’t suck this hard.
Very damn rude to be looking off to the side while you’re being interviewed. That’s a very good way to try and aggravate the interviewer. But it didn’t work. Shame on you Keighley.
I didn’t want to jump in again, but I feel I can’t let this stand; this and all the other comments that blindly condemn Geoff here.
Remember, this guy is the Exec. Producer here. It’s possible, likely probable, that he was pretty busy getting ready. The fact he was distracted, often casting glances towards the show (while it was starting, I might add), probably meant he was making sure everything was in place. Let’s be honest; for someone in charge of putting together a multi-million dollar advertis-I mean “Award Show,” the choice between making sure that things are running smoothly and leaving a good impression with someone he believes already dislikes him, the decision isn’t that hard.
The point? Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by expedience. Was it annoying? Yes. Unprofessional? Possibly. Unexcuseable? No.
Actually, I think he would have acted differently, if if was just making sure everything was in place, as I saw it the guy just tried to apear busy to throw joe off and make him loose his focus. If he did truly want to make a serious interview he would have said something more like : «I’m sorry, but I really don’t have much time could we do the intervew really fast» and most importantly he would have taken the time to answer properly instead of just shoving the questions aside.
that’s just my opinion though, think of it as you will.
I understand your stance, but I’m going to offer a respectful counter-arguement: when someone agrees to do an interview, it is my belief that one needs to fulfill that obligation. I understand Geoff was probably busy, that said he clearly had no intention of giving the interview he promised. Had he said “Look, I need to make a show, so we need to do this quick, but I’m going to give you a very focused two minutes”, or something along those lines, I’d be more lenient and forgiving, but that wasn’t the case. He waited until the last possible minute, and sprinted towards Joe when there was quite literally no time left, and proceeded to ignore Joe. Long story short: Geoff’s actions might have an explanation, but that explanation does NOT qualify as an excuse.
Perhaps. But consider this.
They left Joe last in line. Barring this being some very complex snub to Joe, it was probably becasue they believed representatives from other companies/sites were more important to hit first. If this was nearing the start of the show, they were probably clipping everyone’s interviews short, not just his, in order to make it in time. The fact Joe had to send someone for him probably meant he was doing something at the time.
You can’t plan for that. This wasn’t a deliberate effort on his part to mess up Joe. If he was terse with Joe, it was probaby because he had somewhere he needed to be, and the interview with Joe probably held him up.
…okay, I’ll be honest, I am speculating here; there’s a lot of “probably’s”. But I’m completely serious when I say I think people are villainizing Geoff here.Few are bothering to give him the benefit of the doubt, including Joe.
It’s possible that this was a corporate trap designed to throw Joe off his game, but there are more reasonable explanations than that. That’s all I’m saying.
Your reasoning is not without merit, but his actions and language just doesn’t validate your theory.
If in the beginning he genuinely intended to hold the interview they agreed upon he simply wouldn’t have greeted Joe by running up to him and going ‘Joe! You’ve got two minutes! Go go go!’. He would have said ‘Look I’ve been tied up and can only afford 2 minutes right now’. He would have offered to schedule it for after the show. He would have still been courteous.
Instead, he was as rude as he could have possibly tried to be. He attacked Joe whenever he could. This also carried through to the conference (a courtesy he offered no other). He gave fobbish answers like ‘it’s on the website’ (information which was buried within a blog post) and ‘have you seen the show this year’ (well freakin duh) and ‘talk to me after the show’. Did AJ get a chance to talk after the show?
Not that any of us are aware. Unless AJ is holding on to some footage, but if AJ was holding onto footage of a better post-show interview this video wouldn’t have the tone it does.
Inexcusable behaviour from Geoff? Too bloody right it is, any way they spin it.
You offer valid points, but I just can’t bring myself to agree with you. Not because I don’t want to, it’s because every time I watch this video, I don’t see a frantic host trying to make sure everything has been put together, I see a grade-a a**hole who is doing his very best to ignore the questions he’s being given. Look, I’ll openly admit it’s possible you’re right and Geoff was just busy, but I just don’t see that being the case here, not with the attitude Geoff had during the interview. That said, I do appreciate your argument (it’s always nice to have a debate now and again, so long as it doesn’t turn into a trolling statement-thank you for being level-headed in your comments). For what it’s worth to you, I think if Geoff keeps his promise and answers the email questions he agreed to, and takes it seriously, my view of Geoff may change. However, if Geoff blows Joe off again and continues the condescending vibe I was getting from him in this video, then my negative view of Geoff will remain.
If that’s true, then here’s what he should have done: “Hey Angry Joe, I’m sorry, I’m really busy right now, but I promise that right after the show when I’m not distracted with things we’ll have the interview.” I watched the video! I am not “blindly condemning” Keighley as you say. I think he was distracted and therefore probably determined just to put off Joe.
That’s possible. Still, that is something an average person would do. I claim no more experience with video game reporting than the next guy, but I imagine the dynamics aren’t the same. For all we know, it is common in the industry for someone to say upfront “You’ve got two minutes, now go.” What I’m saying is that what most people might consider rude could just be par for the course.
You need to take into consideration Geoff’s behavior throughout the interview though. He said the FF mmorpg didn’t come out this year, he consistently insults Joe’s intelligence… there’s a line between polite and rude and Geoff crossed that line and got really close to the complete douchebag line.
ok first off dont beat yourself up over it joe. it completely wasnt your fault. the guy knew exactly what he was doing and he played it out well. like seriously him putting you dead last? ya he knew EXACTLY how he was going to handle you. he probably thought you were just some guy off the internet that didnt matter.
bottom both him and the VGAs are all about the $$$$$. thats all it is, $$$. they do not care about the money they only care about how much more money they will be able to stuff in there pocket. but even still that doesnt excuse how much of a major douch bag he was to you in that interview. the guy basically treated you like you were a nobody or as if you were a child.
and honestly as i watched the interview i MYSELF got pissed off. because like you said joe you represent all of us gamers. and the way he handled himself pissed me off just as much as it pissed you and thousands of other gamers that were watching off. this is just inexcusable bull shit. but what can you expect from the excutive producer of the worst videogame awards on television?
also joe you say the VGAs are getting better but that doesnt mean jack. you can polish up a turd all you want but it will still be turd. ghe VGAs is still crap and any good gamer can come up with something better his/her garage. I like many others appreciate what you have done joe but honestly you should give up on trying to make the VGAs better. you seen what kind of a person this guy is and how he doesnt give a shit. but hopefully this interview will shed new light on the executive producer and give him as bad a name as he deserves.
anyway im done for now, sorry for the horrific grammar/spelling/etc. i was rushing to type this shit as soon as i finished watching the vid and i was typing in rage aswell. anyway thx joe your awesome.
“Moving along, what’s next?” WHAT A FUCKING DOUCHE!
Joe he had no right to do that to you he agreed to the interview just because you might not be as famous When or if you get another interview with him you should just smash him just unload on him with both barrels and don’t let him get away without answering your questions.
Joe, I love your work, and that guy was being a total douche to you. He managed to get you off your game, and that just made everything a thousand times more difficult.
That said, when you get out on the floor like that, it’s game time. You have to be ready for the people you’re hitting hard to hit back harder. He came across as a jackass, yes, but he was doing his damnedest to make you look like an idiot. I think you recovered nicely during the second Q&A session, and I liked seeing you ruffle his feathers onstage, but that first interview really hurt to watch.
I deal on a regular basis with people who try to put me off my game. I have had people drive me into the ground with verbal abuse and shame, often when I’m nothing more than the messenger. Those experiences continue to nag at my self-doubts, and I continue to scold myself for what I should have said, what I should have done, even though what’s done cannot be undone. But the next time it comes, I am older, I am wiser, and I can deal with it. It’s trial by fire.
You’re clearly angry about the whole situation. That’s good. He disrespected you and made you feel like you had dishonored us. In that video, I saw rage, guilt, shame, a gigantic furious knot over how he treated you. That feeling, that intense, complicated passion, is your greatest teacher. Learn from it. Let it forge you.
We are not ashamed of you, and I apologize if I have been at all harsh in comparison to many of the other posts. But you have never struck me as the type who wants to be coddled. You got knocked to the mat. Get up, shake it off, and be angry, Joe.
Next time why don’t you just not talk to the guy who has a big show to run? Of course he’s acting like a douche; some other douche walks up to him, starts talking to him, and calls his show a joke.
So I guess we’re ignoring the fact that “the guy who has a big show to run” was also part of the group responsible for initiating Joe’s invite as well as the fact that he agreed to an interview?
did you even WATCH the interview? Geoff came to joe acting like a complete douch bag after trying to dodge him the entire time he was there. and even after that joe came off polite and the guy STILL acted like a douch.
“Polite” perhaps, but certainly not mature.
Wow, Joe. I give you major props for going out there on behalf of all of us and swallowing your anger long enough to try giving a proper interview. The fact that this guy has supporters makes me pissed! I never liked the VGAs. One year (2003 or 2004), I watched the show to review it for a forum I go to and it was awful! And some things haven’t changed despite what that douchebag says! It panders to a narrow selection of games, but I should have expected that since it’s SPIKE TV that we’re talking about. Why the hell did they select those particular four games for Best Handheld? God of War and that other PSP game (forgot it) vs. Super Scribblenauts and the latest Professor Layton? What’s with their distaste for the DS? Why were the same games in almost every category?
The problem with the awards is that we don’t have enough people like Angry Joe ganging up on Geoff. Joe, if you and Felicia Day doubleteamed that bastard, you would’ve gotten answers. We need to pile on the pressure!
my sugestion joe is be angry!!! this guy is just a jackass he won’t be political go whit a strong actitude and show him that gamer will no tolerated this kind of insult and is nesesary use the “renegade intervention” if you know what i mean
good luck joe you are our champion don’t let us down
Personally I was surprised Geoff Keighley was even integral to getting the VGAs together. But I digress.
I can’t exactly say either way about Geoff’s conduct. Granted, I do think he was less-than-respectful given the occasion and given your position, Joe. And certainly seeing as how GT gave such an overly negative review of “Final Fantasy XIV Online” I would’ve certainly thought he’d know that game was out this year. Though, given what you’ve described of the guy’s actions during the event, I am shaking my head over what happened.
I have been in charge of running the events and activities of a campus organization which received annually $40k in funding from the university to show blockbuster movies at no cost to students. And in being a member for all of five-and-a-half years and running it for a year-and-a-half I’ve endured an amount of experiences and stress related to making sure things transpire properly. There have always been problems or issues that pop up and disrupt the flow of things. And there have even been times where I’ve been invited to chat with people but was partly focused making sure the projectionist was on time, or a doorman was keeping track of how many people were coming in, or how much time was remaining before a screening. As result, a few people thought I really was an asshole even though I was just having to split between them and the job.
I can’t really say heads or tails about what Geoff was doing. Maybe there was another interview that went too long. Maybe there was an issue with the events staff or a potential issue popping up. Possibly something got in there and crammed him for time. I don’t know. And certainly you have a legitimate right to be upset with him. He promised an interview, and he acted less-than-satisfactory. I’d like to think he wasn’t fully convicted of trying to give you the short end of the hockey stick. This is the guy who adamantly defended Mass Effect against the “review” “panel” of Fox News way back (I must admit, one of my favorite games). And certainly in fully-prepped interviews he comes off as someone you could really have a nice conversation with regarding the video game industry. But maybe just…something came up. Does it excuse him? No. Could it explain what he did? Maybe.
Geoff Keighley is the Ryan Seacrest of Video Games, and the Video Game Award Show is just as shallow, fake and meaningless as American Idol.
What a douche! I think one of the main things that really bugged me was when he went on about you not doing research and then, after he’d gone, the guy with the woman beside you (or wherever off-camera at 9:01) snarking ‘Should do his research. He’s right.’ If you had gone into an interview situation where everything was properly composed and you’d been completely clueless I would have understood that kind of remark, but you were caught completely off-guard and expected to be thinking on the spot within a short space of time – I’m sorry, but even a ‘professional’ gaming reporter would have been a little thrown. Considering Joe knew more than probably a good portion of the people there (certainly more than Keighley) that just really seemed out of line.
You haven’t disappointed us, Joe – at the end of the day they would have found some way to screw you around, no matter what you did. Just be sure to focus on the current instead of past instances (that only sets you up immediately for ‘that was the past – we’ve changed’ responses) and stick to your guns
Just like one of the guys above me i just registered to leave this comment. We are not dissapointed in you at all. It was clear that Jeff wasnt gunna give you the time of day when he first started talking to you and that he was just trying to make you look stupid for his stupid pride. Everything you said was true and does have to be adressed if there is ANY hope for the VGA’s. And Jeff, i thought you were a cool enough guy from what I’ve seen of you before, but my god your a douche. Thank you Joe being the hero of the people
I am sick and tired of how Hardcore gamers have been treated in recent years!
Those who represent us in the media are being ignored and treated like they mean nothing! I cannot stand it, my blood is starting to turn to dust do to it having reached the boiling point so long ago! When will we stand up and say enough is enough and do something about this bullshit treatment we are receiving!?!?! We are the reason the gaming industry is where it is! If it was not for us the true gamers the industry would not have survived the 90s and early 2000s!
Something drastic needs to happen, we need to switch things, hardcore gamers have become a thing of the past, we are no longer recognized, our opinions have become mute, and ignored. This needs to change, We need to do something, I just can’t think of anything myself. We are powerless, yet, we have the greatest tool around, the internet, their must be something we can do. I just hope someone figures something out soon.
Also, thank you so much Joe for standing up for us and showing us the true faces of these scum bags.
Regards,
The Last DudeGuy
Don’t blame yourself, Joe. You were trying to give us an enlightening and engaging interview. Its that asshole’s fault. He knew you were expecting a sit down interview probably in a little side room and he gives you a quick, rushed one on the main floor. I’m guessing all he wanted was to embarrass you. Especially with how he knows he caught you off guard, then proceeds to attack you every single time you aren’t as prepared for the fast interview as he was.
Thank you for posting it though, Joe. I will continue my streak of avoiding these shows and if they do get decent, I will still watch them through youtube just so they don’t get the viewer count.
jeff’s an asshole
I watched the vga’s for the first time because i thought you would be on
The music performance was their worst song ever and wtf is up with the red hair
Joe make the next show the best vga ever!
I’m not at all dissapointed in the way you conducted the interview. It’s not like you were going to get an interview, but decided it was too much work and slept in your hotel room. You went out there and got as much of an interview as possible, the person that let us down was Keighley. The fact of the matter is, is that if you act polite, and the other person is a douche, they are labeled as a huge douche, but if you come in and be a douche, and he is a douche, it just looks like hes being a douche because you’re being a douche. So fact of the matter is, don’t be a douche, your attempt was handled perfectly. You got the best you could, they only person who let us down is Geoff
WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT DANE COOK!!?!?!?! Best line you could ever say Joe. Does Dane Cook play games? Bet he plays games better then he does stand up.
What a shit eating ass. I never saw any VGA show, but if they put smug ass corporate shits like this Geoff guy in controll, I could care less about giving it any time of day. Sounds like an MTV award show, just a popularity contest.
Joe, there’s no doubt that you were there representing us, hardcore gamers or every gamer that cares about his passion of gaming. You were good and I think with the restraints they put on you, there’s no way you could have done much better. The most important part is that now we know that they don’t care that much about us, in hopes that the show gets good enough that I want to watch it again one day.
I felt bad that you thought you were disappointing us, once again I want to tell you that you managed to do what you had to do. You seem true, the guy doesn’t care and he’s prepared to put you down. I even registered just to leave this comment (and maybe more in the future), so don’t feel bad at all.
Hey Joe. This is my first day on the site. I come over from Gamespot and Game Trailers. I joined up so I can comment on this video and to check this site out some more.
I say it’s real f*cked up how you got treated by Geoff Joe and the staff. He had the high and mighty condescending attitude that got under my skin as I watched it. I honestly believe the gamers you represent are not disappointed in what you were trying to do.
Like Azazello before me said, this should be a good lesson for the future. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. lol
Thanks for supporting the gamers Joe and yeah I will check out that Felicia Day interview.
It’s amazing the number of people who have signed up on this site to offer their support. And you from GameTrailers, associated with Spike, no less! Welcome :p
Whether you carry the corny ‘AJ Army’ tag or not, every new member in support of BT is a small win… and BT has been winning a LOT in the last two days!
I wonder how it stacks up compared to the hate out there. I know there’s a lot… especially for a site that’s been around for two months or so. I have only actively come across a couple of sites… none of the major sites are commenting on the matter so I’m assuming at this point the haters are essentially insignificant. Does make me wonder though…
Here’s a suggestion, make a motion games category. I’ve actually noticed that the only one motion game (other than the Wii games) was nominated, that game being Dance Central, and that nomination for best music game. Now with Kinect and Move out on the market, give it another year and you’ll have plenty of motion games to nominate for this award.
Also, why do you keep saying that best soundtrack, best music game, best original score, and best song in a game are all the same thing? They’re not god dammit, the soundtrack and best song categories could be eliminated, but they’re still different. Best music game speaks for itself, the best soundtrack is the best song list for a music game, the best original score is the best music in a game, and the best song in a game is the best song overall. However, best soundtrack and best song in a game could be eliminated to make room for Best MMO and Best Fighting Game (but I still want Best Motion Game).
Joe, first thank you for putting up for that sort of bullshit for our benefit. Second with this video I’ve never been prouder to be a member of your army good sir.
You should have known better, Joe. Geoff Keighley is the kinda of asshole that perceives diplomacy as a weakness. Hell, a good practice for this would have been to interview Doug, in character, as General Zod.
There’s a lot of comments already, so I’ll be as brief as possible.
