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Topic: What makes a game "GOTY"?

Posts 61 to 80 of 136

ThanosReXXX

@Krull And let's not forget the Quantic Dream games, such as Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

JaxonH

@ThanosReXXX
I watch Spawnwave and Arlo, but aside from his Pikmin 3 review theres really not much on either channel review wise. I've seen Rule of 2 Review and The Know, but am not subbed.

SwitchUp, SwitchWatch and Reviews 2 Go are my go to Switch review channels. Particularly SwitchUp since they value gyro aiming and actually cover 3rd party titles like Sniper Elite 4, instead of only covering 1st party and ignoring everything multiplat.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

ThanosReXXX

@JaxonH Hm, good to know. I'll make a mental note to remind myself to check these out at some point. Might have to add to my own roster as well...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

JaxonH

@ThanosReXXX
Here's a sample review for each.

SwitchUp Sniper Elite 4 Review

SwitchWatch Hades Review

Reviews 2 Go Need For Speed Review

The thing I like about Reviews 2 Go is they cover all the games the others don't. Stuff like Jurassic World Evolution, Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory and Need For Speed. But SwitchUp is by far the best imo.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

Euler

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

ThanosReXXX

@JaxonH Thanks, I'll give 'em a watch later today, and I'll let you know the verdict.
In the meantime, shall we get back on to the actual topic? I don't think that this is what the OP meant to happen...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

JaxonH

@ThanosReXXX
I think the only practical solution that can at least address some of the issues with the current system is to stop pronouncing games as GOTY and start pronouncing games as platform-specific exclusive GOTY, and one multiplatform GOTY for each platform. It's not a perfect system, it would still have alot of the issues present now. But at least it would allow each platform to have it's own game to shine, it would deter console loyalism influencing results, it would eliminate the issue of games on certain platforms getting more exposure than games on other platforms within the corporate gaming media, and it would, in my estimation, provide a better chance for less mainstream games to be recognized.

For example, Animal Crossing wins Switch GotY, Ghosts of Tsushima wins PS4 GotY, Ori Will of the Wisps wins Xbox GotY, Hades wins PC GotY (even though Ori and Hades are also on Switch, I suppose one could make an argument those shouldn't count, but I think they should).

I then think multiplatform GotY should be awarded by platform. If one game shines on more than one console, it can win for both consoles (like Cyberpunk next year). But this would also allow games with bad ports to not be recognized on certain platforms, and it would allow games with excellent ports to be recognized (like Sniper Elite 4 on Switch, which I believe is ABSOLUTELY worthy of recognition, but in the current system, it will never receive a shred of acknowledgement, and that, to me, is an incredible injustice).

Edited on by JaxonH

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

kkslider5552000

ThanosReXXX wrote:

my favorite and most mellow YouTuber of all time is Arlo,

I like Arlo but mellow is not the word I would use for much of his content

Nintendo: does anything ever
Arlo: WHAT DOES THIS MENA FOR THE FUTURE OF NINTENDO AND VID GAMS!?!?!?!?1!11! (spoiler: probably nothing)

Non-binary, demiguy, making LPs, still alive

Megaman Legends 2 Let's Play!:
LeT's PlAy MEGAMAN LEGENDS 2 < Link to LP

ThanosReXXX

@JaxonH You know what? I actually think that makes a lot of sense, albeit with one small exception: in general, I do believe that the label GOTY should be platform independent, otherwise we would get this weird situation where the same game actually IS awarded on one platform, and not on the other, because it's not ported/optimized well enough in order to get the most out of the hardware it's running on.

On a side note: funny you've both mentioned Sniper Elite 4, and posted a video review of it as well: I recently bought the previous game on Xbox One, because of the Black Friday discount. Either way, I've only ever read and heard good things about the series as a whole, and I've had a lot of fun playing the previous games as well, so I'm pretty sure I'd agree with any kind of positive label that is attached to the latest installment as well, unless they managed to royally screw up the formula in some weird kind of way. (which, going by your comments, is luckily not the case at all)

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@kkslider5552000 Yeah... I kinda forgot the smiley there. I was semi-sarcastic when I mentioned the mellow part. But I do honestly feel that watching most of his videos is quite the relaxing experience.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

Ralizah

Arlo's reputation is built on trashing modern Paper Mario games (specifically Color Splash), but his silence with the newest game is rather deafening. The impression I've gotten is that he quite likes TOK, but he's hesitant to post a review praising it and igniting a backlash from his toxic fanbase because it shows that Paper Mario can succeed without going back to TTYD's game design. He posted a "mehhhhh same thing both sides" video whining about twitter discussions of the game, but that's it.

