As we continue to honor our 15-year legacy, we flash back to 2011’s Game of the Year, and its presenter, Daniel Radosh from The Daily Show. Comedy from The Daily Show has been with us since Awards One, and it started with journalist-turned-comedy writer Radosh. 

Our first ever Awards show may have used PowerPoint slideshow, but that didn’t stop our tenacious creatives from giving it their all to make the nominees and winners feel welcome. Daniel Radosh exemplified this idea, using his satire to highlight how far games had changed since the turbulent years of the early 2000s. 

Back then in the world of politics, pundits weaved the narrative that video games only sought to feed a child’s violent tendencies. But Daniel refuted these claims with as much satire as he could fit in this hilarious, historical clip above (and the first Game of the Year Award, which went to Skyrim). 

Radosh spoke about lamenting the death of the music games genre (and subsequently, his journalism career), the infamous Black Friday bum rushes for new consoles, and a litany of grimly comedic game ideas that, even today, couldn’t possibly be sold to the public. All the while, the crowd laughed and cheered, helping to seed a consistency of future awards shows. Today, we continue to bring the hilarity within gaming into the spotlight today with The Daily Show’s Devin Delliquanti and his In Memoriam segment. 

Now, as we move closer towards our 15th Awards, we’re once again thankful to all The Daily Show’s writers present at previous events. 

At the Critics Circle, we are definitely ecstatic to see more masterful comedic material displayed at the landmark 15th New York Game Awards. We can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for you this coming January!

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