Geoff was exceptionally rude and forced you to play defense – agreed. You are a game reviewer rather than a seasoned interviewer – you will get better with practice.
I (humbly and respectfully) think you should slow your pace during future interviews. You will appear to be a better researcher/interviewer if you can avoid miss-phrasing your questions. (Yes he should have engaged you more personally and asked for clarifications, but slowing your pace could make that a non-issue.) Some of his answers were good/real, it’s just that they were overshadowed by the rest. For example, his response about My Chemical Romance was very good; I wish he would have answered more like that.
Your questions were good at their core, but they should steer the conversation, making it easier to predict and, therefore, easier to handle. “Why is there a lack of PC gaming being represented in the VGAs?” can be answered any of a number of ways, as Geoff showed. But, “Are you aware that the lack of PC gaming being represented in the VGAs alienates many potential viewers?” keeps the conversation relatively predictable. He will either disagree with you that it alienated viewers (to which you respond that your viewers overwhelmingly agree with you – that’s where you got the question), or he will agree and tell you what they are planning to do (or not do) about it. In this way it is possible to ask hard questions while remaining polite.
Why try to improve an overly corrupted, corporate mess, when you are more than capable of PUTTING ON YOUR OWN AWARDS SHOW? It would take time, but you put a lot into this already. Much of your research into what the people want is already done – we told you what we wanted in the build-up to the VGAs interview. Imagine Blistered Thumbs and its contributing personalities creating a competing awards show, rivaling the VGAs. Of course it wouldn’t have the same budget, but its integrity would make it a contender.
Above all: thank you, sir. I appreciate your ‘everyman’ role; the fact that you’re just a regular guy is why I watch your show. You do this with passion, integrity, and humility – especially when you’re being more of yourself, and less of your ‘character’ – and I appreciate the work you do. I’d like to be more involved; is there a way to do so? What can I/we do to help? Is there a way to post a ‘video response’ which you could view?
BigTopBrain-”Above all: thank you, sir. I appreciate your ‘everyman’ role; the fact that you’re just a regular guy is why I watch your show. You do this with passion, integrity, and humility – especially when you’re being more of yourself, and less of your ‘character’ – and I appreciate the work you do. I’d like to be more involved; is there a way to do so? What can I/we do to help?”
I didn’t exactly know how to respond to this so I just want to say, nicely put BigTop and I wholeheartedly agree.
Joe, as I was watching this interview, I myself began to get enraged! Its unacceptable the way were treated, not only by Geoff Keighley, but by multiple members of the video game press. To me personally Joe, the very fact that your one of the few people at the event that wants the VGAs to more than a big middle finger to real gamers, and you want it to be something that shows gamers in a more positive light to main stream culture, proves that you really care for this medium. DO NOT THINK YOU LET US DOWN! You had the balls to step up and ask the hard facts, the kinda questions that most people really care about. You represented us as best you could, given the horrible conditions you were provided. I”m proud to be a member of the Angry Joe Army.
I’ve given up on the vga’s, nobody involved with them has any passion for gaming, they’re just trying to milk the cash cow that is console gaming. Joe, I have a lot of respect for you and what your trying to do, but it might be best to give up.
PS: I would definitely watch the blistered thumbs awards.
I support the creation of the Blistered Thumb Awards, also.
Well at least they didn’t screw EVERYTHING up, although I got all my info on yahoo news at school where im pretending to do work. The main thing I had a problem with were the nominees for the PC gaming catagory, 2 of them being multi platform. I never played Masseffect 2 or whatever the other one was, but I beleve they shouldn’t have been on the list, its like haveing a best Wii game catagory and puting up Call of Duty it just isnt right.
For the game of the year, at least I can say it wasnt Totally dominated by microsoft, and atleast Black ops (the over hyped game right now) didn’t win, but i would have liked to see a bit of variety on it, like what happened to Nintendo? They could have put SMG2 or DKR on there and let us atleast hope………….
For the many music catagories he would have had a point that they were different IF it wasn’t dominated the music games, heck both best music game and best sound track had Almost the same nominees i think one of them were different, they are different but they could have given us more variety.
Dont get me wrong I LOVE starcraft 2 btu i don’t think it sould have been in the best multiplayer catagory, Shure you can play other people but you can’t play in the same room altogether unless you have a computer for each person everyone haveing theyer own account, and so on and so forth. A peter nominee would have been just dance 2 for the Wii, but does nintendo ever come outside of its on catagory? i dont beleve so.
And finally i get down to the Post your own comment section where all it was, was ME2 shouSHOULD HAVE WON PC RTS SUCKS!!!. and BLACK OPS IS THE GAME OF THE YEAR BY A LONG SHOT, yah all trolls. Is this what they are appealing to? If so, THANK GOD for sucky limented cable for ONCE to spare me from ever seeing this when I was younger.
Poor you.
Do me a favour Joe, and take them down next time somone does that you again.
That guy licks old nut sacks. Why invite somebody to the VGA to have a interview with you, just to act like a bitch.
First time poster and TGWTG/Cinemassacre fan.
I’m going to admit that when I saw this video I had difficulty sleeping. I know it wasn’t my fight, but I felt SO much sympathy towards Joe that all I could think about was how there can be so much injustice in this world. I could imagine Geoff thinking to himself “You want to play with the big boys, little Joe? Time to teach you a lesson in humility.”
I’ll admit putting “douchebag” in the description isn’t a good idea. It may not be here on this page, but it’s still on the front page and the AJS site.
Looking at Joe’s other interviews, I’ve noticed that it’s been mainly game developers and the like. This is the first time he had to go up against “television” and went in expecting the same respect and attention that he’d gotten in the past (PAX, E3, etc). All his questions were from the fans that he was representing. If anything, the ones who should’ve done the research were the ones asking the questions in the first place before sending Joe out there on his own to defend himself. Especially that PC question.
But yeah, it was painfully obvious that they paid for the research on Joe and Joe wasn’t able to fully defend himself because the questions he received from the fans weren’t researched first. I don’t know if he just waited as long as he could to receive as many questions as possible, but he went in blindly with his AK-47s out of ammo.
That interview could’ve gone better but at least Corporate’s finally showing its true face to not just the Angry Joe Army, but to Blistered Thumbs, TGWTG and Channel Awesome.
All in all, I’m hoping Joe at least thanked them for inviting him. Or else he might not get a second chance…
But since I never watch/hear of the VGAs and they don’t seem to like taking feedback, I’m hoping this doesn’t turn into another “Tommy Wiseau” incident.
I alway’s thought Geoff was a Douchekabob back when I would watch him on G4. Turns out, he is!
I think he’s made a huge mistake by showing his contempt to honest questions from true gamers. This will come back to bite him.
Joe, watching that interview footage, I was angry FOR you, man!
But you knew the guy called you just so he could dis you, and tell you that you’re nothing; when they called you down, but weren’t paying for your flight or your room, I’m sure you had your share of doubts.
They’re not interested in making a credible awards show; they’re just interested in bringing in money, and as far as they’re concerned, you’re not really there to help them do that.
Gaming, these days, has become such a corporate marketing scheme, that I don’t play a whole lot of new games. I don’t own an XBox 360, or a PS3. I don’t need to pay $60 USD per game, when it’s just the same old stuff that developers are perfectly happy with churning out, and not innovating.
We have the companies and developers to blame for this as well, with only wanting to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
All that said, I was actually going to tune into the VGAs, but completely forgot about it; I actually ended up watching anime that night instead! I think I definitely got the better end of the deal!
First of all Joe, No. You disappointed nobody.
I’ve never watched the VGA’s or had even heard of them until last year when your video displaying your distaste for that oparticular years show went up, must not be something that is aired over here, but from what I can tell, the thing is not run by gamers or from this guys interview with you, it isnt run by people who are interested in games OR their audience, as displayed by his unbelieveable amount of disrespect for you!
He told you that you should do your research? Well maybe he should have done his and looked more into how many people pashionatly follow you.
I’m not meaning to troll here, but the way that guy conducted himself during that interview made me mad for you! That is by no means any way of addressing your audience.
I mentioned this last year and i’ll bring it up again, Blistered Thumbs should host their own awards show. It would be awesome.
For what it’s worth i’m sorry you had to make that trip for a guy who barely paid any heed to who he was talking too.
The theory on you having him right where you want him, hit the nail on the head there, he wasn’t doing that because he thought you were a nobody, he was doing it because he’s afraid of the amount of power behind you, trying to neutralise you in person, which is also why I assume you were invited there.
The last paragraph, a million times that.
There’s only 2 reasons to rip on a group like Channel Awesome; general douchebaggery/jealousy (haters gunna hate) and fear. Those who hate for the sake of it can safely be ignored. They are not CA/BTs audience and their opinion is meaningless.
The others, those in established positions will only attack a group of people like this because they feel threatened. Let’s face it, if CA was insignificant to them, they simply wouldn’t be brought up for discussion.
They may make valid points throughout their attacks, but if they were offering such criticisms constructively, they would be posting here or sending emails/tweets etc with advice, not publicly slamming CA with waves of hate articles.
This is a GREAT thing. This means the people at CA and the values BT represents have enough impact to warrant a response. And those displaying fear and loathing are doing so because they are scared that those values could make an impact – a potentially negative impact on their comfortable position of exploiting the consumer.
And so ‘the good fight’ is thus. That has GOT to be giving you guys some really warm and fuzzy feelings. Of course, it also points the spotlight at CA, who will have to play their cards right if they don’t want to be utterly squashed. So far, the hands dealt have been in your favour…
…
As for the second to last paragraph, AJ said meeting Felicia Day alone made his trip worthwhile, so yay. :p
Let me say first, that Geoff was a huge douche to you and was not acting professional in any way, shape or form about your questions or even your presence. I’m extremely sorry that he made you look the way you did in your interviews, but he made himself look worse at the carpet.
But I think that most of the issue here is how you conducted yourself here. You seemed extremely unprepared and very much off your game. You rambled a bit and didn’t properly articulate your thoughts. (most of that is Geoff’s doing, I’m sure, but a professional can get past that and recover)
I’m not saying I could have done better in your situation, but what I am saying is that you really blew your shot for the most part.
Again, great job getting Geoff in the act, and sorry about what happened.
Wow how disrespectful and unprofessional this guy was to you… Heck I’m angry now. Joe I have to give you credit for keeping your cool in the face of such douchiness. I don’t know if you have done this or not but I would suggest role playing out interviews with some of your team members before hand, make sure you pick someone who gets under your skin. This will help to prepare you for attacks like the one this guy did. You would not put a defense witness on the stand without having them grilled so that they are prepared for the worst. the prosecution has to offer.
hey Joe! I know that Geoff treated you like shit but i noticed you could handle this better. I see you were trying to be respectful, but shit always happens in this kind of interview and people in Geoff’s position and on this kind of situation are always prone to act like this. You need to be direct and incisive, which dont mean you need to be disrespectful. This way you will keep the control of the situation. Anyways, i hope this one prepares you for other unexpected situations like this, because it happens ALL the time with executive douchebags like Geoff.
Much love
I get your frustration Joe.
Gametrailers and the VGAs were set up as an advertising gimmick by Spike TV. GT is actually good since it has become a clearinghouse for gaming company’s announcements. But the VGAs sucked from year 1. I watched that year, when it tried to be the MTV music awards, and more time was spent with bands than giving out awards. I’ve never had any desire to watch it again since.
I never started believing in the VGAs.
Did they say they’d have a sitdown interview?
6:40 Jeff’s an asshole but you’ve to prep better Joe. If you’re gonna hammer him, have a factsheet nearby. Also, don’t let him control the pace and dictate the tempo. If you want respect demand it. If he won’t have a sit down interview it’s better not to interview him. To keep the standard that you won’t have a sloppy interview.
6:58 Joe even now, thinking about it later, you’re still spun by Jeff.
1) You said there should be an MMO category.
2) He said there was a PC category, what MMO deserved to win?
Instead of sticking to your original point that MMOs deserved their own category you tried to answer his loaded question. Everyone gets mixed up and I can understand being twisted at the time but by now you should’ve figured it out.
It’s a depressing case of reality vs. expectations. Joe takes the VGAs seriously as an awards show representing gamers. I suspected (and confirmed by viewing) from the first it was just an ad campaign. If you hope and expect more it must be a downer to realize the “we represent gamers” message is marketing.
To put the situation in a wider context: Joe saying he wants to improve the show, in effect to participate, means he doesn’t just want to critique it. He wants involved. He’d jump at the chance to sit on that advisory board or become an executive producer like Jeff. But would that make a difference? No. Much of the show is dictated to Jeff by higher ups. No matter how high you ascend socially, you always have to compromise when socializing.
Sorry it went down like that Joe, but I could have told you that the whole thing was a trap from the get go. Geoff is a biased douche whose face is so well planted between Microsoft’s ass cheeks that if he sneezed he’d give them a colonoscophy. Remeber that this guy runs with Spike TV…..remember what they put Spoony through because he didn’t like the Deadliest Warrior game?
They know that you run with Spoony and ThatGuyWiththeGlasses. That’s why they had you dead last in line. This whole thing was set up strictly to humiliate you.
I think Keighley did answer all questions that you had, Joe. Wether he realized it or not, but I can see pretty clearly that he doesn’t give a flying crap about actual gamers and just wants to make money by selling publicity to the highest bidder.
He doesn’t need to say “Screw gamers and integrity!” if he already does it right there on camera.
Joe, you might not have had the chance to bring him to answer every question you had, but you still got the answers to a lot of them.
Joe, no offense, man, but you didn’t get treated badly here.
Keighley is a TV man and he’s a pretty big name on game journalism for a good reason. He’s both an insider and a showbiz pro. And in showbiz, pros work with what they have on demand. If a big guy gives you an interview on a busy day and he shows up, points at you and says “you got two minutes, go”, that’s not a terrible thing. You need to be prepared for that, it happens a lot.
And you need to see this from Geoff’s perspective, too. You called his show a “joke” to his face *as he was making it*. I don’t care if you like it or not, doing something like this is hard and it takes a lot of work and commitment. Whatever you think about the VGAs, and many people agree with your objections to them, it is not particularly polite to insult his efforts live on the red carpet.
Imagine that on the Oscars. You approach Sandra Bullock and ask “Sandra, some people wonder how on earth you managed to get a best actress award. Do you think you’ve devaluated the Oscars?”
You may think it, you may be right, you may even drop that bombshell in an interview, but may be you want to hold back on pissing over the last year of her working life as it finally comes to fruition, don’t you think?
So, watching the video, you were snarky, he was snarky and the whole thing didn’t go very well. Even with the context you provide, I’m not willing to get angry at anyone or pass judgement on who disrespected the other one the most.
Basically, at that point you want to get as much in the can as possible and, if you had an agreement for a sit-in, you go back to his people and clarify that you didn’t get what was agreed and would like another shot at it (knowing full well that they’ll likely say no and you’ll have to work with what you got).
For the record, a sit-in on the day of the VGAs on the site of the VGAs is a bad idea to begin with. You probably should have tried to get him the day before or a few days after, but I get that you were on a schedule. But yeah, on the spot he’s probably going to be running late, interview or not, and he’s going to prioritize (and, of course, if he has you pegged as hostile to his show and his organization, you’re not going to be a priority).
Dude, he did not become hostile until Geoff started acting like a dick, they knew that Joe had problems with the VGAs and they asked him to come to the interview, its not like Geoff would be caught off guard by hard-hitting questions. As for your Sandra Bullock analogy. Imagine if someone told her, hey this guy thinks you’re a terrible actor and wants to interview you in private at a sit-down interview, and she accepted. At they point, she knows what kind of questions the person will ask, and can’t be upset about honest hard-hitting questions. If she chooses to do the interview on the red carpet, that’s her problem. Bottom line, you don’t invite someone to do an interview with you and then ignore and laugh at them and try to make them look stupid.
First of all, I don’t think you understood his position properly; his job is to make the VGA look good and as a legitimate representation of gamers. He knew you were coming there to bash him and he said it. He was also prepared for you and received classes on how to get interviewed in a way that he may use the questions against the person asking them instead of answering them himself. (Believe me we are used to this in Québec with politicians).
You, on the other hand, have little background (you said 4 interviews) and most likely doesn’t know how to handle this type of pretentious person in this kind of environment. While he was prepared and knew the categories and nominees and looked at the most regarded questions in general, like games nominated before they’re out and the celebrities relations with games, you got there thinking (At least I believe so) that you could just ask your questions to this guy and that he would answer them properly and that he would never use your own questions against you. Also, the other point you are wrong about: is him ignoring who you are. He clearly said you were there to bash him, (he said something about your VGA video) and even if he never watched you personally, people are paid (researchers) to do this job for him. However, no one can really blame you on this because of your small background in interviews and that this was your first time going against someone like him. But at least know that making mistakes is essential for improving yourself since now, you know how these types of person’s acts when interviewed, giving you the amount of time needed and the type of preparation you should do so you won’t end up like this again.
Now, many things he said didn’t make sense. First of all, he talked about who nominates the games, IGN, Gamespot, etc. Websites for the most part hated by gamers because of their biased opinion, (ex: we know the next CoD going to get a stellar note while a great JRPG going to get a crappy one compared to it) and also you should have tried to touch their credibility like IGN comment section, spammed by bots there to sell you clothes (On a frigging gaming website). And the worst part is ANYONE is voting for these games, even if Donkey Kong IS the best game of the year on Wii, how could the people who votes (multiple times that is, like the question I asked) even know if it IS the best game?, we aren’t all reviewers that receive game ahead of the release date. Also you should have noted how great games weren’t there on certain categories, like Valkyria Chronicles II on PSP, on the back of the box it say’s ‘’Best of E3’’, how can’t it NOT be there? Or even Persona 3 on PSP, I saw on Atlus website something that goes like this: ‘’Best noted game ever on PSP’’. You should also have had a quick look on mmo websites like mmohut or onrpg to know a couple of them so you can call them one after another or simply look in theses websites most popular like War of Angels in mmohut.
