Is it just me, or does every celebrity love Halo? Comic/actor/model Aisha Tyler certainly seems to promote the fact that she’s got some mad Halo skilz…

So ya, I watched G4’s G-Phoria Awards. As young-male entertainment I’d say it was pretty compelling. From an industry awards point of view, it was horrendously embarrassing.

We’ve all heard how TV viewing is dwindling among young males, a key marketing demographic. And, more and more, networks are creating content to specifically to appeal to this demographic - in many cases, to great effect. As a marketing tool and means to reach that audience, I’d say that G-Phoria (and other “awards” shows like the SpikeTV Game Awards) was a smashing success. I’m sure Microsoft is especially pleased as nearly every celebrity that was interviewed on the red carpet was like, “Hey man, do you know where the Halo2 game pods are? That’s the only reason I came.” Seriously, the stars were there to play Halo2.

On an industry level, G-Phoria is a joke. There were only two developers to hit the stage. One was Hideo Kojima, who was there to receive a the game legend award. The other was the lead “encoder” from EA who got booed off stage and nailed with footballs from audience (ya, it was a joke). Other than that, doe-eyed CliffyB was doing some backstage action to intro the various game of the year nominees.

It wasn’t until the post-ceremony behind-the-scenes show that they actually talked to developers and interviewed other industry folks.

Obviously, I am biased, but it is just embarrassing that they have to rely on a bumbling Anna Nicole to convince themselves that they’ve got something entertaining. I forget who said it, but one of the invited celebs noted “I love games, the developers are my rockstars”.

Hmm, I think that celeb is on to something…