Also, he's one of those Nintendo youtubers who basically ignores everything Nintendo-related outside of three or four core Nintendo franchises, which makes his channel boring. Half of the news videos I've seen of his are just... nothing, because there's just not that much to say about three or four series that see releases once or twice per generation. There'll be big news about Monster Hunter and Shin Megami Tensei and Bravely Default and No More Heroes and his latest video will be "mehhhhh some guy who worked on that Paper Mario game that released recently said a thing." It's no wonder people who aren't Nintendo fans think nothing is releasing on the console: that's the impression I'd get if I followed Nintendo youtubers.

Both of these considerations make him a non-entity when it comes to youtube content creators, imo.

It's a pity, because the puppet gimmick is charming, and his oratorical skills are excellent.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

ThanosReXXX

@Ralizah So....

What's your opinion on the actual topic of this thread?

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

JaxonH

That pretty much sums up Arlo in a nutshell. I genuinely do like the guy... once or twice a year when he actually does a review on relative content. His Pikmin 3 Deluxe review was great... mostly, anyways.

It's a problem we see with a lot of Nintendo focused channels. They are laser focused on a specific handful of exclusive properties they identify with, and it's like everything else just doesn't exist. Even GameXplain falls into this camp (though to a much lesser degree). And Spawnwave, while entertaining, is more news focused and doesn't really have anything profound to say. He likes tinkering and taking stuff apart, which I couldn't possibly care less about.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

Ralizah

@ThanosReXXX Ideally, audience submissions and critic picks would be put into a pool, and you could remove the games that don't have heavy support from both camps. Maybe allow for a ranked choice voting system from both sides, and then cut off submissions that fall below a certain threshold of support.

When it comes to actually picking the game, you could change TGA from a singular, vapid academy awards clone to something like a socratic reality show: feature a panel of individuals, each selected to champion a particular game, and have them face off in debate over the merits of their chosen game based on multiple criteria. You could have a voting function eliminate the loser of a given debate each time, slowly whittling down the selection over a few days of vigorous debate.

Of course, you wouldn't allow people to actually know who wins the final showdown for each category at a given time. That's what the award segment is for. That would play out like a truncated version of the show we currently have, where the voting results for each category are revealed between new game trailers and announcements.

In the unlikely result of a tie for the general award, you could do the fair thing, and have the chosen representatives for the final two games faces off in violent gladatorial combat. Whoever deals the killing blow gets to claim the title of "Game of the Year" for their chosen piece of interactive software.

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

Euler

Just as long as they don’t use that Dominion voting system.

Euler

jump

Euler wrote:

Just as long as they don’t use that Dominion voting system.

It will be fine as long as Hugo Chavez doesn’t hack into them again, pesky dead socialists!

Nicolai wrote:

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

Switch Friend Code: SW-8051-9575-2812 | 3DS Friend Code: 1762-3772-0251

skywake

I'd start by saying that I think the GOTY should be given to the "best reviewed" game rather than the most popular. I mean sure, popularity is a bit of a measure of what's popular but that's not really what makes a game a shining example of what makes a game great. To put it simply, you wouldn't expect a music review site to have ignored Igor entirely for Album of the year in 2019 because "the Frozen 2 soundtrack had a larger cultural impact". So yeah, critical reception purely.

Probably the best method would to get a group of critics together, ideally with different tastes, have them nominate what games they think are contenders. Compile a list. Then have them all rank the list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting

But me saying that just pushes the problem down the line I guess. Because what should they be ranking them on? Personal like of the game? I mean that comes into play but I think a proper review should be more than that. How "Game of the Year" the game is? Again, kinda circling back again aren't we?