Another thing you didn’t address him on the spot is his lack of attention and respect he gave you. He simply lacked professionalism and you didn’t look angry at him for this at all, you didn’t ask for the interview you should’ have got or didn’t say anything when he just looked away. You didn’t have to insult him or get angry to get his attention back, just a little ‘’Hey this is an interview, pay attention’’ or ‘’I don’t care who this is, you’re with me right now’’ should have done the trick to show him you’re pissed (after you can get angry). Furthermore, he knew that was destabilising you and kept doing it to make you uncomfortable.
To finish this, I think you should rewatch your interview again and again to notice what you should’ have done (ex: he look away, stop smiling try to put him back on is place and don’t agree with him if he said that look was worthwhile, even if you do). Also do more research, know what games should be there and in which category (ex: Valkyria Chronicles II or Persona 3 on PSP, not handheld, or whatever free MMOs like War of Angels are out there) and just take in consideration that an interview won’t always go like you planned it if you do, I honestly think you can greatly improve yourself and avoid getting in this kind of situation again, and remember: An interview is all about preparation being ready to face anything like answering questions, even if you’re the one asking them.
I very much dislike the nonchalant way Geoff treated you.
On the carpet I’d probably opt for shorter and to the point questions. Even though he seemed to be more interested in the celebrities I think it would be harder for him to ‘save face’ if you hit him with questions, delivered in a stern(but not angry
) and loud tone. Pretty much to show him you’re not going to be dicked around. That said, you were on his turf and it seems he already had a plan for you.
When it is all said and done the VGAs are irrelevant to me. As a PC gamer I get one category(yay!). It isn’t like I dislike consoles but I perfer my PC as it tend to handle games I like better(like RTS, strategy, FPS and RPG/MMOs). Again, not to say those games don’t work on consoles but it is my preference when it comes to gaming.
From where I sit you did not let us down. You were delt a terrible hand in a rigged game but even then you were the one who came out out that interview with your dignity and integrity intact. As said above, I am a PC gamer and your certainly make that point abundantly clear to him(especially in the press-conference where Geoff could do nothing but to tell you off with a snarky remark followed by an akward laugh).
We’re still behind you, Joe. Locked and loaded.
I know I’ve already made a comment for this video, but I felt that I should say this. Joe. I think that it’s about time you rallied the troops. I think it’s about time you helped to put a stop to people being treated like this. I mean, people like you…like us, have constantly been treated like this by these types of people, who think we don’t matter. Who think we’re nothing. Well I say it’s about time that we showed them that we’re something. I think it’s about time that we showed them that we matter. And that we will not stand being treated like sh*t. But, I also think, that it’s your decision Joe. I think that, since you’re the one that was treated like this, you call the shots. If you want us to go on a complete attack on the VGA’s, then we’ll do it! But, if you want us to stay put and not do anything, we’ll do that as well. So, Joe, tell me…tell US. What do you want us to do? Attack Geoff? Or let you handle it? We await your orders.
I don’t know if you’re serious or not, but if you are, it’s quite scary. Is it really worth taking things that seriously?
And yes, Geoff did come across like an asshat, but that’s unfortunately how it sometimes is in the world of a journalist. Not everything goes according to the plan you’ve thought and you have to adapt to a different situation or even an outright hostile person you’re interviewing. It’s a good lesson for Joe as well to see and improve on a situation when something like this happens.
I know this is a good lesson for Joe, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I’m mainly giving support to Joe. Telling him that we all support him and, if the need arises, we’re willing to fight by his side. However, the main reason I typed that comment was because that Joe is our voice. He is the voice of the people. And what I saw was the voice of the people get shot down. I saw our represenative be turned into a fool by some guy who no doubt thinks that Joe is nothing. Who thinks that we are nothing. And I won’t accept that. But I also know that it’s up to Joe. It’s his decision. Not mine. If he’s willing to attack then I, and the rest of the true Angry Joe fans shall follow. So, long story short, yes. I am going to take things that seriously. But I won’t do anything if Joe says no. It is his decision after all. Oh and one more thing. Asshat. I think that’s the “kindest” insult that Geoff deserves. Anyway, I still urge Joe to tell us what he thinks would be most appropriate. You hear that Joe? Attack Geoff? Or let you handle it? I still urge you to tell us which you prefer. Anyway, Azazello, I appreciate the response. Oh and Happy Holidays.
I think it’s pretty clear what must be done. Though this hinges on the assumption that Spike will have no more to do with Joe – if Spike does as little as invite Joe back again next year, for the plan of attack – the ball will be in Joe’s court.
If Spike snubs him from now on, we all know the message was clear. ‘Stay away from us, we’re fine with our sponsors and our demographic.’ In which case, the best thing we could do is simply not talk about it and not watch it. If enough people did that and the ratings plummeted enough, they’d be in trouble with their sponsors. That’s how you attack Corporate.
The question is if enough people would do it to make a noticeable impact.
That’s exactly it. That’s exacty what we need to do. On a side note, all I can think about is what woud happen if someone from the VGA’s saw all of these messages XD
Well for a start, they’d down rate them. Like they have been. Little cowards they are.
was there a sequel of the year award
best game series
best online rpg
best flash game
in no way did you let us down joe, infact you looked extremly professional and geoff seemd like a smartass who enjoys putting people in a uncomfortable spot and then smile at them. if you had gotten the upperhand in the interview i think he would freak. its all a damn game to him.
once he gets it in his head that you represent an army he might take your interview more seriously.
btw im from sweden so i dont even know there was such a thing as the VGA…
Sadly, I’d say that there was probably very little you could have done to gain the upper hand in the interview. It seems obvious that the guy’s goal was to shut down what he perceived to be a negative outlet. Given that he was in complete control of the environment and had plenty of time to prep for it, as well as what was likely considerably more experience with this particular form of run around, I’m fairly confident that he would have found a way to slight you no matter what you did.
It’s rather frightening how well planned out it looked. Acknowledging that he knows you and talking about the work you’ve done lets him give the appearance of connecting with your fan base, even as he spends the rest of the time doing all he can to discredit you. Having the interview before the show ensures that he always has an out of “well, that may have been a problem last year, but you should see the show this year” and of course he always falls back to the website.
There were a few issues with your technique, but frankly I doubt it would have made the interview go any better. I’d say that you perhaps could have had a larger variety of questions to fall back on so that he couldn’t shrug it off by saying he’d already given a non-answer. Asking the same question more than twice when the guy’s obviously scripted his response so carefully really doesn’t do much more than burn time. I also might have called him out on the fact that he didn’t know that FFXIV was released this year, which was perhaps the most telling moment of the whole interview as it showed he either hadn’t even considered MMO’s viable enough to keep track of the new releases or was deliberately trying to put you off your game, but then there was always the risk that it wouldn’t have shaken him and he might have been able to soften the blow if it a bit. Presenting unsolicited suggestions probably wasn’t the best idea in this situation either – it’s very easy to dismiss those or even twist it into making you look arrogant for telling someone else how to do their job (even if you could do it considerably better). Better to wait until they’re already on the defensive to try that. All in all you did pretty well given that it was the first time you were put in that particular situation. Next time it happens I suspect you’ll do better.
And you certainly came out looking much better than Geoff. Frankly, he’s looking like the one who really needs to work on his technique. He is so transparently prepped it’s ridiculous. He speaks in buzzwords and catchphrases, providing answers that are EXACTLY the same to questions asked by different people at different times, demonstrating memorization rather than thought, and frankly is laughable in his attempts to make it look casual. Hell, you can see his eyes aren’t even aimed at the celebrities half the time he’s looking away from you. He’s just looking away in an attempt to be dismissive and chose a random spot where he wouldn’t be blinded by flash bulbs. He has the gaming press picking titles for him and brags about it like it’s a badge of honor while saying nothing about why there are no developers on his little academy, and even then he headlines with outlets that have nothing to do with gaming. He then says there is a “strong connection” between My Chemical Romance and gaming because the band members happen to play games and some of their work was licensed for a title. Hey, I play games, and I’ve had content I’ve produced in a few. Some of it was even content made FOR those games. Where’s my VGA invite? Hell, by that logic, I played a bit part in a friend’s Indie film a few years ago. Perhaps they’d like me to MC next year’s Oscars.
I’d say that oddly enough he really wasn’t ready for you. If he had been, he might have come off looking sympathetic and chummy. He might have actually owned some of the mistakes that he pawned off on the former producers (without, I noticed, even admitting that they were mistakes.) Instead he came off looking like an ass who isn’t even all that good at being an ass.
Ultimately though, I’d say you’ve got no reason to beat yourself up over the outcome here. You came there because you cared about the integrity of the VGA’s. This shill’s behavior has now shown quite clearly that he does not. His priority, first and foremost, is to produce a show that fills a niche and makes tons of money for Spike. And now that we know this, we know that the VGA’s are what we’ve suspected for a long time: a sham. Are there people working within the system who do believe in what they’re doing? Yes. But they’re not the ones in charge.
Frankly, I think it’s probably time to just give up on the VGA’s. Yes, they’re improving the details of their presentation. But when it comes down to it are any of our core grievances really being addressed, or are they just loading on more and more layers of superficial concessions to give the illusion of caring about the people they supposedly make the show for? In the end, awards mean very little when you’ve done something worthy of receiving one. Rewards given out by people like this, whose sole criteria seems to be that your face is recognizeable and photographs well, are borderline insulting. They obviously don’t want or think they need help from the people they’ve decided to co-opt as an audience. And it’s their loss.
So thanks, Joe, for proving what so many of us have suspected. And thanks for taking a few lumps to bring it to us. We couldn’t have asked any more from you, and we shouldn’t have expected any better from Geoff. I’ll be very curious to see if he actually responds to your e-mail questions or just arranges to “accidentally” forget about them.
I am sorry Joe, but you are making a complete fool out of yourself in this video.
Yes, Geoff was acting like a complete a**h***, but making a video, attacking the guy where he is not able to defend himself, that’s just wrong.
You should have just uploaded the interview and let it speak for itself. Instead, you rant and rant and rant, but it doesn’t make you look good.
I hope this doesn’t affect your carreer, cause I can easily see other people in the industry not wanting to get interviewed by you now.
I am a big big fan, but I think you handled this one wrong.
… Yeaaaaaaah. I’m sorry but I’d rather respect someone like Angry Joe then this dude who makes all gamers out like horny 16 year olds who like beer and babes then have the nerve to mock Angry Joe as if he were some internet troll.
I’m a frickin’ female gamer. If this VGAs were anything to not just appeal to men but to women too, and include ALL developers(We’re not the only video game developers out there!), I’d probably watch.
… So you know what, Angry Joe? Yeah. I totally joined just to comment on this as I’ve been watching your show for a while now. Instead of getting angry? Prove him wrong.
Make your own respected internet reward show. Heck, have Blistered Thumbs HOST a huge show that pays respects to all developers out there! Make it a big deal! Make it even BIGGER then the VGAs, one that doesn’t need to throw out money to make it awesome.
I love Blistered Thumbs, and Channel Awesome. If there is anyone that could do this, its you guys – and especially you, Angry Joe.
So as a female gamer, I call out to you man: Make your own reward show. One we can BELIEVE in. One we can respect and appreciate.
To be honest, I could care less about PC games, but that’s just because I don’t play PC games. Regardless, I think there should be representation for that category.
Anyway, Joe, you did great. Geoff was the disappointment. He came out like he didn’t care and arrogant.
Just remember Joe you weren’t wearing that stupid ass Sweater and Bow Tie combo.
Good god, i think i would have hit him, what a twat…
Keep up the good work joe, keep the pressure on them and they’ll have to relent
you didn’t let us down Joe, geoff keighley did.
i think i wouldn’t have had the patience you had during that interview.
i have lots of respect for you joe
you’re truly the voice of us gamers
You know what Geoff, a best PC game of the year DOES NOT CUT IT!!!! is that all you can say when asked about more PC gaming “oh we already have a category for PC games”. I feel like you’re just putting that there so it doesn’t seem like you’re dismissing the PC games, but in reality almost every friggin major gaming website knows almost next to nothing about PC gaming.
Last year there was a little game called League of Legends that has become huge, I love that game and I know a lot of people do to, it got some recognition from gaming sites and there’s a lot of Dota “clones” out this year, it’s an emerging new genre that should start getting some recognition, I know that there aren’t many of them yet and really few are actually GOOD, but even Valve is starting to get a piece of the action with Dota 2! this is going to get bigger and bigger.
What about those independent games that come out only for the PC? what about a freeware game category, I know there’s TONS of freeware games out there for the PC, made by like one guy or even two that get NO recognition at all! And you know what, if you had people actually doing some work with the PC gaming you would have so many good games out there that are free to play, that have ideas you do not see in the mainstream, even in the independent gaming companies, I’m talking about a guy or two, a group of friends that spend their free time creating a game that THEY like. These games are never mentioned in any major gaming sites, EVER and some of them become something GREAT. One example is Crimsonland, it started out as a freeware game, and these guys worked their butts OFF and eventually got to sell their game online for 10 bucks, they improved it, made leaderboards (before any of the major consoles today were even out!). And does anyone know about this game? how many people here even know about Crimsonland?
Today the top down shooter, the “Smash TV” type of game are out there a dime a dozen, but Crimsonland was actually one of the first to go for that format and it was amazing, I still have it on my hard drive and I hope some of you guys check it out, because it’s an amazing game. And they are working on a sequel!
What amazes me the most is that these guys get next to NOTHING of recognition in the major gaming news, 0, absolutely nothing and they managed to sell games and now be able to create a sequel…
So how about some recognition to the PC gaming huh? Because it’s far more extensive than just major companies and major titles, it’s about the gamers that make games for themselves and start from a small freeware game that receives almost no recognition, that have a small fanbase and that somehow, if the game is good, they still make it out in this major title smothered industry, I can tell you sometimes just searching the web for these freeware games is a breath of fresh air, just to play these games that are free of the industries standards, that just want to do their own thing.
I’m rambling I apologize, my point is, best PC game of the year doesn’t cut it, any PC gamer, TRUE PC gamer knows, that the PC gaming is so much more than what people know and these damn major gaming websites have no clue of what it is, all they know is console, console, console. they just now started with services like XBLA and PSN or whatever, we’ve had that on PC for SOOOOOOOOOOOO much longer it’s not even funny, I know a website, that lists freeware games for the PC and I’ve trudged through that mess of shitty games and have often found a golden nugget that is so sweet no triple A title can surpass.
I know about Crimsonland, been playing it for near on six years now, and am eagerly awaiting for 10tons to finish the sequel!
I must say I am very disappointed with how you conducted the interview… however, I don’t think I can blame you much for it.
I have no doubt that the whole interview setting is nerve-racking as it is, but in that crazy short amount of time, not to mention how much this guy was trying to slip you up… no, I can’t blame you at all.
I really do hope this guy will answer some of these questions. I applaud you for trying, Joe, it seems like even if nothing got answered, you at least made a dent in this guy, hopefully this’ll help him to realize that there are more gamers than the stereotypical one he must be thinking of.
…so it’s come to this.
I have to admit, I was excited about your “interview” with one of the big wigs of the VGAs, Joe, especially after your rant of last year’s show. Like you, however, I thought you were getting a genuine interview, not just a quick meet-and-greet from the executive producer. It just goes to show you, as bad as Video Game Corporate is, Hollywood Corporate are the original gangstas; these guys have long perfected the art of handling the press.
You were promised a spot on the press line, and you got it…all the way in the back, almost behind the drapes. When Geoff finally came running over to give you the interview you were promised, snapping his fingers and saying “Let’s go, let’s go,” it was a textbook maneuver. He caught you off-guard and gave you a small time limit so you would be even less prepared with your hard-hitting questions. Then there was his behavior during the interview. I clinched my fist every time I watched him turn his head away from you, smiling at the celebrities like they actually noticed him. You know who else does that? The manager at Chili’s, greeting customers as they walk by him getting an earful from someone who didn’t like how their Awesome Blossom turned out…and that’s basically what this douche is; he’s an overpaid restaurant manager. His job is to make sure everything is set up accordingly, ensuring that everyone that comes in has a good experience. Any problems are to be dealt with quickly and with minimal disturbance. That’s why you were stuck with a 2-minute interview at the back of the line, because he already knew you were an irate customer.
I must admit, though, the asshat came prepared. His response to the female in the media room regarding the advisory board that selects the nominees was almost identical to the response he gave you earlier on the red carpet, as it was almost certainly a question he was expecting to hear. He actually surprised me by knowing that My Chemical Romance had ANY tie-ins to video games, no matter how remote they were. I also love how he called the band’s opening song in Grand Turismo 5 a “strong link” to gaming.
He certainly had home field advantage, and used it well, Joe. I say, it’s time to make him step into our stadium. If he refuses to give honest answers to your e-mail questions with strong supporting facts, you need to call this twat out. Get him to do an interview for your show on YOUR terms. Find out how much he really knows about gaming. Even if it boils down to giving him a beatdown in the game of his choice, you deserve more than what you got out there in L.A. Don’t stop until you get it.
Heya, Joe. I just wanna say that I’m sorry you were treated this way, however you’ve got to realise that this is nothing new in the world of journalism and media, and that it’s also something you will learn to avoid and/or also learn how to turn the tables to be more in your favor as you gain more experience as a interviewer.
