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The 1st Annual OG Awards - Miscellaneous Awards

Posted on January 16, 2012 by OG

Original-Gamer.com has been up and running for more than 3 years now, and we've never gave official awards. Today, we start our annual awards, The OG Awards. Award winners will be revealed on Monday 1/16, Wednesday 1/18, and Friday 1/20.

Today we have our miscellaneous awards for 2011.

Game Company That Gained The Most Respect This Year

It’s hard to say what’s more awesome about Valve. The huge deals every few months that leave gamers’ wallets empty, leaving them with a computer filled with games for a fraction of other retailers’ best prices? Or how about their Potato Sack campaign that let players play Portal 2 early IF they played through several indie games thus moving the spotlight from Portal 2 and putting it directly on the indie scene? It could be Gabe Newell’s mantra of put the customers first and the money will come, resulting in huge profits as Steam has become the gaming equivalent of the iTunes store, providing convenient, low-priced games while making pirating look like more of a chore.

Game Company That Lost The Most Respect This Year

Capcom, Capcom, Capcom. Do you really feel good about yourself being more of an asshole than EA and Activision? Those guys gave gamers one or two slaps across the face, but you Capcom, you guys did an E. Honda Hundred Hand Slap across ALL our faces. Let’s look at the big ones: you released the update (Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3) for a fighting game in the SAME year as the original (Marvel vs. Capcom 3), made a 3DS game that had only one save slot that couldn't be erased, became the first company to set a price point of $50 for a 3DS game (Resident Evil: Revelations), cancelled Mega Man Universe, then Mega Man Legends 3, then blamed gamers for the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 and MegaMan Universe due to lack of interest, and THEN started selling DLC cheat codes. EA and Activision have had their reputations shot over the years, but neither of them came close to ruining the reputation of a once-loved game company that Capcom did this year.

Biggest Disappointment Of The Year That Wasn't Duke Nukem Forever

Dead Island OG Award

Not since the Daikatana ads with the phrase “John Romero is going to make you his bitch!” has an unknown game received so much hype because of one ad. That’s what the trailer for Dead Island did, but not in the traditional sense. What the trailer did was stir up emotions in a way that many wished games could do. It was a trailer that made grown men cry, and keep everyone in awe of this game called Dead Island. Then the game came out, and as soon as the intro hit, everything great about the trailer was lost in the sea of “WTF” that is Dead Island. The game is still good, although it has plenty of glitches and some questionable character choices. It is safe to say that if the trailer had your hopes up for the game, the game itself gave a headshot to those hopes once you started playing it.

Biggest Surprise Of The Year

Dues Ex OG Award

Think about this task: create a prequel to what many consider to be the best PC game ever. Sounds daunting, doesn’t it? For Eidos Montreal, this was the task to complete and sure enough, they accomplished it. Not only did they create a game that was worthy of being in the Deus Ex franchise, it was BETTER than the original Deus Ex. Fans were hoping for a quality game, but no one was expecting a game of such high caliber from Eidos Montreal. They went above and beyond to remind fans what they loved about the series, and create new fans that had never played any of the games.

Biggest Asshole Of The Year

In August, we debuted a new segment on the podcast called “And then there’s this Asshole,” where I would call out an asshole from the gaming world. While we have featured a good number of assholes already, one asshole stood head and shoulders above the rest. That asshole is our original asshole, Laron von Baron aka Gamersgettingplayed aka the crazy conspiracy-theorist old guy. From his claims that he had info capable of bringing down Xbox Live (which he didn’t) to his theory that Microsoft told Project Aces to make Ace Combat: Assault Horizon a Call of Duty clone with planes, Laron set the bar high for bat shit crazy. His focus on gaming and his proposed “gamer’s union” ended up coming to a grinding halt after being called out by yours truly. He then swiftly gave up on gamers, claiming that all his efforts were not being supported so why should he bother. That lead him to create a new Youtube channel where he is hoping aliens will save the planet Earth. Not only is Mr. Baron an asshole, not only is he a crazy asshole, but he was THE asshole for 2011.

Check back on 1/18 when we reveal the genre awards. Think we missed the mark? Let us know in the comments.