By Harold Goldberg

The New York Videogame Critics Circle is proud to present its Andrew Yoon Legend Award to Todd Howard, the brilliant director and executive producer of Bethesda Game Studios. He’ll receive our Legend Award at the New York Game Awards ceremony on January 24th, 2018 at Manhattan’s Abrons Playhouse.

Todd Howard’s landmark work on the expansive, long-running Fallout and Elder Scrolls series proves not only his own creativity and work ethic, but also that of his ardent teams at Bethesda. It’s clear from the interviews Todd’s given that he pores over every possible portion of each open world game.

Howard thinks deeply about the player experience, everything from the right way to begin a quest to how a free mobile game can enhance the play of the bigger console adventure. Ultimately, Todd thinks it’s all about the fan, and that’s the way it always should be.

Todd is the perfect person to give hope and optimism to a videogame company. Smart and savvy, he just doesn’t give up. As a young person in high school, he applied for a job at Bethesda. The company said, Come back when you finish school. He did just that. And he was still turned down. Yet he persisted – and thank the videogame gods for that.

Personally, Fallout 3 meant so much to me that I not only bought the Collectors Edition with the lunch box and bobblehead. I put Vault Boy into all of the media photos for my book, “All Your Base Are Belong to Us (How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture).” The gritty, surreal, post-apocalyptic trip I experienced in Fallout 3 was somewhat like a great book to me, so it make sense that the little bobblehead who represented an epic, novelistic experience would also be in the photo near the end of my book.

And it was a Bethesda’s open world fantasy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, that won the New York Videogame Critics Circle’s very first Game of the Year Award on February 2, 2012. Here’s what the New York Times wrote back then.

The Circle is working hard now on a short documentary to honor Todd Howard. We hope he likes what he sees when he attends the ceremony on January 24th. And you can go, too.

Tickets are now on sale for the 7th Annual New York Game Awards and your admission includes the after party with the game developers and our critics. What we earn from the Awards goes back into our non-profit organization to help with mentoring, scholarships and workshops here in New York City.

See you at The New York Game Awards!

Journalist/author Harold Goldberg is the Founder of the New York Videogame Critics Circle.