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Topic: What makes a game "GOTY"?

Posts 121 to 136 of 136

Anti-Matter

@Magician
I don't think so.
Just look what happened with BOTW in my hand. I sold the game after more than 4 years i keeping the game because I didn't even click with the game after several minutes playing and found it was not the game I want to continue.
BOTW is a GOTY ?
What the heck?!
That was the game that I could possibly throw to the dumpster. GOTY is NOT always a good indication a worthy game.
GOTY by other peoples mostly the games that I will never like or want to play.

Edited on by Anti-Matter

Anti-Matter

Magician

@Anti-Matter I don't disagree, I don't care much for BotW either because of the weapon degradation mechanic. But I can't discredit its numerous merits. Its open world design, audio design, art design, and physics engine are the best in the series. You and I may not think it's GotY material, but clearly we're in the minority.

Different strokes for different folks.

Switch Physical Collection - 1,241 games (as of March 23rd, 2024)
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iLikeUrAttitude

It's mostly just a popularity contest and nothing more.

Good... good
Now play Dragon Quest

Maxenmus

I totally agree. GotY awards no longer possess the same kind of merit anymore nowadays, but that's not saying much, considering how most award shows are shams nowadays - the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys. These awards are all based on either popularity or voted on by a PR team judging which "wins" will gain the most likes on social media. It's all rigged nowadays.

That's why I've always said: popularity doesn't always equate to quality. The two can be mutually exclusive sometimes. Persona games selling well doesn't mean they're great games IMO (or better games than SMT mainline titles). It just means they're more appealing to a larger audience, who might not care for the features more quality games have to offer.

Likewise, GotY games might not always be my favorite either even if the award is well-deserved. Some games might be awarded for gameplay features that you might not enjoy, and that's perfectly fine.

Furthermore, I liked some of the games that got awarded GotY a decade ago, but I feel like quite a few of those, especially over the recent years, were awarded such a title only based on their storytelling value more than their gameplay value, which is absurd for a video game award. I'll be the first to defend the importance of good storytelling in video games, but even I could admit that it's kinda absurd to just award a game for "good story writing" when it offers zero gameplay accomplishments for the gaming industry as a whole.

Edited on by Maxenmus

Maxenmus

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skywake

oof, that last reply on this thread before the necro. wow.......

On the topic at hand, whatever the hell it was. Lets just pretend it is what it says on the tin and not the slightly, ahh, different undercurrent of the topic that was ACTUALLY being discussed. Yes. I think if I was to create a publication and make a GotY award? It would mostly be judging based on what I thought was the "best" not what was most popular. However, the two aren't entirely separate.

I think what you kinda want for that kind of award is to give credit to the media that had the most influence. The thing that changed the way people looked at the media the most. And you know what? When something's hugely popular that also lends to it being pretty influential

Just step back a bit and think about previous years. What would you classify as "game of the year" from previous years. What makes an game stick, what makes people continue to talk about it for decades after release? Eg for 2006, in retrospect what should've been the game of the year for 2006? Would you still give it to Twilight Princess? Gears of War? Oblivion? Okami? I think maybe in retrospect it should've been given to Wii Sports given of all the games released that year Wii Sports was the game that changed the landscape more than any other title......

So yeah, does popularity matter more than quality for "GotY"? Probably not. Is "quality" the only metric that matters? Also no. I think it's a multi-layered question. I mean Nevermind probably wasn't the most critically acclaimed album of 1991, even in retrospect I think music "critics" would still pick a few albums they'd rate higher for '91. But I don't think anyone would argue with anyone that said Nevermind, the album that more than any other birthed an entirely new music culture in the early 90s, was THE album of '91. And most of the strength of that argument would come from its raw popularity

Edited on by skywake

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"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

jump

@skywake was curious about your Nirvana point so I googled what was the best selling albums as well as the best albums in general of 1991 were.

So the top selling albums were;
1, Metallica - Black Album
2, Nirvana - Nevermind
3, Michael Jackson - Dangerous
4, Queen - Greatest Hits (was that around the time of Waynes World?)
5, U2 - Archtung Baby

They didn't hit the top 5 sellers but also there was Out Of Time by REM (although I'd say it's big songs are the reason to listen to that album rather than the album itself), Ten by Pearl Jam, Cooleyhighharmony by Boyz II Men, Screamadelica by Primal Scream, Blue Lines by Massive Attack, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Chili Peppers are all widely considered to be classic albums.

The Black Album is a funny one, it's the biggest album of the biggest metal band of all time which broke them into the mainstream but it's hard to find a proper metal fan who will say it's their best album. So I'd probably say Nevermind was the album of 91 despite not being the biggest album of '91.

Nicolai wrote:

Alright, I gotta stop getting into arguments with jump. Someone remind me next time.

