Board 8 > When it comes GOTY awards, is there one that's the most reputable organization?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Obviously lots of sites and communities can have Game of the Year, often though the recipients of the awards may differ from organizer to organizer.

Who's the gold standard for awards in video games, like the Academy Awards to movies? IGN, PC Gamer, something else entirely?

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gamefaqs polls

https://gotypicks.blogspot.com/

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board 8

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Giant Bomb dot com

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award shows are pretty dumb and game award shows are the dumbest of them all

but yeh as far as reputable goes, it's gamefaqs polls

GameFAQs

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Depends what youre after.

The Game Awards is a bad production, but its the closest youll get to industry consensus with the voting system. If you want a critics consensus, Golden Joysticks Critics Choice is a good one. GDC awards is the main developers awards. I think BAFTA is probably the most prestigious one and closest to an academy award, and they actually have expert juries for each award which is good.

For fan votes, GameFAQs is the best one. There is a bit of genre/franchise bias which is how you get silly nonsense like FFXV winning (which it absolutely would not repeat) because people just vote for the franchises if they havent played the games in time. However, they generally have good picks, and having a run-off (or two) prevents silly stuff like Death Stranding being the IGN peoples choice with 17% of the vote. Theyre good!

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TGA easily

It's treated like an E3 these days and companies actually care about winning it.

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Depends what youre after.

The Game Awards is a bad production, but its the closest youll get to industry consensus with the voting system. If you want a critics consensus, Golden Joysticks Critics Choice is a good one. GDC awards is the main developers awards. I think BAFTA is probably the most prestigious one and closest to an academy award, and they actually have expert juries for each award which is good.

This. TGA is more like the Golden Globes imo though, very well known and lots of eyes on it but not necessarily taken seriously by the industry.

I assume people are memeing about Gfax but honestly for a set of fan polls we aren't that bad! Just looked through them all properly for the first time and most of them hold up pretty well.

GameFAQs GOTYs:
2019: RE2 > Three Houses
2018: Smash Ultimate > God of War
2017: BOTW
2016: FFXV > Pokemon S/M (probably the most out of touch year with other GOTYs)
2015: Witcher 3 > Fallout 4
2014: Smash 4
2013: Zelda ALBW > TLOU (GTAV was in the poll and a final final one wasn't run so it's entirely possible TLOU would've won a 1v1)
2012: Borderlands 2 > Xenoblade
2011: Skyrim
2010: ME2 > SMG2
2009: COD: MW2 > Uncharted 2 > Dragon Age Origins (Another weird one)
2008: Smash Brawl > MGS4
2007: SMG > COD4
2006: Twilight Princess
2005: RE4
2004: GTA SA > Halo 2
2003: Wind Waker > FFX-2
2002: Metroid Prime > GTA Vice City
2001: FFX > GTA 3 > Melee (Funny that Melee is the only Smash game not to win its poll and it didn't even come close!)
1999: FFVIII

Weirdly it's Smash that seems to have the most devout series loyalty, FF and Zelda both fell off when their games weren't super well received (XII, XIII, Skyward Sword), with the exception of 2016.

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Gamefaqs has too much of a Nintendo bias for me to consider it the objective 'best' site. You can find aggregate sites out there that will take every publication and fan vote for GOTY and compile them together, which will get you an overall look at how journalists and the communities around the internet cast their votes.

gameawards dot net is a good site for that.

TGA, while many dislike it, does use a jury of votes from multiple different publications to choose their awards, which overall seems more reputable than any one site or person giving an award out.

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I dont see how you can claim GameFAQs has a significant Nintendo bias these days. Look at the list andylt posted, Nintendo have won two of the past five, and both of those are pretty understandable winners. If theres a bias its an RPG bias. Most industry awards are pretty genre-biased anyway.

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BAFTA is a 'real' awards body that has a game category. No idea if their opinions are any good though, as I find the whole idea of an industry putting on a big show to pat itself on the back utterly revolting.
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andylt posted...