You’re an easy target here, Geoff can see that. You seemed giddish, you were forgetting words and what you were saying. You were nervous, and he only added to this by making you hurry up. Geoff was like Batman. He picked the arena and the battle conditions. As a journalist it’s your job to learn to deal with these situations. Don’t worry, it’ll come in time. You just need more practice to up your game. There will always be next time. Maybe then you can one up him with the hard questions you wanted to present to him like you wanted. It’s all in the experience.
I can’t tell you to just let it go and not be pissed, I’d be too. Instead, just keep going over the footage and make marks as to what you could’ve done better. Be glad that you even got this chance and try to learn the most out of it. Not everyone is as lucky as you were.
The thing that really pisses me off about Keighley in this video is the fact that he acted like this ON CAMERA! That shows you right there what he thinks of you, Blistered Thumbs, and basically every reviewer and gamer on the Internet. He assumed you were some small-time Youtube panty waste. He disregarded you, Joe, as a reviewer, and in turn, all of us as your fans and all the fans of Blistered Thumbs and TGWTG. It shows exactly what he thinks of all of us, that we don’t exist or that there aren’t enough of us to matter. I’m really hoping this video gets around to enough places to matter, because it really should matter.
I understand maybe not having time for interviews for everyone. I’m sure he’s a busy man, with trying to connect non-video game related material to the VGAs and whatnot, but no one deserves to be treated the way he treated you. It doesn’t matter what you said, either to his face or online, because he is an adult and a professional. It doesn’t matter if you insulted his “baby,” he should be adult enough to stand up and take a hit. He acted like a child and should be held responsible for his actions. The fact that he doesn’t seem to want to make the VGAs better just shows you right there how much he actually cares about it. The fact is, as long as he’s making money, he doesn’t care what goes into the show.
Somebody else said it first but it’s simple really – Corporate motto is always going to be ‘maximum profit, minimum effort’. All they are interested in is improving the show enough not to be written off as the industry as a waste of time. And BT is not considered part of the industry.
Geoff Keighley is working for a big gaming site like gametrailers so of course he has no respect for new gaming sites like blistered thumbs.
Especially when the journalist from the site is asking tough questions instead of just saying “that was awesome tell me more about that awesome stuff”. Smaller gaming journalist sites just arent as respected there so i expected this to happen.
And VGA is a commercial show, what did you expect? Something GOOD?!
Its times like this, i would have LOVED to see you just Punch him right in his dicksuckin mouth, god Joe, i really dont know how you kept your cool as good as you DID! i would have been all over him the moment he started his bullshit
but what do you expect from Hollywood Trash like him? worthless money grubbing horrible people like him dont think of the (little people) like (us) who you talk for, all he thinks of is how much money he is getting for that show, and let me tell ya thats ALL that matters in a show like that anyway, i dont take ANYTHING they say for truth, its just a bunch of bullshit
There’s already more than a few journalistic voices commenting here, so while that makes me just one of the many, notice that we’re all saying the same things: Learn from this, shrug off the foul attitudes thrown your way, stick with it and just keep coming at them.
Go get ‘em, Joe.
The guy’s an ass pure and simple, Joe. The whole bit about sticking you at the end of the line and avoiding you, even avoiding telling you the setup or how they had planned for you to get involved was all designed to get you flustered and leave you in limbo until at the last second he’d grab your attention. It’s a cheap trick, I’ve seen it before, even had it happen to me once.
The whole thing is one disrespectful house of cards stacked one on top of the other. The lack of information; the lack of acknowledgement; the fact that he turns up late, with little time to spare and doesn’t even bother to apologize but expects you to take those two minutes and just stuff the rest. If you ever question someone’s attitude – is he disrespecting me or not – go with the tried and true method of: ” would he chance acting that way to someone in a bar?” People are at their most “bear-bones” in that sort of environment, and if they wouldn’t dare do it there, it’s because they know what they are trying to pull.
The fact that he even refused to, for those few moments, give you solid or semi-solid attention still makes me laugh!
The show is like that moment when the oscar was given to Hallie Berry, repeated over and over and over. There isn’t one, single person who isn’t aware that it’s pretty much all bullshit. It actually saddens me when people like Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day attend shit like this. Like others have said, DON’T LET THIS GO. To be honest, though, you have to realise that the VGAs are like any other lie – the more money or power they’re getting out of the lie, the nastier they’ll fight to keep you from the facts.
Stick with it, and just keep coming at them. Attend next year, and be ready for their bullshit. Remember, and smug as this dick is now, he will – life his predecessors – be out on his ear one day, and you know who’ll remain? – The Gamers and their Angry Joe.
We’re behind you, buddy.
AUGH. Dude was being a JACKASS. ATTACKING him? He barely let any complete sentences out of your mouth. Ugh, and don’t even get me started about the attitude in that press room. You make one slip-up, saying PC instead of MMO, and they all outright laugh at you. Seriously, that guy has no respect and the rest of the media are his fucking puppets. Augh.
You WILL get your interview and you WILL let the gamers’ voices be heard, Joe. Even if he holds you off until next year’s VGAs, you will get your answers. Even if you’re placed at the end and you’re given just another two minutes, you’ll be ready. I know you will.
If I gave a shit about the VGAs, I would have stopped watching them based on his conduct here. And hey, if they actually improve their shit and get more reputable, maybe I WILL start watching.
Go Joe!
Hey Joe,
I’m a big fan of you and what you do. I work in television and have done hundreds of interviews ranging from a local guy on the street to people like Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice. So I know my way around an interview. Especially guys like Geoff (and trust me, he’s not the worst I’ve dealt with).
Here are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years:
1) Start them out with an easy question or two to soften them up. Something like, “So Geoff, what part of the show this year are you really excited about?” not “This is Geoff, I have a bone to pick with this guy.” That kind of intro just instantly makes him defensive and right then I could tell he didn’t even want to give you the time of day. But, since you had a camera and there were other cameras around, he decided to stay.
2) There are a time and place for the hard questions, that wasn’t it. When you found out you were going to have to interview the guy on the red carpet in that environment you needed to change your strategy. Ask him some easy questions then maybe throw in a “I see you don’t have an MMO award and that’s a pretty popular genre, why is that?” or “There are a lot of PC games out there that were tremendous this year, why only one PC award?” That semi-hides a tough question into something he could easily answer.
3) The people in the media room laughed at you because you looked incredibly unprepared and uninformed with the questions you asked. When you said, “The Soundtrack category seems like a best music game category” when he, not a few sentences before that, told you who was in it and who won, that made you look like you were just trying to back him into a corner and make him look stupid. That’s bad media room etiquette and makes you a joke to other media members. Your “angry” questions are best served for either a one on one interview in a quiet setting, a phone interview or email.
I have some others, but I don’t want to waste any more board space with something you’ll probably never read. Now, don’t get me wrong, he did act like a douche to you. That other women asked the SAME voting question you did, but he didn’t tell her “go to the website, it’s all public information”. That’s because he hates you Joe. He hates you because you ripped his ‘baby’ and he can’t handle the criticism so he turns defensive.
Trust me Joe, you aren’t the first media member that’s been treated like this and you won’t be the last. When you’re in our business and do opinion videos and articles, you’re going to gain some enemies. Brush this off Joe. Shit happens in interviews. Lots of people love what you do, including myself.
OK so going by your posts’ popularity I’ll get downrated for this and I certainly appreciate the constructive nature of the points you gave, but that all reeks of playing ball. Part of what makes AJ endearing to me is that he doesn’t approach things as conventionally sappy as the rest of the industry. Sure, playing ball will get better results as far as actual answers go, but I’d prefer videos like this to expose what an arse the majority of the industry is rather than play lovey dovey and get a bunch of pre-prepared fake answers with pre-prepared fake smiles.
That plan of attack would work better in an environment where he’s given the time to ‘soften up’ the interviewee but 2 minutes is just not.
Wow………just wow. Anyone with even a shred of respect would not act the way he did. I liked Geoff, but this was just embarrassing for him. Good for you to remain respectful after how he was acting. I agree on the music catagories, MMO’s, voice acting and just pc gaming is scarce in the VGA’s. They have to realize it is a huge market and it just pisses more and more people off when they ignore that. It makes their show laughable, and it sadness me that this show sucks. It is getting better but little by little which is not good enough, it should improve greatly every year, not just little by little. They should stop saturating the show with big name stars gamers dont care about.
a long time watcher; first time to comment. i think you put it correctly there at the end. by shooting you down and trying to “put-you-in-your-place”, he’s really showing a big disrespect to us; the viewers, the gamers, the people who are out there spending our hard-earned cash to enjoy a past-time we all love: gaming. by playing you off and ignoring your concerns, he’s ignoring us and our concerns too.
in the end we just want what we love represented in the most whole and honest way. for example, i for one dont care much for MMO’s, but they should still be represented. we can still have the big names and flashy faces, but in the end cater to makes this industry thrive: the gamers.
just by being there you represent us, our opinions and our concerns. if he really thinks he can just treat you like some bit-rate youtuber, than he’s absolutely out of touch. when youre out there talking and interviewing, they are in effect talking to us as well. i for one take offense in the way you were treated and personally feel attacked as well. with that said, youre doing a great job and thanks for being a voice for us all. youre a champ joe and we are the angry mob to follow you.
I’m not sure if you had this already on your list but i believe its a very good way to make Geoff look more like a dumb ass
Question: Will there be an award for greatest video game website, such as: Blistered Thumbs, The Escapist Magazine, etc… many sites devote entirely towards a video game consumer market alone that do not include an oversaturation of advertising and also does not include only console or high ranked gaming companies, do these companies who strive so hard for better game development and commitment deserve no appreciation or even a matter of awareness for those who are unfamiliar by their works?
if you like this plz feel free to hit me back at MathewHarris1986@hotmail.com
would love to get a possibility to offer more questions and douse the fire that is encorporating advertisement in video game art…. ( video games aren’t a toy, they give a story and should not be thought of any different than poetry, novels, art galleries and comics ) …. anyways, keep on being angry Joe, the army is behind you 100%
That’s a horrible question. Sorry. Of course him or anyone else ‘high up’ in the industry would respond negatively to a question like that as it’s in direct opposition to their business model. If they even entertained the idea they’d be fired.
Less importantly, BT would do well in not promoting themselves quite so blatantly, at the very most they could mention themselves at the end of a long list of other established websites. They can’t really afford to be seen as attention whoring. Just introducing themselves as such and such from Blistered Thumbs is enough – BT will get better recognition for continuing to provide quality content, not for appearing to be pushing themselves or their own agendas.
Damn, what a douche. That Geoff. I’m glad I didn’t see the VGAs this year. It misrepresents us gamers.
Hey Joe, long time fan, first time commenter. I just wanted to make a point about Geoff and where a lot of his douchebagery might come from. He’s hearing that some online commentator (you) are talking trash about something he works for (the VGA’s). The common misconception about online reviewers such as yourself is that they all are on youtube or small time websites or blogs. Of course this is not the case and Blistered Thumbs is pretty damb big and I think us fans and reviewers/gamers like you will make it continue to grow and remain awesome. The fact that Channel Awesome has its own spin-off website proves that both Channel Awesome and Blistered Thumbs are something greater than the average online reviews.
Unfortunately, Blistered Thumbs and by extension, yourself, are not big enough for these (in my opinion) corrupt, money grubbing fat cats to recognize just who you represent and how big your influence actually is. Due to this, I think its easy to see like you said that he was prepared for you and wanted to catch you off gaurd because he thought you were small time but as I said before Channel Awesome and Blistered Thumbs hold a lot more power than these guys realize at the moment.
Frankly, I am impressed at how civil you were even when he was disrespecting you and all of us gamers. I would actually encourage you to be more aggressive in situations like that but without loosing your cool hopefully. To me, Geoff seems like a minion of that character you have on your show, Corporate, saying he knows what we want or that he’ll listen to us but as soon as we get someone like you to represent us and our questions he looks around like a jackass and stares at the quintessential unfunny man Dane Cook. It is completely unprofessional for Geoff or anyone not only to promise a decent interview and not deliver, but even when allowing for a short indecent interview he just questions your credentials the whole time hiding behind his snarky smug smile. Don’t let this go, as both a console and pc gamer I don’t want our questions overlooked by this prick.
If I could offer some constructive criticism;
Of course they didn’t take Joe seriously. He shows up in costume, calling himself ‘Angry Joe’, representing some site they’ve never heard of. Under those circumstances, it makes sense that the producer of the event didn’t give him a fifteen minute sitdown, especially the day of the event.
As much as people here will hate to hear this, this wasn’t an elaborate plot by Spike to silence the all mighty Angry Joe, because they totally fear him or anything like that. It was literally throwing a bone to the silly internet guy.
Joe, the character you have developed works great for reviews, but for professional interviews, you should show up out of character, appropriately dressed, and prepared for any scenario. If you play into the pre-conception of silly internet guy, they’re not going to take you seriously, and you’re not going to get your questions answered.
Fair point, however, its not like Joe’s costume is all that outlandish, especially for the VGA’s. Maybe going as his character Angry Joe wasn’t the best idea but there is a level of respect that both interviewers and interviewees are supposed to exert and Geoff took many steps to show disrespect and pessimistic hostility. Perhaps it wasn’t a trap set by Geoff or any of the other people working on the high end of the VGA’s to “silence Angry Joe.” But as far as they probably researched they just heard that some online personality was badmouthing their product so they at least wanted to humble Joe while throwing him a bone so they can still look good by making him look bad.
Sure Joe made a few minor mistakes going into the interview but nothing to deserve what Geoff dealt out. The simple fact that with Blitered Thumbs growing as a credible website for gamers video game related companies including the VGA’s should start listening to these characters who speak for us.
While it’s great that a community can band together I don’t think any company should listen to us simply because we have a loud voice. As always, the best way to speak to a company is by not giving them your money. Assuming Joe has no further contact from Spike then this ‘interview’ is pretty conclusive of exactly what Spike thinks of us – they want us out of the way and they want us to shut up so that they can market their product to their demographic.
Joe was invited there by Spike. They invited Angry Joe, no less. That’s who they wanted there.
Well, Joe. I gotta say; Geoff knew what he was doing in that interview. He knew how to be an asshole and used your qustions against you. We must all take heavy blows in the on-going war of the VGA’s. Fight the good fight, Angry Joe!
Man Joe I feel bad for you
My Response to the interview by Joe http://bit.ly/gplwxm Too bad this happened, although Joe did some mistakes i have to give him the support here to Joe, The way Geoff acted during the interview was not professional at all…
This may sound kinda hammy here, Joe, but when I saw your plight I immediately had to relay the story to my father. Why? He spent most of his career interviewing people for all kinds of print medium, and one thing I can say about him is that he knows how to deal with Goliath-sized Assholes with even bigger budgets. His advice?
“I would’ve looked that asshole dead in the eye and told him that I wasn’t interested in interviewing him anymore, the way he treated me told me all I need to know about him and his dog and pony show, and that my viewers would soon know it too.”
To me, that was one amazing piece of advice. He understood and appreciated that you had important questions to ask, that you’d been standing there all day and had been lulled into a false sense of security … but any man who walks up to you snapping his fingers and saying in an equally snappish voice “GogogogogoTWOMINUTESGO!” just isn’t worth your fucking time. You would’ve caught him on HIS back foot! Turned the tables right on him!
Hindsight is always 20/20, but think of this as a learning experience. You WILL do better next time, and you’ll be ready. Stick to your guns, Joe. The Angry Gamers of this world need to be heard, and boy am I glad that you are one of the people who are starting to get us listened to.
OK Joe, thank you for doing your best. Ya you just got totally sideswiped by Geoff. Ya he was well prepared and I give him props, but he was totally in the wrong on the way he was prepared. Don’t ever feel that you let people down, you did your best. Ya you should have been ranting and pissed off from the get go, but you wasn’t and I give you thumbs up for trying to be professional about the interview. Geoff just totally ran a douche baggary all your way.
Geoff Keighley = fucking Douche, he is part of everything that is wrong with the video-gaming industry. end of story.
Agreed. Fuck Spike TV’s VGAs. I’m not watching that shit until I hear from the sacred lips of Joe that it has improved exponentially. You mess with Joe, you mess with the Angry Joe Army.
Gee-Off
The MMO is a good idea in theory but uhhh the huge market for MMO’s is dominated by WoW. By dominated I mean over 60% of all MMO subscriptions are WoW accounts. Also i think it’s rightly so, WoW is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of the genre…a little aged now but they still do things to spice it up (OK WOTLK wasn’t that great but cataclysm is amazing anyone looked at the al’akir encounter? beautiful) I keep trying all the others that come out use up my free month and I’m just not sucked in. Knowing this show it would just be WoW winning every year, unless something truly earth shattering comes along (I’m looking at you KOTOR).
Oh, man. Joe, I empathize with you completely. Some of the things you said in this video, I wish you said then and there, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I think you did your best, and of course this isn’t the end. Geoff still owes you some proper attention and honesty. We will all be watching.
Go, Joe!
What a surprise..someone who works for Spike and is the lead of the VGAs is totally rude and unrespectful. It didn’t make you look bad, it made him look bad. He may not know how many viewers you have, but this was certainly bad press and it will hurt him in the long run.
Been a fan of Joe for a while and didn’t really care about Geoff. So you know where this comes from.
When I first saw the video I felt the same way Joe did, angry at the guy for not giving him… anything really. Then I started reading other comments and posts in various websites and to be honest guys… what was the point of even asking Geoff Keighley… anything? He’s the “Pretty boy who cashes in.” kinda dude. He’s the businessman first, very casual gamer second kinda dude. You can’t expect anything to come out of someone who spends more time doing business than playing games.
