AIAS’ Joseph Olin on the Capcom controversy

Joseph Olin, president of The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, has faced controversy over the past two years due to the exclusion of Resident Evil 4 and Okami in the final awards votes.

Not including Okami does of course seem a bit off, especially if the body holding the awards was established to promote games as a valid art form. Okami not a finalist? Not artistic enough? Well, the thing is, to be eligible to be listed as a finalist, the Academy requires that the publisher of the game be an Academy member.

The controversy here, of course, is that Capcom has publicly called this Academy policy nothing more than buying an award. The fuel that turned the fire into an inferno was when God of War‘s David Jaffe told the crowd at DICE, “Thank God for Capcom. We’re probably going to be able to pick up some awards tonight.”

IGN reports that here’s Olin’s take on the whole issue:

The issue of Capcom’s participation in the [awards] is an election by Capcom not to be a member of the Academy, …Most of the other professional organizations [in other mediums] have membership fees and awards participation fees. Ours are minimal. End of story. They should not be a hurdle. It would be unfair to all the other publishers, all the other developers, all the independent game makers who have been Academy members for [up to] ten years… to let Capcom [be exempt].

As for Okami not making it as one of the finalists, here’s Olin’s defense:

The peer panelists, of which we have close to 400, determine which games they want to recognize. It’s not like we give them a list of games they must award. Okami was considered this year… Okami did not make it as a finalist in some of the key categories this year as determined by the voters. It wasn’t determined by rule. If it had been named a finalist, Capcom would [then be asked to become a member of the Academy].

Okay, fine. We get the reasoning, again we ask the question (this time to the 400 peer panelists): Why not Okami?

Via IGN

Joseph Olin, president of The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, has faced controversy over the past two years due to the exclusion of Resident Evil 4 and Okami in the final awards votes.

Not including Okami does of course seem a bit off, especially if the body holding the awards was established to promote games as a valid art form. Okami not a finalist? Not artistic enough? Well, the thing is, to be eligible to be listed as a finalist, the Academy requires that the publisher of the game be an Academy member.

The controversy here, of course, is that Capcom has publicly called this Academy policy nothing more than buying an award. The fuel that turned the fire into an inferno was when God of War‘s David Jaffe told the crowd at DICE, “Thank God for Capcom. We’re probably going to be able to pick up some awards tonight.”

IGN reports that here’s Olin’s take on the whole issue:

The issue of Capcom’s participation in the [awards] is an election by Capcom not to be a member of the Academy, …Most of the other professional organizations [in other mediums] have membership fees and awards participation fees. Ours are minimal. End of story. They should not be a hurdle. It would be unfair to all the other publishers, all the other developers, all the independent game makers who have been Academy members for [up to] ten years… to let Capcom [be exempt].

As for Okami not making it as one of the finalists, here’s Olin’s defense:

The peer panelists, of which we have close to 400, determine which games they want to recognize. It’s not like we give them a list of games they must award. Okami was considered this year… Okami did not make it as a finalist in some of the key categories this year as determined by the voters. It wasn’t determined by rule. If it had been named a finalist, Capcom would [then be asked to become a member of the Academy].

Okay, fine. We get the reasoning, again we ask the question (this time to the 400 peer panelists): Why not Okami?

Via IGN