October 5th will see the launch of The British Academy Video Games Awards (BAVGA?) at The Roundhouse as part of the London Games Festival. This is an attempt by BAFTA to give video games the same credibility as film and television as an art form. Here is a quote from the BAFTA website.

“The Academy is now committed to the development of the contemporary art form of video games, and to lending equal weight to its British Academy Video Games Awards as that given to film and television.”

There is quite an extensive list of the award categories available, so here they are:

• Action & Adventure - sponsored by PC World
• Strategy
• Simulation
• Sports
• Massively Multiplayer
• Children’s
• Casual & Social
• Audio
• Soundtrack
• Original Score
• Technical Achievement - sponsored by Skillset
• Artistic Achievement
• Screenplay
• Gameplay - sponsored by Nokia N-Gage
• Innovation
• Character
• Game - sponsored by PC
• The Gamers’ Award - sponsored by Nokia N-Gage

Most of these awards are self-explanatory but some could do with a little clarification; Casual and Social is an award for arcade and mobile phone type games, like Singstar, Buzz and Crazy Frog Racer; Character is for the best character new or old, released in a game this year. You may also have noticed that some of these awards have sponsors, including PC World, Skillset and curiously Nokia N-Gage (do they still make those?), which will sponsor the Gamers’ Award.

The Gamers’ Award is the only award that will be voted for by members of the public, it has not yet been revealed how to vote for your favourite game but BAFTA say that that information will come shortly.