And The Award Goes To...

Going Deeper

So is it time that the industry finally opened its arms and embraced the Academy? Well, if you're not convinced by whether or not it's all worth it for one night of glitz alone, maybe you're missing the point - the Awards themselves are really only the tip of the iceberg, and the Academy is working hard to try and use the rest of the year to fulfil the other part of its remit, the support and develop part.

Last year the BAFTA Surgeries at the GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair proved incredibly popular with attendees, putting prospective industry members - not to mention those already in videogames careers - in front of experienced people to get advice on potential careers.

There are also plans afoot to expand the academy side of BAFTA's output as well, so is it time for the industry to show it's full support? Maguire certainly thinks so.

"I think historically there's been a lot of doubt as to why BAFTA were even in this," he said. "The reality is that BAFTA understands that gaming is now a major part of entertainment, but maybe there was some confusion as to what that actually meant, maybe some people thought it was about revenue? Maybe they didn't know, and actually people still don't know, that BAFTA is a charity. It's not about revenue, it's purely about educating the public on excellence and innovation in the moving image.

"So I think we still need to get some more process into BAFTA from people within the creative side of our business, and that's why I'm asking for more members as well, to help shape this.

"For those people that have been through the judging process over the past few years they'll notice there's been a big change - those people who are actually judges will appreciate the kind of levels that people went into in going through the games and understanding the nuances of them.

"The discussions on them have been deep and in some cases very heated - which is great, because it means people are talking about the games and the areas they were judging with some depth. I think if that's the case, when that award goes to someone, you know it was a well-deserved award.

"But people do need to support BAFTA more - I'd like to see people come to us with ideas on things to do, because it's not all about one night of awards, it's about 365 days of educating the public about what we do.

"So maybe it's in line with the Paddington Academy, teaching kids what it's like to get into TV, or games, or film - there's loads of stuff people could do in going down to the academy and doing master classes."

Whatever happens at this year's Awards, and whether a game from 2007 wins big or not, the ceremony itself is an important date in the games industry's calendar - and not just because of the mainstream buy-in it brings.

If one of the games industry's chief ambitions is to be able to "eat at the same table as film and TV" then BAFTA is one of the best neutral conduits for it to achieve that - and to not to take advantage of such an opportunity would be a real shame.