Sometimes I realize how lucky I am.  Last week was one of those times.

The Frag Dolls have been doing a lot with Game Invasion, Comcast’s gaming channel, as you may have seen over the last few months.  We’ve visited development studios to interview the faces behind the games, and most recently we did some on-the-floor interviews with other industry icons at CES.  It’s been a lot of fun and if you don’t know what I’m talking about I highly recommend hitting up our media page and watching some of the videos.

Thanks to our friends at Game Invasion, we had an incredible opportunity to be part of the AIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences) Awards this year.  The AIAS Awards take place during the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, and recognize the year’s greatest accomplishments within the industry.  The thing I like about AIAS in particular is that it is run by the industry and the board is made up of some of the real power players in gaming.  The SpikeTV VGA’s are one thing… these are just plain classy, and they’re about the games rather than the random celebrities who came for the food.  Shocking.

Rhoulette and I flew in to present the Action/Adventure game of the year, and we did it like proper ladies.  We acquired the guidance of an amazing stylist Kallah Maguire, shopped like we meant it, and gave ourselves too many hours to get ready.  I don’t want to be too specific here, but the hours were in the double digits. Just kidding.  I don’t know if it’s actually possible to take that long.  But we did take a while.

The awards themselves were amazing, preceded by a pre-party and a red carpet, then followed by an after-party.  These awards shows are ALL ABOUT the parties! A++ Would buy from again.  We presented alongside legends like Sid Meier, Cliff Bleszinski, and Phil Harrison.  There were others there as well who I felt honored to share general vicinity with.  I was overheard a few times whispering things like, “Oh my god, it’s Reggie Fils-Aime!  I’m close enough to breathe on him. Do you think he’d mind?” I’ve been a Frag Doll for a long time now, but it is still possible for me to be star-struck.  Good to know.

Gears of War was up for approximately 1 billion awards, and it took most of them, including the one we awarded.  I’m not sure why they didn’t just seat Mr. B and Mark Rein on-stage. It would have been easier.  Epic really does deserve kudos for creating something that can stand out so well.  Phil Harrison was very classy about giving them credit when he presented them with one of their 8 awards. And of course Rainbow Six Vegas took home the FPS of the Year award, an announcement that met with rowdy cat-calls from both myself and Rhoulette.  We already knew it was the best, but it’s good to see the game recognized in a more official capacity.

I’m proud that the Frag Dolls were able to be part of this event, and I’m thrilled I didn’t fall on my face navigating the stairs onstage (I’m terrible at walking in heels).  Thank you to Ubisoft for creating this team, thank you to Game Invasion for making it possible for us to be involved, and thank you to the AIAS board for having us.  I hope we’ll see you again next year. ...oh look, my own little thank you speech. Is this where I get played off?

- jinx

trust in my self-righteous suicide