The VGAs are NOT a gamer show. Yeah I know it has game in the name, but it’s not. It’s exactly like all those other MTV awards shows, gather a bunch of celebs to look good and have them do their thing. I mean come on… a red carpet with more actors than devs/PR guys/publishers… He HAD to realize he really wasn’t in his element and apparently he didn’t see Geoff for a while so why didn’t he re-evaluate his strategy? Why didn’t he adapt?
He got the last place in line… THAT ALONE tipped ME off that this invitation was only to mock Joe and independent video gaming websites all around. Geoff Keighley belittles anything that makes less money than him. He wanted Joe there, he wanted to make Joe look really bad… well guess what, he won.
I’m sorry Joe, I really am. I hope you don’t expect all your fans to agree with you 100% all the time. Be professional, and next time try conventions instead of MTV awards shows. At least you’ll get a lot more time with DEVELOPERS and not simple public figures. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why you chose Geoff Keighley as a target. Oh and next time, don’t start with “I have beef with this dude and he has a world of questions to answer for!” It doesn’t work like that. Geoff Keighley isn’t an internet celebrity you can send little cracks as you would a friend. He’s a big corporate guy who doesn’t give a shit about what he does, he just wants the check and the numbers.
I think Geoff acted like a total doush bag, showing no interest in your questions and literally answering everything with a snide and cocky smile. My problem with the VGAs is the nominated games have no artistic integrity. Video games are an art form, they have developed a new form of rhetoric that can be used to communicate with audiences in a way that no other medium can. A game like Shadow of the Colossus would never be on the VGAs. I stopped watching the VGAs after the first few. Oh, and musical acts like Good Charlotte, what a fucking joke. Just because they play video games and they had a song in a video game does not mean that they have any appeal to most real gamers. Dane Cook probably plays games to, but I don’t want to see him do a fucking stand-up routine. The show needs to be about games, and the categories should include things like MMO and fighting. And one category for RPG?!!!!!! but two categories for sports and God knows how many for music. How about best action RPG, best JRPG, best strategy RPG. RPGs cover a huge field of games. What about puzzle games? Or how about we treat games like art, and have categories like best story in a game, or best visuals in a game and get rid of these overly brood and pointless categories like best DLC and best handheld game. The VGAs are holding video games back from being respected as a serious art form, and because of that I refuse to support them by watching.
Blistered Thumbs should do a Video Game awards show and show the VGA’s the Right way to do it.
a best PC games category? wow……that’s retarded.
might as well have a “best ps3 game” or “best xbox game” category
They do…they have one for all consoles. And DS and PSP are smushed into “Handheld”.
Let me analyze the video. Not trying to troll on either Joe or Geoff, just giving my honest analysis.
1. Any business or brand that started after the 80′s that has a huge foundation, OR a business or brand that started after Y2K (The VGA’s, for example) have a motto whether they say it or not. Minimal effort, maximum profit. I read a comment about how your interview got more people to watch the VGA’s in a “will he or will he not” fashion. Hey, it worked on me. This is why it all happened, and don’t expect any truth from the E-Mail questions. And hey, I’M FREAKING PISSED OFF AT HIM. But I feel dumb I didn’t see this from the beginning.
2. Back in your video announcing that we would have an interview, you started with an animation of the Angry Joe army (I swear I say NC in there) defeating the VGA’s rather quickly. This gave us the false hope that we gamers won a battle and are going to make a difference. After that, you even state “another win for the Angry Joe army!” Dude, you said that prematurely and you are paying for it right here. This is why you are pissed – because you had high hopes. No trolling, just honest truth. It happens to me all the times!
3. At the start of the video you stated that you wanted an honest interview with the executive producers with questions from OTHER PEOPLE that have problems with the VGA’S. Basically, this is a sign to them that “if we really answer these questions, we will be exposing the problems with the show that we create to be bad and scam gamers out of their valuable time. We are answering questions from real gamers, and we don’t want that. We want to answer redundant questions to synthesize our audience, thus they become addicted to our programming and not good stuff.” I’m not saying it was a bad idea Joe, I’m not saying I could have come up with a better idea. I’m not saying I have a better idea. I’m just saying that smart people with years of business training understand what hurts the business and what doesn’t, and how to avoid hurting the business. Again, minimal effort, maximum profit.
4. At about 45 seconds, you said it was a bad idea to be diplomatic. I ask you how? Sure, you wish you were angry right now, but let’s face it. Geoff would have just pulled security on your @$$, so at least think that your not in jail right now.
5. 1:40 I know that you’re not authority, but I think you have the right to ask for respect or at least put an irritated face on instead of just making a fake smile that sends the message “idiot blogger.” You are way better then that. I think you know how to ask for respect, and asking for respect is still being diplomatic. You don’t haft to be ultra angry, no. You just haft to have a sense of integrity. Be the better man.
6. 2:20 You shouldn’t feel bad for putting your guard down. Friendliness is a sign of alliance, and that rings in our instincts as a good way to survive. It translates in a weird fashion into this situation. Still, he did try to play you. Improvement, that’s what up. Look at what you might have done wrong in the past and improve on it in the future.
7. 3:27 You didn’t haft to state what we already know. In fact that might have given you more time to try to fight back against Geoff’s douchebaggery. (Iz dat spealled write?)
8. Although he should be paying attention to your interview, maybe he’s looking at the celebrities to make sure nothings going wrong. Just saying, slight possibility. But that was immature of him to look at the celebrities instead of him. What? Is he an eight year old or an executive producer? Who’s with me!?
9. 4:13 Although on the front it may seem he’s just trying to take up time and interrupt you (which is douchebaggery itself) he is lying strait through his teeth so that less people get the message of your interview. Geoff you A-hole! “Gamers love the world premiers.” Interesting he started with that. I’m just gonna find these trailers on the internet and abandon the VGA’s.
10. 4:35 Joe, I know you’re under pressure, but you shouldn’t interrupt so much. And hey, you had two minutes, no sweat. Just try to improve next time, did nothing wrong interrupting so much. Just gotta work on that just a little.
11. 4:50 “This is the worst environment to conduct an interview in.” OH MY BROTHA, TESTIFY!!!!!!
12. ONE MORE QUESTION? You asked like…one question? TWO FREAKING QUESTIONS? You can’t get to the point in that! Geoff treated you like you totally didn’t matter. I feel extremely sorry, he can’t even do freaking math.
13. PC Games they have I believe. But with four music categories (as you stated later) replace ‘em with Strategy, Fighting and MMO’s. Really good susgestion.
14. Final Fantasy MMO did not come out this year. Final Fantasy 14 MMO came out this year. Joe, no trolling, but do get your facts strait. You said “not this year.” Please recognize you made an honest mistake. But, you work for Blistered Thumbs and he works for VGA’s. He should know pretty much everything about Video Games that came out this year, not just marketing schemes. GAWD I HATE CORPORATE!
15. 7:50 “You have these rants.” …….YOU HAVE THESE RANTS? DAMMIT GEOFF HE’S BEING AS NICE AS HE CAN WITH YOU!!!!!!!!
16. 8:00 You’re right, you did lose your cool. And that’s a mistake. An honest mistake that you couldn’t help yourself, and he wanted you to do, but it’s a mistake. But, here’s an analogy: how could you possibly walk when your shoes are tied to the floor?
17. 8:20 Again Joe, research needs to be done. I probably wouldn’t have done much better, but it’s very possible to do better. Fact, I probably would have done way worse.
18. 8:30 ALL YOU want to do? That’s all you want to do? How do you plan on improving the VGA’s? You are giving suggestions to improve the VGA’s, not actually doing it yourself. I think someone watching this video who works for the VGA’s might feel a little bit insulted as to say that anybody who does not work for Spike has the right to try to improve the VGA’S. And that’s ALL you want to do? You don’t want to embarrass Geoff in front of the entire audience? Which WOULD make a good difference?
19. 8:50 careful on the cursing, you wanna sound professional no matter what.
20. 10:55 WHY? Tell me why people need to answer for years past if they are trying to improve. Please tell me why. Maybe more information means better suggestions yes, but seriously, if I was a the executive producer, I wouldn’t feel like I need to answer for years past.
21. 11:19 “Who gives a $#!T about Dane Cook?” OH MY BROTHA!!!! TESTIFY!!!!!!
22. 13:00 Yes, he does realize he represents core gamers. That’s why he treated you the way he did. You stated who this show appeals to.
23. 13:25 Very true. He didn’t quite destroy you at all. You could prove that he is a corporate Jack@$$. You made the VGA’s look way worse then they already did, and that’s saying something. Congratulations, you have epicely won.
24. 16:02 That smile…he treated you like a child. YOU ARE A MAN!!!!
25. I do agree that fighting games should get more press. Especially considering the fact that the people they appeal to, and pretty much everyone else who watches the show, loves fighting games, but not all of them love music games. That’s just a poor business decision.
26. 16:57 What did you expect anything different from any other press? Every press lies and knows how to play business. By the way, you really should have checked the website. And once you get the message that there is a best PC game category, please don’t mention it again. That makes you look stupid.
27. You went to say MMO category…well then why didn’t you? It’s not that confusing!
28. 18:00 Well, maybe most average viewers know that, but someone approaching for an interview should.
29. 18:27 As I stated before, minimal effort, maximum profit. Besides, he was @#$%ing with you.
30. GEOFF IS A COMPLETE DOUCHEBAG! Predictable being this is the VGA’s, but I mean COME ON!!!!! He was taking freaking advantage of you.
Final Point: Geoff doesn’t give a crap about Video Games, he cares about his wallet. You did your best under the situations you were in.
One last question: HOW ABOUT AN APPROPRIATE INTRODUCTION? My Gawd, what they started with was just stupid as he11.
Not a troll here.
To be fair, Joe…there were a few things you did wrong. You lost your professionalism at “slobbering idiot”, and that’s when he wouldn’t take you seriously anymore. The PC games are underrepresented thing, while true, there IS a “Best PC Game”, and you really seemed to attack that question when he gave you an answer that yes, there was a Best PC Game category. Still, the lack of MMOs is egregiously bad; I actually got really hooked on Dungeon Fighter Online, and I am SO glad you mentioned that.
Though I must also admit that there is also an underrepresentation of Wii and handheld games. They have awards for those, too…but it also sucks that many of these awards were never televised, so it is kind of biased that only PS3/360 games were featured.
Hopefully, next year will be nicer to you.
Joe wasn’t given any respect to begin with, he was denied any decent place or ammount of time in which to conduct the interview. Second, (as many have already said) having a PC game category is stupid. Another category that was missing was Strategy (Starcraft, WH: 40K Chaos Rising, Civ V, etc).
In short, Joe handled the situation as good as anyone could under the circumstances, and nobody should pay heed to what a sack of dicks like Geoff Keighley says about video games.
You did your best Joe, just because they think you are some youtube blogger, doesn’t mean they can treat you like that.
He didn’t knew what games were released, he didn’t care about the pc category, but there was nothing you could have done better
Geoff looks and acts just like Dennis from It’s always sunny in this interview. Has a pretty boy face with the nice smile but behind it lies the biggest asshole…
Don’t worry Joe. Anyone who actually cares about videogames knows knows that the VGAs are total shit
I’ve been a fan of your show for over two years now. I have always watched your show on TGWTG. I made an account on Blistered Thumbs just now to say, you did your best and more than I would expect of any reviewer.
Like some of the following users have said, you should make your own “Games Award Show”. I tend not to watch the VGAs and similar televised shows because they are always unfair/crap. I can tell you right now, societies full of students at my university watch your videos. I think Blistered Thumbs is well known enough to pull it off.
Looking forward to your video review of the VGAs and Geoff Keighley’s responses, if any.
I think that was very rude of Geoff Keighley to treat you like that, Joe. You were asking our questions and he was just being a total dick. Even worse, he said he would give a good long interview, did he not? I feel bad for you Joe.
Joe i am not dissapointed in you you are more of a man than i could be i would have started to say hey buddy are you going to pay attention to me or was this just a waste of time and money. You did a great job joe, and what was with My Chemical romance how knightly said they were big “gamers”? once he said that he named the music games that they were in. That does not make someone a amer just because they are in a few games. Oh and FYI Knightly if you are reading this, My Chemical Romance was DLC in guitar hero 3 so not many people go to listen or play their music, They had one song in guitar hero 2 and thats all i can think of right now…. But you are right they need to have something where they have a battle or something along the lines of the Marvel Vs. Capcom best players. Or they should have brought out Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Brought the best players and had them fight with a jumbo tron showing us how it went down. or they could have got the street fighter champions and the marvel champions switch games and see how they would do. See three things right there that could improve the show. Oh and if they are going to have a music preformace they should at least have the curtosey to have some actually “Game music” like how they did with the halo reach violin, which i thought was pretty cool. Thanks Joe I’m glad you did go out there so we could all see how arrogant and how much of a douchebag Knightly is. Joe i hope you read this.
, Bloofoot-Tyler
P.S. sorry for the lack of grammer im just really pissed off. Oh and i love your show I hope you stay on a lot longer than the VGA’s
I feel sorry for you Joe for getting treated like that.
Yeah you were set up and when you started to bounce back he had no more time. I think they wanted you too look bad.
Joe couldn’t have been prepared for the interview because Geoff jumped on him at the last possible moment and made him look bad.
While it is easy to dismiss past years, they still have a long lasting impact on how the public views games and the culture as a whole. People are STILL talking about some bad Academy Award hosts and choices decades after they happened and video gaming is no different in this regard. Someone does need to answer for what happened in the past.
Whether you think Joe did well or not, the point still stands. Geoff was immature, unprofessional and downright rude to Joe and was able to make Joe look bad to the casual viewer. Joe did the best he could given the circumstances and i think this was a victory for the Angry Joe Army because it showed that Geoff and the VGAs have no respect for gamers…you know…THE PEOPLE THEY ARE TRYING TO APPEAL TO IN THE FIRST PLACE!
I AGREE WITH YOU
I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW HALO REACH GOT BEST MULTIPLAYER
IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BAD COMPANY 2- IT’S TACTICAL AND REQUIRE TEAMWORK
SAVE CARMINE!
First off that was disgraceful on geoff’s part, to treat anyone with such out right dis-respect, you should have been madder at him literally shouted all the crappy decisions he’s made since he took the executive producer post in 2007, you should point out to him that the ratings are still falling and that’s because he’s failing to do what gamers want, no “casual” I mean real casual game player would watch the VGA’s , you have to in some small way be a gamer and the VGA’s completely fail at satisfying us.
You let no one down with your performance, you were un-prepared? Why? Not because you didn’t do your research, because the info he was talking about was made public (with no effort to drawing attention to it) really late in the game, it was a most a month before the event and any research for a good interview should start before then, i.e the last show.
All, anyone from gamers to reviewers, should need to know about the awards should be IN the awards, so last year all the rules for this year should have been made known to the viewer as well as any planned changes.
Still you were un-prepared because he f***ed you around so much, you didn’t get what you were expecting and he damn well knew it then he played those little mind games, first off he distracted you from enforcing that you wanted answers for old mistakes by focusing on the future “tell me what you think after the show” – did he even try to ask you after the show? No.
And his answers were incredibly pedantic, he only answer the complete literally of what you said, he knew DAMN WELL that you mean’t that there was a lack of PC games representation overall , not a lack of a catagory.
And even then the answer “Its on the website” often doesn’t address the question fully, for example its really hard to find the list of review publications involved in the decsions, so hard I gave up trying on there website. Secondly on that, WHO is involved, who the actual reviewer or reviers from what publication can alter things significantly, reviewers personal taste and bias matters alot it can change the result. Thirdly, Who can be a judge? What do they have to do e.g in the BAFTA’S a jury member is given the games and 30 days to play them. What do spike’s team do?
And before this becomes too huge a rant, the Beatles have a whole rockband game, not exactly big gamers though…. your logic is flawed MR Keighly.
Oh and IGN and Gamespot respected publications? Seriously? There jokes if the gaming/reviewing world, IGN can’t tell a good game from a bad one.
And Gamespot .. Kayne an Lynch. Just Sayin’
So good job Joe! Keep on bein’ angry!
Joe. Simply put, been a massive fan of you for all the months that I’ve known TGWTG has existed. You are a great reviewer, very funny, seem like a very good person from seeing you with people at E3 and on the Charity drive. The problem is, you weren’t ready for this, and that is NOT an insult.
Your exposure to interviewing (from what I know) is at Cons, where usually things are planned ahead of time and nice and relaxed. You simply weren’t ready for this guy, who as you said yourself, was trained for most likely years to do this. Its why he’s their spokes person, he is the best at bullshitting, getting past defenses and stuff like that. He is a professional at that kinda stuff and honestly, you didn’t stand a chance. Of course he singled you out to fuck with and make you look bad, (which ironically has only made HIM look bad so far), it is obvious in his simple introduction with asking if you’re going to rip on the show again.
You didn’t stand a chance, the guy probably knows nothing about games or nerds, he either works off a script or is just corporate and a bullshitter, its what they pay him for.
You did a great job in trying though, but you didn’t stand a chance. You walked right into a trap, of course they had it set up to make you look bad, you made them look bad so this was their puny attempt at revenge. No way were you going to get the interviews promised to you, they were just fucking with you and its likely you won’t be invited back next year, they just did it to fuck with you because they are corporate douches, its just what they do.
Really, you shouldn’t have gone for this at all, I realise it was the inner optimist in you that made you think this would be a nice, calm event where you could chat with them. I don’t guy why some people are bitching at you about this, I seriously don’t, you tried to work with the guy and he acted badly. If this was E3 and the guy had acted like this to you on camera, he likely would have been fired because public relations are important to them, but this is the VGA, a big pile of shit that no one really cares about anymore, people just watch it to see how shit it is.
Just abandon it Joe, let it die.