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skywake

@jump
If I was to put a "critic hat" on I'd personally put Loveless above Nevermind easily. And you could easily argue Loveless was more genre defining. But if the question was what was the album of the year for 1991? Nevermind, easily

I mean there's probably some kind of distinction between high sales, critically well received and so influential that everyone and their Mum knows what it is. I think the "of the year" classification has to be something that's not only good but good enough it drags in entirely new audiences

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

jump

@skywake I was thinking about how Loveless would have been a stronger contender for album of the year but I'm not sure as it becomes too much like contrarian choice though which is related to your popularity is a driver point. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of My Bloody Valentine but when I got to the age of listening to music years after grunge had finished there was an injection of attitude and ideas in Nevermind that makes it stand out for me still to this day.

Nicolai wrote:

Alright, I gotta stop getting into arguments with jump. Someone remind me next time.

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Maxenmus

Magician wrote:

At the very least, the GotY label is a good indication for casual gamers (or normies who only purchase a couple or few games every year) that the game is at least worth your time.

Going back to the topic at hand, do we even need such an indication anymore? Game journalists are everywhere on YouTube, even trustworthy ones not paid off by corporations. People just need to watch a YouTube video to see "The Top 10 Games of 2022".

Edited on by Maxenmus

Maxenmus

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jump

Maxenmus wrote:

Going back to the topic at hand, do we even need such an indication anymore? Game journalists are everywhere on YouTube, even trustworthy ones not paid off by corporations. People just need to watch a YouTube video to see "The Top 10 Games of 2022".

So we don't need GOTY awards/lists anymore as there are GOTY awards/lists?

Nicolai wrote:

Alright, I gotta stop getting into arguments with jump. Someone remind me next time.

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Maxenmus

@jump Essentially, yeah, that sums it up nicely. We have unofficial GotY lists nowadays that are far more trustworthy than the actual official ones (far more accessible lists in some cases too, with the ubiquity of YouTube in every household).

This applies to any awards and lists outside of games as well, especially the Oscars. I only follow trustworthy film journalists to decide which movie I should watch next.

Maxenmus

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Grumblevolcano

I think GotY skews too heavily towards AAA blockbusters. Like based on past years, the Game Awards 2022 GotY nominees will probably be something like:

  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Gotham Knights
  • Hogwarts Legacy (if releases before the cutoff)/Bayonetta 3 (if Hogwarts Legacy releases after the cutoff)
  • An indie game (if Silksong releases before the cutoff then it'll be the indie game pick)

That said, TGA is primarily an announcement show so it's best not to take the awards side seriously. Nintendo fans will be desperate for BotW 2 and Metroid Prime 4 news, PS fans will be desperate for Sony to announce more single player experiences and Xbox fans will be desperate for news on the long list of games announced in 2020 that hasn't received any info since (as well as Starfield).

Grumblevolcano

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Euler

GotY is mainly about advertising, but it's rare for Nintendo to actually reveal anything significant.

Euler

kkslider5552000

Grumblevolcano wrote:

I think GotY skews too heavily towards AAA blockbusters. Like based on past years, the Game Awards 2022 GotY nominees will probably be something like:

  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Gotham Knights
  • Hogwarts Legacy (if releases before the cutoff)/Bayonetta 3 (if Hogwarts Legacy releases after the cutoff)
  • An indie game (if Silksong releases before the cutoff then it'll be the indie game pick)

For the record, I don't even care about the actual quality, I would hate this list. Hate it. No more years where its just "standard big budget Sony game ft other big budget Sony game". Nintendo had to innovate to pull that off in 2017.

For the record, completely sincere statement, outside of Elden Ring, the most significant game of the year is Wordle. Wordle genuinely is more of a GOTY than Horizon: Another One

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Euler

kkslider5552000 wrote:

Grumblevolcano wrote:

I think GotY skews too heavily towards AAA blockbusters. Like based on past years, the Game Awards 2022 GotY nominees will probably be something like:

  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Gotham Knights
  • Hogwarts Legacy (if releases before the cutoff)/Bayonetta 3 (if Hogwarts Legacy releases after the cutoff)
  • An indie game (if Silksong releases before the cutoff then it'll be the indie game pick)

For the record, I don't even care about the actual quality, I would hate this list. Hate it. No more years where its just "standard big budget Sony game ft other big budget Sony game". Nintendo had to innovate to pull that off in 2017.

For the record, completely sincere statement, outside of Elden Ring, the most significant game of the year is Wordle. Wordle genuinely is more of a GOTY than Horizon: Another One

Wordle would at fit my criteria well. Broad cultural impact at least.

Euler wrote:

I think of it the same way I do Time's Person of the Year. That is to say, it's the game that's "for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year". At minimum it has to be something that sold very well and will likely have a major influence on the future of its genre and gaming as a whole, has a broad cultural impact, or is a major launch title that sets the stage for a successful console. Hard to define, but you'll know it when you see it.

Euler

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