Features// The British Academy Video Game Awards 2011

Oh, what a night. Rarely is there an industry event worth looking forward to than the BAFTAs.

Usually it’s a time where meek games journalists can pretend they’re experienced at red carpet occasions, and see even meeker nominated developers get overshadowed by the attendance of whoever was on Big Brother ten years ago. This year, it was different.

The heightened media attention on game developers felt like someone at the British Academy had flicked a switch to make the mainstream realise - if only for one night - that the computer games industry is a big deal.

As I stood in the middle of a massive red carpet scrum facing the doorway, I could see journalists from every kind of outlet ask for some face time with people like David Cage (Heavy Rain), Stig Asmussen (God of War III) and Vincent Pontbriand (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood). That’s to say nothing of the attention Peter Molyneux was getting.

These are the faces behind the games that millions of people love who previously - perhaps as recently as two years ago - wouldn’t have been given the time of day by those same reporters. Indeed, it was quite telling that ‘cheat sheets’ were being passed to journalists with names and faces of those nominated for awards.

It certainly highlights a cultural shift in how the games industry is being seen on a mainstream scale, and the result was a sense of humble accomplishment among industry figureheads.

And rightly so, judging by the reception of the celebrities who had been invited to present the awards that evening. While it would be naive to assume that these seasoned actors, TV personalities and sports stars were avid gamers, the level of respect that each of them showed for the industry was something I had never seen before.

“I don’t really play games - I’m not really very good on the other side of the camera, but I’m absolutely interested in the craft and the creation of computer games,” Sir Ben Kingsley revealed as he was entering the awards venue. The legendary actor was there to present Peter Molyneux with his Fellowship, but applauded the difference in acting within the medium.

“What’s delightful about character exploration for a video game - especially one as refined as Fable III - is that you’re asked to express your reaction alongside another set of circumstances that are forced upon him. It’s like being told in the rehearsing studio, ‘how would you react if you were pushed that way?’ We literally have to act in a way that’s structured very differently to film and that’s almost like a brilliant acting exercise in character development. It’s very exciting.”

TV presenter and comedy star Robert Llewellyn also had some game-related stories to tell. “I’m always interested in technology, and this whole world is still very new to me. I have a seventeen-year-old son who shows me… Black Ops. He tries to make me play it, and I can almost do three or four paces before I’m mercilessly gunned down by his mates! I used to look after this kid when he was a baby, and he just shot me in the back!”

The Scrapheap Challenge frontman - who didn’t arrive in junkyard attire - told me what game he was good at. “I know it’s a bit rubbish to say, but I play Angry Birds. I think for someone like me, these kinds of games are better to play as they’re more accessible. I can’t use these controller things, I just get it wrong. There’s too many buttons and I don’t know what I’m doing.

"So when you’re flinging your finger about and catapulting birds around it’s easy to understand… I suppose that the gaming experience is somewhat limited though!” he added with a chuckle.