You’d never know where to find this but, http://www.spike.com/blog/spike-tv-announces/101998 is where they say who nominates the games, way at the bottom. It wasn’t linked to anywhere but hidden in a random blog. I bet anyone could easily find it there…..
7:40…GO JOE!!!
Just think of the potential the vga’s got. I got so many that its insane.
Ok mr corporate you want to make money, fine by us, but you got to make it relevent. MCR playing a song in the show and you saying yea its related to games, they ARE gamers! Thats bullshit. Now, having MCR play their ON SONG on (was it rockband or Guitar Hero?) thats kinda cool to see. Or have like a real life tag match with a player on a console and a real life skateboarder on a half pipe. How but pulling a satriani and get a player to rock out on guitar hero with the real life band playing at the same time?
Fuck, put your “celebs” in game matches, how bout that? Dane Cook? Boring, but if you put Dane Cook in a C.O.D deathmatch with Jack Black or Ice Cube? Thats Awesome. If you really want to, Get some WWE superstar to duke it out ingame! How bout tossing away a few of your so obviously payed for appearance celebs, and get some real gaming legends in. You put Hideo Kojima onstage for 10 seconds, and you put Olivia Mun on for 10 minutes, I dont have to tell you who gets the bigger applouse.
Next, how bout you corparate bastards just save your cash on hiring “a list” musical acts and get some real gaming related ones onstage. You’re saying that you can get MCR on but you cant get Fucking Powerglove? or the Black Mages???
And lastly, how about listening to the fans once in a while. Gamers are a closely knitted comunity. Word goes a lot faster then you think.
And now to you Mister Joe. Whats done is done, my only comment is that you should have just showed the interview raw without any comments…first. After giving some days to let it boil, then make your comment video. If you have done that, i’ll bet you would have at least half the amount of trolling. Why? because then all the trolls have to fight back is that you were kinda caught of guard for a bit. The main focus would still be on the jackass himself. Now, the trolls are finding ammo left and right, Disecting everything. But having said that, i can understand why you did so, You were just being honest, and thats the whole point of this site, HONESTY. You speak your mind without someone bleeping it. And that, nowdays, is a sight for sore eyes.
Hey Joe…You know there are much better voice acting than the winner of that category…for one, Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill voiced extremely well in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep
Wasn’t anywhere close to on par with the likes of Red Dead for acting quality, but a good point. You can safely file that under the ‘under representation of Jap games’ section.
Hi Joe, finally i made an account
.
Well, you said it for yourself. You made mistakes in this ‘interview’. Yes, Geoff acted like a total **ick. But what did you expect? He knew your rant from last year, he knew you wanted to give him a hard time with your (our) questions and therefor you could have expected some treason like that.
The problem was, you went there (at least that’s how it seems), prepared for a nice round of q&a and not for a critical interview.
If you’re planning to do such interviews in the future, you’ll have to practice you’re style of asking questions, and more important, think of possibilities what answers your ‘opponent’ might give and how to counter him/her if they’re BS’ing you. Hey.. watch Frost/Nixon by chance
Besides that, i like to say, that i love your work and really appreciate what you want to achieve.
Well, it looks like Geoff outsmarted you this time, Joe.
Joe, You need to react quicker. You seem like just a plain old angry man and not someone prepared. Also, Geoff kicked the crap out of you int hat interview. He was prepared for someone who is negative about his work that I’m sure isn’t done in a day. If I was Geoff I would definitely not give you a second to conjure up some questions and waste my time right before the biggest event in my industry occurs. Also Joe, Guess what? You can’t bring emotion to interviews so you better be diplomatic about it. If you started getting pissed off at me I’d walk away, as would anyone else. You need to be objective and have some direct criticism not some round about way of saying you hate the VGA’s. Because that’s what you are trying to get at.
Think about it. If I decided to interview you, and all I said to you was your show doesn’t represent core gamers, it only represents YOUR point of views. You get emotional because games/shows/ and events are not presented how you want them to be presented and you are a selfish reporter/interviewer. You would ask “why?” and then guess what would say. I would say NOTHING! Because I didn’t have an answer. You’d think I was an idiot and I couldn’t do any better, thus a win for you. So what I’m getting at, is this interview makes Geoff look better than you. He was prepared, he knew you’d be a dick and ask questions that shake the infrastructure of his show.
OH and as for the only having 2 minutes on the red carpet. GUESS WHAT? You are not big enough to get a sit down interview with Geoff Keighley THE DAY OF HIS EVENT. Are you insane? You want to take 5 10 20 minutes from someone on the biggest night of the year for him? That’s like asking someone to work on Christmas during a snow storm in the middle of nowhere.
Don’t agree to an interview you have no intention of providing.
To be honest Joe you did really screw this up. It’s not a bad thing per se, you’re a new figure on the scene and don’t have a lot of experience with interviews like this, where the person you’re interviewing comes loaded for bear. The problem is, when they come loaded for bear it’s YOUR job as the interviewer to put them back in their place to get the interview.
I saw the first part, the “2 Minutes! Go!” thing as a test. He was testing your worthiness to be there as a reviewer and interviewer so he immediately put you on your toes and then gave you an opportunity to stun him and continue when he mentioned no MMOs. Final Fantasy XIV, Dynasty Warriors Online… c’mon Joe, that’s an opportunity to prove you’re legit. I will bet you that he knew about the MMOs that came out (admittedly very few half decent ones) but he wanted to see what you knew.
Now missing an opportunity like that is totally something you can recover from but then you started asking questions without double checking your knowledge base, you should’ve saved the independent game question until after so you would have seen the change, as for the PC Game thing, they do have a category it just doesn’t get any attention because unless something big is on the horizon, then nobody gives a crap, sadly. Now, given that another member of the media asked about how the games are selected it’s obvious it wasn’t common knowledge so on that account Joe, you’re in the clear, he was a huge dick about it implying that you didn’t know anything and it looked as if by that point he hoped to make Angry Joe… Angry.
You took Geoff’s bait and got very angry. At which point you then lose all credibility as a media source. You didn’t keep him on his toes, you couldn’t prove ANY knowledgeability and then unfortunately you started repeating questions. Which he focused on to make you seem like a sideshow that could be easily ignored. In the wake of this he just danced around any good or bad suggestions you had and pointed out the flaws in your questions OVER and OVER and OVER.
This is your first time dealing with this sort of stuff Joe, so don’t get disheartened, just accept you got caught flat footed and they treated you like an ass and say, “Next Time, Geoff! Next Time!”
TL;DR: Joe, it’s your job to keep them accountable. They only have to answer you if you put them in the situation where they can’t escape otherwise. You blew it this time, but it’s your first real interview like that. Now you’ll be ready.
I was, by no means, disappointed in you Joe. I was disappointed in that douchebag Geoff. It seems as though he was activley trying to piss you off. Trying to make you look bad, trying to discredit you. It was, to say the least, very unsportsman-like.
My Chemical Romance… PLEASE! Guitar Hero? Rock Band? Gran Turismo is the only one that remotely counts. And there are much better, obvious choices. The Black Mages, The 1-Ups, The Protomen, ANY NERDCORE RAPPER! It’s like the guys who put the show together don’t know anything about gaming culture.
And the fighting game category… A few of the most anticipated fighting games are about to release (MVC3, Mortal Kombat, and Street FighterxTekken) and noone on the planning commity thought to include a tournament or something?!
In any case, screw diplomacy. He has no intention of respecting you.
The proud link you show on every page of this website to urlappraisal.net boasting about how your site is worth $400 ($500 when using updated info, congratulations) ranks blisteredthumbs.net as being worth over $50,000.
Just sayin’.
I’m going to say a few things about this and I hope you read it Joe:
Now in the past, when G4TV was the premiere channel for all things gaming, I watched every single show being the gamer that I am. I watched Attack of the Show, Arena, X-Play, Pulse. Everything. I saw Geoff Keighley in the majority of those shows and I revered him as a gaming expert, especially after the Mass Effect FOX news incident where he was abruptly pummeled by the FOX “journalist” and “expert” that they got to review the sex scene from ME.
RIGHT THERE! I realized something, your review with Geoff is EXACTLY what happened with him 3 years ago with the release of Mass Effect on FOX news. He was supposed to have been given more time, he was supposed to have more time to talk about the pressing matters, hell he was supposed to talk but he barely got 30 seconds total of talking in that whole thing.
Maybe after that incident, he knew that sometimes being diplomatic doesn’t cut it, that you have to be quick and to the point, maybe a little bit harsh to get your point across. My theory is that after the FOX news incident, he stopped being the lovable Geoff we all knew and loved and turned into this arrogant person after that, he may be the same lovable person off of interviews but now he knows that sometimes…people are dicks. I’m not saying you were, but he knew what you are. You’re ANGRY Joe man! ANGRY! He knew that you were going to come at him with everything you had and when he found out that you were just going to be this nice guy talking, he didn’t care.
Now I find that was a douchebag thing to do, to just look around and at the celebrities rather than focusing on the interview. THAT NEVER SHOULD HAPPEN! An interview is between the people not between the others that are around them. I see interviews during awards show on the red carpet and you don’t see celebrities not caring and looking around, because it’s not right. That was his biggest mistake. Not to mention, if they invited YOU and they wanted YOU to come over there, then they should give you WAY more than two minutes. If anything, it should’ve been AFTER the VGAs because then you could comment on how the VGAs have gotten better and give examples and you could’ve gotten some sit down time. There is always a room to go to in award shows like this, always.
Now maybe it was after and I didn’t understand it correctly but that still doesn’t justify his unprofessional attitude and lack of caring.
The whole point of this post is to say that Geoff was beaten down and gang raped in front of millions of people trying to help the gaming community by putting the “full contact nudity” Mass Effect scandal to rest, similar to how you were trying to help the gaming community by trying to improve the VGAs that were pinning gamers as a stereotype. His experience there made him realize something and while not neccesarily a good thing, he learned from it and from this, you will learn something too.
Keep fighting the good fight Joe, I will always be a part of the Angry Joe army and remember what Ezio said, “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” (I know it doesn’t really go well, but still a badass line).
Joe, you did a great job, at least you tried to get trough to this guy.
I’m not dissapointed in you, I’ve been watching you for some time and know that you’re a resonable guy
This is just the sad thing with the world, as soon as one starts to act diplomatic, it’s like everyone think’s that’s a sign to step on you.
As for this guy… I can’t say I feel sorry for him, even tough I’ve probably should, he’s knee deep in trouble after this apperance.
Hopefully he’ll answer the email’s at least. And you Joe, Keep up the good work now =)
Joe, please keep in mind that I love you. Now that that’s out of the way, I have some (hopefully constructive) criticism.
Joe, you are ANGRY JOE. Who gives two squirts of piss about being diplomatic. The word ANGRY is in your name, act it. This guy was a piss drinker of a human being, you should’ve known that from the start. Someone earlier said that you blew it, and I have to agree. People like this exist everywhere, hell I’m one when I have to be. Be prepared to recognize them instantly and deal with them like an angry, smart, and vicious motherfucker. You did so a bit at the end of the interview, but points of for not keeping the demeanor you started with. That proves that they got under your skin, which is what they want. When I’m in a debate (Model UN [Extreme nerdiness and smart as fuck debates] where we hate each other for hours at a time but are best friends afterward), I aim to fuck with my opponents so much that they have to contradict themselves in an endless loop of “Fuck this asshole got me again.” I’m sure you know how satisfying that is.
Also, you aren’t our voice. You are a great reviewer, and remember that I love you, but I have little in common with your tastes in games. MMOs are boring Skinner’s box schemes and nothing more, and PC gaming in general while it can be beautiful and unique most of the time, has grown dull and lifeless in my eyes where you seem to treasure it immensly (this could be due to my gaming PC dying 2-3 years ago, but whatever.) Because of these things, You saying that you “represent us” is a massive overstatement of the facts. Now you did take some questions from the audience, which is nice, but “our voice” is a bit extreme. Of course most of the time I enjoy and mostly agree with your reviews, but this had to be said.
This guy tore you a new asshole. Sorry, Joe, but it’s true. I don’t care what your friends and fellow “journalists” say, he wins. He caught you off guard, and that was a fatal flaw. In interviews, the basic idea is that it’s a battle of wits (when the journalist is critical of the interviewer.) He knew this and came in prepared with nuclear grade douchebaggery. While you (ANGRY Joe) were being nice and diplomatic (as opposed to ANGRY), he decided to show you who was on top and that he wasn’t going to listen to some dude with a website. He doesn’t care how many people watch you, he showed up prepared and you didn’t.
Joe, I’ll reiterate something important. I love you. I want you to keep doing these interviews. But for he love of Christ, be a big boy and know when you got fucked and not to bitch and moan about how much of a douche he was during. Know that you got beat, get pissed, and get on to the next interview.
Really sorry for the essay. TL;DR: Joe fucked up due to lack of angry, pretending to be “the voice of gamers,” and letting Geoff rip him apart.
By the way, It’s 3:20 AM and I get up at 7:40 AM. Wooo.
Much love and support,
Snufalufagus (Matt)
I think this entire video would have a different feel had Geoff just paid attention for the entire thing, yes he was a bit of a dick, but you did bash his “baby”. I’ve got a lot of respect for both of you, Joe for being brave enough to try and change something this corporate. And Geoff for what hes trying to do with the VGA and gaming culture in general.
Don’t hate the sky because it rains one day.
I think for being jerked around like you were, you handled yourself very well, Joe. I agree with what others have said, Geoff & co. were hoping to wow you, or at least give themselves the home advantage so that they could pull this kind of stunt. Give you as little as possible, twist things back on you, and make themselves look good. It’s a slimy thing to do and I commend you for pushing back and standing your ground as best as you could in that situation. Especially for getting him up later in front of the press for more questions! Very nice on that one.
I also agree with you and the questions forwarded to you about the VGAs themselves, and I’d love to see Geoff answer them in and interview or by e-mail (which I’m personally not optimistic about, but hey, you never know). Like the missing categories. There was a preview for the new Mortal Kombat, yet no category for fighting games. And nothing for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 either, and you can’t tell me either isn’t an anticipated title. Speaking of which, what about the Star Wars Old Republic MMO that BioWare and LucasArts are putting out next year? And no mention of Diablo III?! WTF? That’s ridiculous.
Also, if there is a catagory for best DLC, why not one for best expansion? It’s not like those don’t get made anymore. Dragon Age had Awakening out this year, WoW had Cataclysm, and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War had Chaos Rising, just to name a couple.
For the record, I didn’t watch the awards themselves. I just looked up the results online, and was mostly interested in the previews. I mean, when the male voice acting award is 99% celebrities? To have nominated someone from Mass Effect 2 in that category, I would have rather seen the actors for Mordin, Thane or Garrus.
Anyways, I’ve gotten long-winded (this is why I mainly lurk). I just want to say, Joe, that I respect and commend you for putting yourself out there like this to be our voice. To get us heard by the “media” and “awards” that are supposed to be representative of us. We’re behind you 100% as you take this forward and use the experience to make yourself better. Don’t like one slimeball get you down.
I applaud your long-windiness.
For some reason, I felt like making an account to discuss this video. Firstly, I understand Angry Joe’s feelings about the interview. He didn’t seem interested in you, and seemed to try to knock you off your feet at any given moment. I felt terrible just watching the damn thing. But lets be honest here, and lets look through the entire ordeal again:
#1: Interviews don’t always go as planned. You also asked for a very special interview despite that Blistered Thumbs has not proven itself and it is not well known. You were asking way too much in my opinion. Don’t let that get to you, but use this situation to understand future interviews. If its suddenly 2 minutes, you should be prepared enough to ask the most important questions, you have them already lined up. In my honest opinion, I think he did it to test how resourceful you were (saying this in the most neutral way possible). You’re new, you aren’t exactly a tested interviewer, and you even mentioned your lack of experience doing them.
#2: Most of the questions asked were more negative than positive. This isn’t going to change the VGAs. If you make suggestions, make them positive. You aren’t going to make him think an idea is good if you tell him the VGAs is a joke (regardless of the validity of that statement). If you told me that “You are a flat out moron, you’re pathetic” I doubt my response would be “Thank you, i’ll read a book, you changed me”. And if you have ideas, be prepared. When you suggested MMOs, you fell flat because you thought it up on the spot. You didn’t know all of the MMOs that came out this year. If such a question was suggested by the community, you should’ve had such a thing prepared, and if you felt it was a good question but not enough MMOs existed, a more better question would’ve been “Lets consider there’s enough MMOs released in a year that would be enough to do an award for. Would you add it to the list of awards and how many MMOs would that account for?”. And also double check to see if you can publicly get that information. I think the situation at the press meeting at the end confimed my suspicions in #1: He wanted to see if you could stand your ground and get past tough questions. He was only nitpicky about the “information” to see if he was being truthful or not.
#3: You need to pick yourself up. Lets look back at the MMO statement here, where Geoff mentions “FF didn’t come out this year”. And if you look at your response, its “You’re right, it didn’t”. Despite what you said afterwards (you mentioned that “it did come out this year” after the fact), its what you stated during the interview. You mentioned this because you were not prepared (as Geoff mentioned in the interview). This is pretty damn harsh, considering who the guy is, but you need to take that and just fix that problem. At the end of all of this, to me it seems like you feel like you should just be “rude” to people you interview and hammer them with rough questions. But considering the status of Blistered Thumbs, that is not going to get us anywhere right now, or possibly ever. If questions wanted to be asked, they should’ve been asked, with respect to who the person is.
I’m saying all of this because I don’t want you to take this situation and make it something worse. It hurts like hell to take such an insult and deal with it, but looking at the actions you took, you should look into what you did during the interview, what went wrong, and fix it, positively.