I'd probably argue that a review in general should be a comment on how good the thing is at doing what it's trying to do. So a game like Super Mario Odyssey is a 3D platfomer, how does it rate as a 3D platformer? Shouldn't really matter how deep the story is because that's not really what it's trying to do. Which..... is probably a harder thing to do with games given the huge gap in what different genres are trying to do I guess. But fundamentally that's the question.

10/10 isn't perfect, 10/10 is "this game delivers exactly what it's trying to achieve"

tl;dr: Hades should be GOTY

Edited on by skywake

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"

Bolt_Strike

A GOTY winner should be high quality and polished in every aspect of the game. It doesn't have to be perfect, but close to it. In particular, it must have as many of the following qualities as possible:

-The gameplay is fun and engaging, and its mechanics or design does not have any fatal flaws that interfere with the game's vision.
-The game has a large quantity and variety of content to keep players engaged for a long period of time and that content is consistent and within the scope of the game's vision.
-The game is visually and technically polished and free of glitches, lag, or other such technical issues.
-The game has an appropriate difficulty and is accessible for a casual audience but also challenging for those that want to push themselves.

Bolt_Strike

Switch Friend Code: SW-5621-4055-5722 | 3DS Friend Code: 4725-8075-8961 | Nintendo Network ID: Bolt_Strike

ThanosReXXX

@JaxonH I only watch Arlo a couple of times a year, so that sounds about right, concerning where my thumbs up for him comes from...

@Ralizah Thanks for the well-thought out reply. I actually like your view on it. I don't think the critics would be all too enthusiastic to take part in that last bit you mentioned, though...

Follow up question(s): now, how about what @JaxonH said? Do you share/partially share his views that a big part of the official channels have some kind of bias/preconceived notion/agenda, which might make their vote for a GOTY less honest or acceptable? And do you have your own examples of games that, in your honest opinion, SHOULD have been awarded as such, but weren't, for whatever reason?

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

JaxonH

@ThanosReXXX
I should clarify- I believe bias is always present, it's just a question of whether a situation will invoke that bias. Sometimes that's not the case. Sometimes it is. The Hideo Kojima bias was unprecedented. The reviews for that game literally called the game "repetitive and not fun" then awarded 10/10. It didnt win GotY, but it still won half the awards at the show, and frankly didnt even deserve to be a GotY nominee in the first place. Many reviewers let their feelings concerning the creator affect their criticism. That and I suspect they were afraid of saying the game wasnt what it was hyped up to be. This year, that game is TLOU2.

Which, as someone who loved the first, I will say it could have been GotY caliber, if they hadn't stumbled so hard with characters and story (which, I've seen virtually all the key cutscenes, played the beginning of the game and beat the first, so I'm familiar enough to form my own ideas about what it got right and what it got wrong). There's so many amazing aspects of the game. But they did stumble, and in a character/story driven game, that's not something you can just hand wave away as impertinent. And it seems the gaming media (at least, a large segment of it) doesnt want to acknowledge that reality. It's become political for them, for some reason. Because of the backlash, they seem to feel threatened, as if it's a rejection of the ideas they believe the game represents, and have thus doubled down to make a statement. It's why Angry Joe and Skill Up were both banned from their cult-like group. They dared speak against the game which, for whatever reason, came to represent their unquestiobable dogma. And there's no room for tolerance and diversity of opinion with these people.

They have and will continue to overlook the shortcomings of TLOU2 because it represents ideas they agree with... something that should have no affect on judging the merits of a game. If it wins, it should win because it's truly worthy on it's own merits. If it doesn't win, it should be because of it's own shortcomings of merit. Unfortunately, they destroyed the most beloved characters, replaced with characters nobody likes or relates to, took the story down a dark and depressing path, with an ending that leaves one wondering why the events in the game even took place to begin with. The problems are glaringly obvious. The problem is, bias usually hides behind the guise of genuine critique (or lack thereof). You dont see it unless you actually make a conscious effort to unmask it.

It's always a different reason. But the reasons for bias dont really matter. Either a person has the integrity to judge rightly... or they don't. And if they don't, they'll bend their morals for just about anything.

Edited on by JaxonH

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

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