The creator of God of War Cory Barlog believes that video game awards shows should feature less movie stars. The 2018 Game Awards featured several actors who have very little to do with the video game industry, with Christoph Waltz and Jonah Hill both presented awards for different categories.
Cory Barlog has worked within the video game industry for almost two decades. He got his start working as the lead animator for Paradox Development on their game X-Men: Dimensions. In 2005 he joined Santa Monica Studios to work on the first God of War game. Barlog has since worked on every single God of War game as either an animator, story writer, or more recently as game director. His devotion to the series has won him and the games several awards over the years including Game of the Year for the most recent God of War. He's also used his platform to voice his opinion on video games and the industry, although he's generally a very positive presence.
Yesterday on Twitter Barlog was very critical of video game award shows. While watching the Golden Globes he couldn't help but feel that it was wrong that there were not many video game personalities giving out awards to the movie and TV stars. He rightfully points out that The Game Awards are full of TV and movie personalities, but that there is no representation of the gaming industry at other awards shows. He also wanted to reiterate that he wasn't angry at the actors and actresses, but rather that the video game industry workers should believe in themselves more as creators.
A lot of critics and fans believe that God of War (2018) is Barlog's and Santa Monica studios greatest creative achievement. The game stepped away from a lot of what defined the God of War franchise. Instead of focusing on Kratos' anger at the Greek Pantheon, the spartan is now instead raising his son in the world of Norse Mythology. The combat system changes drastically as well by arming Kratos with a throwable Axe for most of the game instead of his iconic twin blades.
The lack of video game industry workers at award shows must be very hard for those workers to see. The people working on video games put in just as much work as members of the film industry do, but yet get less acknowledgment. There are other criticisms for the awards show out there, but Barlog is one of the first in the industry to really bring this to public attention. With as much work as Cory Barlog put into God of War, maybe fans will get to see him handing out awards at the Oscars someday soon.
God of War is available now on PlayStation 4.
Source: Cory Barlog/Twitter