I doubt they’ll let you return next year, but hopefully with other interviews you’ll get the hang of journalism. And hopefully you take this criticism to heart. The last thing this situation needs is more people blindly thinking Angry Joe was completely correct in what he did. He screwed up the interview, and hopefully he’ll do better in his next interview with what he learned here. A man’s true face is shown in how he takes failure.
WTH Is up with all of you!? This isn’t about Joe not be a professional journalist, He’s not! He’s one of us that was invited to this Frat boy fest. Geoff agreed to the interview as much as Joe did and came with a smug ass attitude shrugging Joe off as some internet blogger! How dare HE! by insulting Joe he insulted us all! The very thing that gives him a job! Gamers! My point is he just some pretty little face that got hired to host a video game show, hes not a gamer he’s just some bastard that thinks hes hot shit!
Joe is one of the only honest video game critics that’s willing to call Bullshit on our games!
This was a set up!
Lol good analogy. AJs just a gamer nerd invited to a frat party; not to mix with the frat boys, but to be made fun of or beat up. He was just some side entertainment.
That’s what it feels like.
It looks like you were too diplomatic. It shouldn’t have been necessary to do such research for an interview, but he played you like an overrated game. As you said, he was a pro at dodging questions (although looking away was seriously rude of him) and we sent you into battle without a helmet.
If you get another interview, being prepared is an absolute necessity. Check out our questions, then figure out everything that you can in relation to each question. Also make sure that they are relevant, to the most recent show. You can be polite and still ask hard questions, but you have to understand that executives are trained to reciprocate and not show weakness.However if he gets nasty, then you have our permission to call him out on the FF14 error.
The bottom line is that if you really want to be in control of the interview… then you have to make the time to delve into the details.
Joe, what this guy did to you is really unfair, lets hope those emails get answered without him trying to put in some distractions, as I had him try to do with you. You did stand your ground though when he tried that tactic. I did post a link to your site and to this video from my website. I may not get much traffic, but I do get some traffic that may not know and could be interested.
I had to create an account for your site because your rant is just embarrassing.
Joe, you gotta face facts. You blew it. You blew this interview. You didn’t best anybody. You didn’t get revenge. You broke down like a whiny kid, continued to embarrass yourself throughout the event, and then post this nail in the coffin of your own character. This video doesn’t display you as the victim of ill treatment you perceive yourself to be. This video portrays you as an unprofessional interviewer who can’t deal with pressure, can’t think on the fly, and can’t adapt to the changing realities of a hectic awards show.
If you’re smart, you’ll remove this video. You’ll be lucky to get another high profile interview again after displaying this self-absorbed attitude for all to see.
You’re not a champion of “core gamers.” You’re not a man of the people. You’re a guy with a review site. You’re not a “games journalist” (whatever that means). You’re not a critic. You’re a guy with a website.
No one cares about the VGAs. Everyone knows it’s over hyper and not representative of gamers. We don’t need you to champion awareness of this fact.
Stick to what you’re good at and stop making an ass out of yourself.
You should really look at what he does on his site before you comment with stuff you know nothing about. Joe is fairly new to interviewing, that I will admit, but he does review games, and has been for a couple years now. Check his site out first before you make such calls.
Also forgot, reviews is journalism.
I have checked out his site. I frequent this site for reviews. I like Joe’s reviews. He has influenced my purchasing decisions. That is one mark of a good reviewer, in my opinion.
Joe is not a good interviewer. He may be an amateur, but that’s not a pass to a do a bad job or act unprofessional.
Geoff clearly had it in for Joe from the beginning. He saw a guy named ‘Angry Joe’ and characterized him as ‘having these rants’, and purposefully arranged it so that the interview would go like this. Yes, Joe is an amateur, but he went to this show with OUR questions on OUR behalf because gamers deserve an award show that may, one day, be taken seriously.
Geoff knew he was dealing with an amateur who would get flustered by the circumstances. He could have told Joe “I’ll give you a 2 minute Q&A on the red carpet”, but he didn’t. He told Joe he’d give him a 15 minute sit-down interview. He set it up so that Joe would look bad, and purposefully treated him with disrespect during the actual interview. This wasn’t Geoff adapting to the circumstances to give the best interview he could, this was Geoff Keighley specifically targeting Joe to make him look bad so that he wouldn’t have to answer any real questions.
Yes, a professional journalist may have been able to adapt to the situation better – but if ANY journalist was treated like this they would be insulted and offended. Just compare the way that Geoff answers Joe’s question about how the awards are selected, to the way he answered the EXACT SAME QUESTION at the Q&A.
For a guy who used to represent gamers, Geoff is now clearly an industry shill and a corporate TOOL.
You are so Fucking Right!
Joe makes it very clear in the start of his video that he was upfront in his initial contact with the show. He made it clear he wanted to bring questions from his fans and be critical of the awards show. That in itself was probably a bad idea. Telling the person you want to interview you’re going to rip them a new asshole might not be the best way to establish contact.
But it’s unclear from what Joe tells us about his conversations with the VGA people whether any specific time limit or format was agreed upon before he went to interview Geoff. All he tells us is that he made it clear what he wanted. Joe never tells us if his terms or format was agreed upon.
So that’s why I’m surprised so many of you seem to think this is some conspiracy on the part of Geoff and the VGA to target, discredit, and/or silence Angry Joe. There’s not enough info, from watching this video, to make that call. Maybe Joe provided more info in another video regarding his conversations with the VGA. I dunno.
It’s clear to me Joe made a bad first impression and this is the source of his treatment. And that’s it. Personally, I find it hard to blame Geoff for brushing him off like this.
What I don’t get is why did they invite him if they weren’t going to take him seriously?
That one is easy, end his online popularity. When someone like joe criticises your show to your shows target audience, there is a definitive fear of what if this guy goes big and a majority of your target audience see’s the remarks he has made. ( I know I could have worded that better but its difficult to outline as a statement).
Joe is in a rare position where because of his consistent fair, no biased reviews the community trust his opinion over the views of a big faceless company like Spike’s VGA department. So this douche who is apart of the team behind the VGA’s (from what I can gather, not a US resident so I don’t get or know Spike TV) will try to make Joe look bad and break his trust-ability.
Now this left Joe with two options…
1. Don’t post the interview which would have left him safe for awhile, but if Geoff kicked up an online presence asking where the interview with Joe was and why it was not posted here, then as a community we would feel betrayed by Joe and question how honest he is.
2. The other clear option is do what he done here. Post the video and get it out there first how pissed he was over the situation and show us how badly he was treated by Spike and the VGA team.
So overall I say fair play Joe and that this interview as a step forward rather than back. The VGA’s shown there true colours to you and all of us so now we know not to trust them at all when it comes to video games as an art.
I’m definitely not saying there was a conspiracy against Joe or anything, but if Keighley knew that Joe was there to be extra critical about the show and decided to do the interview anyway, he should have been more professional instead of treating Joe like utter crap. The way Keighley acted was deplorable, especially when you consider the press footage when he answered a question that Joe had raised before and answered it with respect, despite the fact that he told Joe that he should “know this already because it’s public knowledge.”
It’s been said that Joe came off a little amateurish, and I’m inclined to agree. But at the same time, it seemed that Joe had this big plan for how he was gonna do it but, as he said, dropped his guard and decided to play things more diplomatically. Still, there’s a right way and a wrong way to be interviewed and Geoff Keighley definitely did things the wrong way, not to mention the environment itself was ill-suited for an interview and Keighley seemed extremely disinterested and like it was a waste of his time.
I personally wish I could’ve been there myself, but my colleagues were the ones that covered the VGAs this year and I don’t know how close they were to Joe or if they saw the interview. Had I been there and seen that go down, I would’ve said something during the Press Q&A and probably would’ve backed up some of Joe’s own claims and questions. Honestly, it did feel like Keighley set out to make a fool out of Joe. Whether that was the intent is left to be seen, but he definitely seemed unnecessarily antagonistic at times. Hopefully, he’ll be straightforward in the email interview, if he even goes through with that.
The thing is, it’s not just his demeanor during the interview that makes me lose all respect for Geoff Keighley. if you remove Joe from the equation, what questions was he asking? Why no category for online gaming? Why no category for fighting games? Why is PC gaming relegated to a single ‘best in platform’ award? Why is there such a focus on unrelated minor celebrities instead of gaming events and personalities? Joe was asking all of those questions, all of OUR questions, and Geoff twisted his words around and interrupted him in order to avoid actually answering those questions.
The only reason to conduct yourself this way in an interview is to specifically avoid providing any concrete answers to those questions. He knows that he can’t answer those questions in a way that makes both gamers and his corporate overlords happy.
If he were honestly answering those questions, he would have to say things like, “Well Neil Patrick Harris and My Chemical Romance are more marketable, bankable celebrities than anything specific to gaming”, “Well the Spike TV audience isn’t interested in Fighting Games so we focus the show on sports titles, music games, and shooters”, “Well Online Gaming is considered nerdy and uncool and we are desperately trying to appeal to a certain demographic that thinks MMOs are for weirdos”, “Well our target demographic is not into PC gaming, because our target demographic is your average meat-head who occasionally pops in Halo or Madden,” etc.
Geoff is using your typical Fox News ‘gotcha’ style of discussion that’s usually reserved for politicians trying to avoid answering difficult questions. Its despicable behavior for someone who claims to care about the games industry.
I do think that you, Joe, came off as an amateur reporter. However you are. I believe that there are unwritten rules in anything a person does. I also believe that a person should learn the rules the hard way. And I think you have learned some learned some.
You did not dissapoint me, Joe. You should not beat yourself up. Like I said before he played you and did it well. I am frustrated that it went poorly. I was hoping that Geoff would give a real sit down interview.
I hope you get the option to do another interview next year. Just be on your toes. I’m looking forward to it.
I feel like this video was a pretty bad move professionally, Joe. Look buddy, you’re an excellent game reviewer, no doubt, but you aren’t good at THIS. It’s pretty clear.
You were surprised that an industry PR guy, who runs the damn show you’re trying to interview him during, was a little distracted? You’re shocked that he can’t sit down in a coffee shop with you for 15 minutes for a nice, quiet, well-lit interview? Think, man! The guy is busy as hell.
You added that little “about to meltdown in 5….4…3…” or whatever meter to your video yourself. I take that to mean that you understood, at the time you made it, that you acted like a fool during the interview. Your voice even starts to tremble and crack. You have no respect for this man at all and yet you seem deeply nervous after he calls you out on your obvious lack of up to date information.
You think he just batted you away with his “why don’t you wait to see how the show turns out” comments, but he was right. You were bringing up stuff from years ago that he had nothing to do with and stammering at him as if he should apologize.
Man, toughen up. You comported yourself very poorly, made yourself look like a dweeb, and then had the audacity to make a video that highlights your mistakes for all to see. You think industry people aren’t taking note? They are. Remove this for your own sake, it just makes you look foolish.
PS: Your review of H.A.W.K.S. 2 persuaded me not to buy it. You’re an excellent game reviewer! Keep that up!
I agree with you on that one. Joe did bring up stuff that wasn’t correct or didn’t pertain to his interviewee, and he is upset that the guy told him to do some research? I agree that Joe should do research. A minor incident – and I do mean minor for me – was when I was interviewing Benzaie. I brought up the dance off against Joe earlier this year, and he reminded me that it was old footage. I wasn’t aware of that and looked dumb for a moment. Always have your guns polished or you’re going to get shot down.
wow i feel so bad for joe. Geoff dicked him around just because he uses “angry joe”.
Joe has some really good points on what VGA is lacking. but eh, Geoff is rich enough to not give a fuck.
btw, well done Joe. you represent the gamers well
I do feel like Joe is going to need to be prepared to be treated like this a lot by industry people who are only going to know that his name is “Angry Joe”, so they’ll be on the defensive from the start and will want to specifically make him look bad.
Any reviewer associated with any site that goes against the industry norm is going to have to fight very hard to keep their foot in the door at all times and Blistered Thumbs has little going for it – any outsider will view everyone at BT as a bunch of newbs (YouTube vloggers or bloggers are not taken seriously, and with good reason for the most part) and to make it worse not too many people here have ‘proper’ journalistic backgrounds. As with anything else there will be elitists dicks that go out of their way to cut others down in order to promote their own ego/agenda.
The challenge Channel Awesome has here is to simply keep pushing on in spite of everyone who tries to push them down. If they can soldier on long enough and play their cards right when opportunities arise then BTs fanbase will continue to grow, the aim of course being to gain enough street cred with fans to forcefully gain industry recognition, whether their peers like it or not.
Hey, angry joe i have a question to ask you.You mention in your interview that the vgas are “biased” towards consoles and dont give enough credit to the pc.But i think you are also biased towards the 360 and the pc.You review kinect games and pc games that no ones ever heard of but, you dont review super mario galxaxy or god of war 3 and many other great titles that are on the ps3 and the wii.In that way you come off as an ignorant hypocrite like geoff.I agree with you about the vgas only caring about consoles,BUT when you do the exact same thing,you shouldnt be the one talking about bias.
P.S:BRING ON THE HATE!!!
He doesn’t even have a Wii or PS3 therefore he cannot review them. btw..
Obvious troll
I was aware of that.But still,if he calls himself an unbiased reviewer that cares about ALL gamers than he should have all consoles
So send him a Wii and a PS3? He has to budget for these things, not only with the actual cost of the systems but with how much time he can spend on each game.
Despite what rabid console fans may say, you can be ‘unbiased’ if you only review games on one system. Never has Joe said that the PS3 or the Wii are bad systems, he just doesn’t have the opportunity to play those consoles.
Also he freely admits to some of his biases (towards action games, shooters, etc)
Joe, mind responding to imagesfromapoet’s Email.
And also ask about being able to view the comments on the Vlog she did. There’s pretty much interesting things that can give you a new sight on how the meeting was.
Even if you do view it yourself, reading other’s opinion and how the meeting went down can you give a glimpse on things you did not see for yourself.
And it would probably give you a few new learning perspectives, improving your reviews and journalistic skills.
Give it a thought, please, as it would give you a chance of becomming a better interviewer.
Thank you.
/A fan of both Imagesfromapoet and Angry Joe Show.
Ps: If other are reading this and goes on to flame images account, you’re not fans of Joe. This is between them and them alone.
So please do not do piss either Images or Joe off.
Thank you for the time if you read this Joe.
Down rated, not out disrepect to you or images, but simply because if the discussion was private she wouldn’t have posted a public vlog about it. Once you do that it is open for debate from the public.
It was Joe who wished to bring this into Email, which images herself said she sent a email to begin a discussion on why she thought why she did.
And I can say she is reasonable, and her opinion should be counted in.
And I say that Joe can be reasonable as well, so there’s alot these 2 people can learn from eachother depending on the content of the discussion they will have.
After watching her vid I can understand why AJ would want to bring it private. Reasonable would not be the world I’d use.
Nonetheless, the video is still public and therefore remains a public discussion topic.
Goeff Keighley is scum. SCUM!!!
So there are a few points that I would like to make. Firstly I would like to express mine and our gratitude because regardless how you feel you handled yourself you are one of the very few reviewers that I have seen who not only gets invited to or goes out of their way to go to these events AND asks to bring questions and concerns from us the viewers. I realize the frustration that you must have been going through at the time and no one can keep a complete composure and act as effectively as they would like under that kind of assault. In light of that I’m not going to critique your execution of the interview even if Geoff was let off easy at times.
That being said I wanna get down to a response to a comment you made at the end of the commentary video. You told us not to troll Geoff and we as the internet gaming community have EVERY RIGHT to troll both Geoff and Spike. The sovereign nation-state of we the internet gamers have the inalienable right AND obligation to make our voices heard. Now that being said, I do not mean mindless 4Chan style cyber assault, because all that would effectively do would be to discredit us and our legitimate concerns. However, if we as a community band together and let it be well known to not only Geoff but to Spike as well, that we will not merely stand aside while we are blatantly disregarded and disrespected than this kind of travesty can be rectified. The VGA’s run on ratings not just preventing the loss of rating but gaining ratings and viewerships to drive in advertising and promotional dollars. We the gamers are who they are targeting and if we don’t speak up than we wont be heard but if we raise our voices we cannot be ignored.
I mean I felt personally affronted by the attitude and behavior of Geoff in that interview and I for one do not think we should stand for it.
~Gelf
I know I’m going to get massive hate for this (especially since this is your website after all), but the reason he’s seemingly disinterested is because of the way you carry yourself and because you’re just rambling on and on. You carry yourself like a moron straight out of a fraternity and not someone looking to legitimately interview another person. It really seems like you’re just asking and saying things off the top of your head. You’re asking for a persons time, not the other way around, so it’s your job to at least pretend like their time is the most important thing to you at the moment even if he’s acting like an asshole and not fritter away the time you have by rambling.
Also, why did you choose to ask for this interview during the VGAs? You’re just asking to be shoved to the side when you’re trying to get someones attention during one of their busiest days. Why didn’t you ask for a one on one before or after? Why didn’t you make sure you were at least allowed backstage so you could be away from the crowds? If they were just blowing you off, why even show up just to have the obvious (this) happen?
This is not how you conduct an interview. If you don’t act like a professional, why should someone treat you like one? You clearly had his full attention until you opened your mouth. Watch a few professional journalists and learn a thing or two for your own sake.
You seem confused. Do your research, man :p (side note I am not in the horde that have/will rate you down)
“It really seems like you’re just asking and saying things off the top of your head.”
“You’re just asking to be shoved to the side when you’re trying to get someones attention during one of their busiest days.”
Maybe that was because he was ambushed and had to think off the top of his head? He requested and was consented to a 15 minute sit-down interview. He wasn’t ready. OF COURSE he wasn’t ready. THAT was their *intention*.
