Two days ago, in the days leading up to The Game Awards 2022, I wrote about how the The highly contradictory fashion at the event was a reference to the industry’s identity crisis. Things quickly got out of control.
The discourse machine cranked up and started spinning at an incredibly fast speed: Nintendo President Doug Bowser tweeted me, Xbox President Phil Spencer responded to the thread and confirmed that he now knows what Mike Mercante wears to get bagelseach strained the “t-shirt-and-blazer” fit, and the word “drip” was learned and subsequently overused by half the industry.
Other publications wrote about the discoursethe developers agreed, and the run-up to the Game Awards was less about speculation about which game GOTY would win (spoilers: it was Elder Ring) and more on whether or not Josef Fares would wear a skintight t-shirt again (spoilers: he didn’t).
Ultimately, it seems my call worked. Numerous people who attended the event told me in DMs that I embarrassed the attendees to dress better. The hosts and stage talent at this year’s Game Awards were almost uniformly dressed smarter than in previous years, and even Phil Spencer appeared to be wearing a slightly more formal outfit.
The Game Awards is an opportunity to have fun with fashion and engage with the themes that are so common in the games the night celebrates, so it was great to see some people actually doing that last night. That’s why I decided to highlight the best-dressed attendees and award winners of gaming’s biggest night. You all did great, cuties.