“You’re asking for a persons time, not the other way around,”
“why did you choose to ask for this interview during the VGAs? ”
He was invited by Spike, not the other way around. Spike wanted him there. Presumably, it would seem, for sport.
“Why didn’t you ask for a one on one before or after?”
Are you new here? / Did you even watch that interview footage?
“Why didn’t you make sure you were at least allowed backstage so you could be away from the crowds?”
None of the media was back stage. They were all on that carpet.
“You clearly had his full attention until you opened your mouth.”
Umm, you could clearly see he wanted to blow this over before the interview began. Hell he was even looking away before the interview began.
What is the point to your hyper dribble? Taking stabs at AJs professionalism (as warranted as it may or may not be) by stating things that either didn’t happen or were out of AJs control does not reflect well on you or anyone/thing you represent.
I dissagree. First off Joe did ask for a sit down interview and to talk one on one with him in a more interview friendly place. He however doesn’t have the choice on where the interview was conducted or how long he has for the interview. Not only that but it sounds to me like they never even told him how long the interview was going to be on pupose. Also, reguardless of how an interviewer acts towards you it is unaccaptable in any situation to act unterested and giving the person their undivided attention especially when the whole point of not giving their attention is to waste the interivewers time so he doesn’t get to ask all the questions he wants.
And maybe Joe might’ve actually not have “rambled” as much if he’d been givin a proper interview in the first place.
I see what you are saying but I do not think that Geoff had Joe at interest at all. I think that Geoff was just more experienced with the interview process. IN that I mean dodging questions, changing topics, ect. I think he played Joe. When Joe was thrown off, Geoff took the opportunity. I think he was trying to make Joe come off as an idiot so people would not take Joe seriously. Geoff in a way told Joe off about the question: How are the games chosen. Then the person asked the same question and he said it again in a completely different tone.
Also I wanted to note the way you were handled again at the Q&A – I’ve only seen one other commenter bring this up…
How many other people were addressed by their full name? As far as I can see every other reviewer was addressed by either a grunt or a ‘yes?’. Singling you out was a blatantly (successful) attempt to disrespect you in front of your peers. And your peers showed their contempt for you without hesitation.
This is why I love your stance toward Corporate. As comical as you have portrayed yourself ‘fighting the good fight’, Joe, I truly believe this open, transparent stance is a necessary one in todays media.
Make no mistake, your peers from ‘established’ gaming outlets are little more than Corporate spies.
He was disrespected because Joe put himself in the position, and by pretty much losing it in the media room of course he was going to be laughed at. To everyone in there he was just the nerd with a silly name from some dinky site. The more I think about it, the more he needs to dump this video and just let it fade away because it really makes everyone but Geoff look bad in the way things were handled. I know Joe was promised this and that but face it, this was a nationally televised show and the producer just didn’t have time for some one like Joe. The second he looked at Joe you could see his demeanor go to “yeah this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing I’m just going to make this quick”. Why should he waste his time at that point? If he couldn’t do the sit down interview then why the hell would he come back and do it later? Just to have some guy bash his show. Regardless of how you feel about the VGAs, if you’re a producer and you’ve had to bust your ass to get something ready for national television would you want to sit down with some one you figure is from a You Tube channel?
Losing it? He asked questions just as straight forward as anyone else there.
The rest is irrelevant. Geoff or his assistants knew exactly what Joe was about or they wouldn’t have sent him the invitation. If he had no intention of giving him the interview agreed to they shouldn’t have agreed to it. It’s pretty simple, really.
I am spreading the link to this video around to all my IM people so everyone can see how Geoff acted. That was horrible what he did.
It is good to know that he started in 2007, and that actually kind of prompts an examination of WHAT, IF ANYTHING, changed after Geoff Keighly came on board as executive producer. Like comparing the 2006 VGAs to the 2007 VGAs. And then comparing the 2007, 2008, 2009, and now the 2010 VGAs and seeing what’s gradually gotten better.
This also prompts WHO THE HELL was in charge of the VGAs on Spike from Inception to 2006? What made them think that any of what they did was a good idea?
This isn’t an Awards Show, it’s a hype machine! And frankly, the GDC and E3 have much more respectable awards of their own. GDC actually awards not the games, but the people BEHIND them! E3 also gives awards based on which games show overall promise amongst various categories.
Joe, you took it to him and while it didn’t go as planned, you still went there and did it, and for that we are grateful. (I think it’s safe to say that)
Now for Stage 2. The E-mail interview questions, the follow up and analysis of the 2010 show, and making sure that you get invited back for the 2011 Awards Show. Just like the World’s Most Interesting Man tells us all to stay thirsty…
Stay Angry, Joe. Stay Angry.
~Otaku-Man
Joe, don’t worry. You represented us gamers well. WE MADE THAT DOUCHE LOOK BAD! The word is out now! You handled perfectly; trying to be cool and collected. You were the bigger man and he wasn’t the one who was ready. Keep up the good work and make us gamers proud!
Part of me wants to be mad at Geoff, but part of me also believes that it was the timing and the setting of the interview that ultimately led to its downfall. The show was about to start, celebrities were taking stage, and Geoff is basically in charge of all of it, so he’s under a ton a pressure from both GameTrailers and Spike TV to put on the best show possible. Nobody’s going to act perfectly while on that kind of pressure.
I think Joe’s right that Geoff didn’t really know who he was or what he represented. I’m sure he thought that Joe was an “internet meme” with a gimmick, a camera and a small fanbase. That’s no excuse for how he was treated, but i’m willing to bet that’s why he was put at the end and given such a short amount of time.
Hopefully the answers to the e-mail questions will be better than what he gave in person now that the show is over. Also, like Joe said, a real sit down interview for fifteen or twenty minutes to discuss the state of the VGA’s would have been a better environment. Now that the VGA’s are over, Joe can have a better chance at talking with Geoff about certain issues with the show that couldn’t possibly be all addressed in “two minutes”.
Joe, thanks for trying and for being a professional. I know this first time was disappointing, but as Blistered Thumbs and The Angry Joe Show continue to grow in 2011, I think Geoff will eventually understand who you are, who your audience is and what the site represents. Maybe then you’ll be treated with the respect you deserve.
Don’t worry Joe, I think you did the best you could have done with the situation. I can completely understand what you’re feeling, I had the same problem here at college with the student government organization trying to get a Nerf club I was president for passed as a legitimate club. I also tried playing the diplomat and going through all the hoops they put before us, and even was patient when forms that I needed for a concrete presentation of our constitution was ‘misplaced’. After going through the hoops, they then set the hoops on fire and moved them around, saying that we could be a Rec. sports club when we didn’t even qualify to be one; and they knew that.
The new officers are going to have to deal with my mistakes and will take even longer for the club to be an actual club and get funding, but now I know not to let them walk all over me and give them that feeling. Don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal, Joe, it’ll get better. ^_^
Joe I was wondering, if Geoff does get back to you in email and is willing to answer your questions, or take feedback from the show or willing to listen to ideas for next year’s show, will you still take more questions from us?
Wow, I can’t believe it I had a hunch they would do that to you but like this? I saw the clip with Fox News doing Mass Effect and Geoff defended it and GTTV and Bonus Round. I respected him for defending Mass Effect and he looked humble and kind on the show. This, he was a complete Douche towards him if he was that guy at Fox he would have that 10 minute interview or have a straight serious 2 minute interview at the spot. He became a tool and I’m not sure he was like that when he was at Fox for the whole time. No words to describe it.
Am I the only one who thought he was a dick on FOX too? When he wasn’t trying to interrupt his opposition (as blatantly uninformed as she was) he was attacking the freaking host, an ‘impartial’ mediator, for not playing the game. He knew damn well she hadn’t played it; it was a loaded question. Hell for a host (hostess no less) she appears to have done a pretty impressive amount of research on the game before that segment was conducted. This, coming from a FOX presenter, really surprised me.
And then the whole panel segment afterward was strangely level headed. When you’ve been ‘putting up’ with the usual media spun ‘video games are evil’ nonsense for near 10 years and you start seeing more rational behaviour like this on a station like FOX of all places, you know the good fight is slowly starting to make its impact.
“I feel so full of…what’s the opposite of shame?” “Pride?” “No, not _that_ far from shame. “Less shame?” “Yeah…”
Hey Joe, good job on the interview and don’t beat yourself up on it, the whole thing was out of your control. You did do a good job of asking the questions many of us posed, even though you were given a small and distracted amount of time. While I do realize Geoff Keighley and the VGAs have been slowly and painstakingly getting better it still does not excuse anyone from acting like that in an interview; I mean how does he expect you to ‘magically’ know what the shows contains before you see it, the only way to judge the future of something is by its past. The fact that he failed to realize that there are two categories FILLED with music from MUSIC GAMES makes me wary of any great strides in making this show better. Overall Joe you did good and if Keighley, or anyone with his attitude, ever crawled up on my doorstep on fire I wouldn’t even piss on them to put it out.
And maybe there is some disconect between him and the website designers at spike because non of the information he said was ‘on’ the spike website was on there…. that or they pulled the old white text on white background trick.
I’ve never watched the VGA’s as award shows don’t interest me but I do have some comments on how you could improve your interviews with people that show you disrespect, because this won’t be the first time.
1. Always be prepared now to be rushed and only able to get in 2-3 questions. These questions are your top hitters and you should have studied them to the bone such as how to answer counters to them. Take this interview as a learning experience for next time.
2. When he looks away like that and he’s been pressing you for time like a douche, be assertive when he was looking away you should have his attention back to you such as snapping your fingers and telling him to look at you and stop avoiding you.
I like how you continued to ask questions at the second part. I got pissed when he made the audience laugh but you should have struck back at that, not with an insult but with a question to make him look bad to get the focus off you.
I really hope he answers the email questions you send. Best of luck in the future Joe!
I am flabbergasted at how much of a jackass this Geoff was in the interview. His barely paying attention to Joe is the very definition of rude, and everything he had to say was, to put it very mildly, hogwash.
To Joe, don’t blame yourself. Geoff obviously wasn’t taking this interview seriously and considering his vague answers to the questions I wonder if he just didn’t know what he was talking about and was doing his best to dodge them by trying to find some fault with your questions. Admittedly it may have been better if you’d been a little more prepared such as being able to name good MMOs and knowing FF14 was out and maybe being quicker to respond to Geoff’s being such an ass (like the second time he turned away, you probably should have said something). However, let me point out that these were only minor things and the reason for the failure of this review goes 99.9999999999999% to Geoff on the account of his rude, and damned arrogant, behavior. Joe, there was nothing wrong with you being polite and all at the start. That’s how you’ve done interviews at conventions with game creators and the like (not to mention you do seem to come off as a pleasant and likable guy, and don’t let a douche like Geoff change that about you, man) and those folks tend to be polite and informative for an interview because they realise this is good publicity for their work and is a great way to bring in the customers, who they don’t want to risk alienating. They know being vague, rude, and all that presents a negative image, and in this day and age, where many of us gamers rely on the opinions of trusted sources of game info like you, Joe, a negative image can really hurt (I’m looking at you Square Enix). Sadly, Geoff doesn’t have to worry about who he offends as long as it doesn’t cause Spike any harm moneywise. The guy’s probably sitting back in his fancy aprtment/house, drinking 75 year old wine, while marking your e-mail as spam right now so he can give an excuse to say why he didn’t answer your e-mails if you come back for a rematch next year.
I do look forward to whatever other videos you’ve got for us that hopefully shows that this trip wasn’t a total loss for you .
I’d also like to say that while kudos to you for being a good sport and telling us not to troll Geoff, I think maybe those of us with cooler heads and good writing skills should contact Geoff and tell him what we think of his so called “people skills” and make it clear, in a civil way mind you, that we serious gamers do not approve of his attitude or how he and his company think they understand us. Perhaps then Spike will get the message and make the VGAs into a game awards and premiere event that we gamers can acknowledge and respect.
And to get a bit off topic, I too believe that you and the guys at Blistered Thumbs should pool your talents and all into creating your own video game awards. There are many of us in the community (me included) who I’m sure would also like to contribute: help you guys into creating a good system of categories, help to make sure game nominations and the eventual selection of the winner is fair and makes sense.
You handled that much better than I would’ve, Joe. I probably would have lost my temper and assaulted the guy. “TWO MINUTES?! TWO FUCKING MINUTES?!!!!!”
Joe you did the best that you could given the situation. However, I highly suspect that now, based on how Geoff acted towards you and the air that he seemed to have about him while he was talking to you that he really was disillusioned by your name and was expecting you to go at him raging. Due to that I suspect that he probably won’t agree to another interview or anything like that because he thinks of you as just some guy, not the representative that you really are. Thanks for at least trying.
Wow, looking at that blog I see a hate rant versus Angry Joe, a link to a hate rant versus Spoony and a link to a hate rant versus TGWTG. Transparency, much?
A site dedicated to tall poppy syndrome I see. Well, since no one has ever heard of you before and now because you posted here a whole 3 people have checked out your site, congratulations! It is working for you.
Good luck getting your ‘professionalism’ hat any time soon though.
Joe, you got railroaded by that little dickless douchebag. Scum like him are the reason video games may never be seen as a legitimate form of art. This is as bad as that response Spoony got from Spike Games. They DO cater to the lowest common denominator. Spike’s VGAs are nothing more than a giant advertisement.
While you’re right about Spikes handling of Spoonys review, Spoony reacted even worse than Joe did (Joes was relatively collected compared to his usual persona:p) and Spoony actually lost a lot of respect from me for that one outburst. Acting like some sort of reviewer God is not cool.
Off topic but I hope that hater blog guys rumour of Spoony wanting out of TGWTG is completely fabricated; I only found Spoony through TGWTG.com and while Spoony quickly found a place in my fave personalities from there, he’s certainly not the best they have. Of course, it would be TGWTGs loss as well; the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts – I adore every cross over Spoony does.
Dude, Joe, don’t worry. Based on the limited amount of time, the environment, and the douchy behavior of Geoff, you handled it pretty well. I just hope you get that sit-down with him. Watching those interviews, both red carpet and press room, just pissed me off!! I think you just need to catch Geoff when he’s calm and has plenty of time, then maybe he won’t be such a douche. Though, I have to say, this year’s show did have a lot less disappointment than I was expecting. For instance, I was sure Black Ops was gonna win GOTY since it was insanely popular(overrated, if you ask me), so Red Dead Redemption winning was a pleasant surprise. Also, Super Mario Galaxy 2 definitely deserved best Wii game.
Well there’s nothing surprising about how that turned out. Their attitude toward actual gamers is stated loud and proud in the content of their shows. If they’ve been at this since 2002 and still only incrementally improved each year then it’s pretty clear they’re only doing the minimum necessary to not be completely written off by the industry as a waste of time.
To that end, it’s no surprise that the only reason they invited you to the show was to tear you one. Lure you into their trap with false promises, ambush you, listen only for keywords just enough to indirectly answer your questions, with the aim to rip you to shreds for the slightest slip up. They invited you there for sport Joe, and I’d be very surprised if anything substantial came from the email questions.
You did screw up a bit though, even given the circumstances. Being polite only gave him more room to trample over you, and you have been championing MMOs a lot since last year; you really should have been able to list at least at least three straight off the bat. My biggest let down was when *you* said FFXIV wasn’t released this year. The man clearly knew nothing about the subject and you GAVE him that ammunition. Forget the fact the game is a pile of shit that could never honestly be awarded anything, since he clearly knew nothing of the subject that was your one chance to get some leverage over that ‘conversation’.
Joe, I love your videos, and your passion but a few things. First off you did get blind sided by the two minutes when you were told otherwise but you have to realize that compared to the big corporate sites Blistered Thumbs isn’t going to get that type of request. Second, yeah he did try to knock you down a peg but you can’t lose it like that because it just damages your credibility and I know you’re still learning and this is just a learning experience but you gotta be prepared for stuff like that. he’s a PR flunky and that’s what PR flunkies do, give you some processed answers, treat you like shit, and try to down play what ever you have to say. Finally third that display in the end made blistered thumbs look bad, your colleagues looks bad, and worst of all yourself. I mean hey you got some attention and this will blow over and be a great learning experience. Keep on fighting man, you have alot of support and don’t dwell on this you’re above that.
what a piece of shit , why couldn’t he just answer your fucking questions he didn’t answer a single one of ‘em. i hate ppl who see the honest media as their enemies And btw i LOVED when u got mad and just raped his face , he wasn’t expecting the at all i’l gueessing . and those little “whooo’s” at the end of that question wth was that about . tbh i hate all the big magazines nowadays like gamestop and gametrailers and ign they all seem to favor games that sell good not that are good . idk maybe it’s more a personal experience thing but i just choose game either on the game dev’s previous work or because friends tell me it’s a good game.
I could not find anything on the Spike TV web site on how games are nominated. So Geoff, I have checked out the web site and none the wiser. To be fair, I did check out the Academy Awards (Oscars.com) web site and could not find how films get nominated either.
I am not a big fan of award shows but do the Academy Awards or Emmys present upcoming movies and television shows? If the game industry wants to promote upcoming games, let them buy advertising space.
The VGA’s was 2 hours long and presented something like 8 awards out of 30 categories. They could have presented more awards in that time or at least ensure they air all the winners in the time without listing all the nominees. And why didn’t they have a quick blurb about check out all the categories on Spike.com
It was said several times at the VGA’s that gaming is now the biggest entertainment industry now but yet has the most contraversal award show.
I agree with Joe that things are getting better. Two positives I can list for this year:
- No corporate sponsored award (Fueled by Mountain Dew)
- No shameless new show promotions from Spike TV at the awards (Blue Mountain State)