I assume people are memeing about Gfax but honestly for a set of fan polls we aren't that bad! Just looked through them all properly for the first time and most of them hold up pretty well.

I actually think we do very well picking a GotY. Sure, you're going to have anomalies like 2016, but for the most part I at least trust our decisions more than many of the bigger Game Awards.

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Eh, we probably do alright at picking the best AAA game of the year, but something like Outer Wilds or Hades or something would never win here. That's why I like the BAFTAs, they normally have a decent mix of both.

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The only GotY awards I care about are Giant Bomb, even though I usually disagree with them.

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Lightning Strikes posted...

I dont see how you can claim GameFAQs has a significant Nintendo bias these days. Look at the list andylt posted, Nintendo have won two of the past five, and both of those are pretty understandable winners. If theres a bias its an RPG bias. Most industry awards are pretty genre-biased anyway.

Nintendo continues to dominate contests even when its a much weaker Nintendo game/character going against a big Western game/character, in terms of popularity. Nathan Drake or Uncharted is going to do much better almost anywhere else on the internet than they do here, for example.

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JackMan posted...

Eh, we probably do alright at picking the best AAA game of the year, but something like Outer Wilds or Hades or something would never win here. That's why I like the BAFTAs, they normally have a decent mix of both.

I think the GameFAQs thing is specifically in reference to user awards - you aren't going to find many awards where users vote indie games over AAA games.

davidponte posted...

Nintendo continues to dominate contests even when its a much weaker Nintendo game/character going against a big Western game/character, in terms of popularity. Nathan Drake or Uncharted is going to do much better almost anywhere else on the internet than they do here, for example.

He's talking about GotY in particular, and your view of the internet is pretty limited if you think Uncharted would do better everywhere else.
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JackMan posted...

Eh, we probably do alright at picking the best AAA game of the year, but something like Outer Wilds or Hades or something would never win here. That's why I like the BAFTAs, they normally have a decent mix of both.

This is true (and a problem I have with the TGAs, their refusal to go for Hades this year was sad).

As for GameFAQs, it's more that we're addicted to voting Link than anything else. Link has appeared in 7 GOTY winners, and Nintendo has only won twice without him! (Prime and Galaxy)

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the NAVGTR awards

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I've noticed no one has mentioned IGN or PC Gamer. I figured those were big ones.

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GotY and contests are different though! GotY is a recent snapshot, contests give things time to settle. Nintendo doesnt dominate that much for recent fare, and I struggle to think of a place where classic Nintendo games wouldnt be the dominant force among older games. The actual issue is that its 90sFAQs and those older games dominate because were all old gits.

Also, I would not be surprised if the reason TLOU2 won at TGAs over Hades was the fan vote. Hades has won a lot of the panellists awards but there is a percentage thats the fan vote for each category (separate to the peoples choice awards). If it was close that could push TLOU2 over.

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I really only pay attention to Giant Bomb for whatever that's worth.


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It's an inherently flawed premise and none of them can be good enough to deserve recognition as the best

that being said, gamefaqs polls
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I just use http://playthatgame.co.uk/ once it updates since it combines them all and I always trust the consensus pick over any individual source

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Mac Arrowny posted...

and your view of the internet is pretty limited if you think Uncharted would do better everywhere else.

bruh what

Uncharted 4 literally won the majority of GOTY awards in 2016. Maybe it is your view of the internet that is limited.

https://www.gameawards.net/2020/09/2016.html

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I mean it did not win a majority of the awards (unless you only meant readers choice), but regardless it came third here. Thats fine.

If you reran it, it would be a close race between DOOM and Dark Souls 3.

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davidponte posted...

bruh what

Uncharted 4 literally won the majority of GOTY awards in 2016. Maybe it is your view of the internet that is limited.

https://www.gameawards.net/2020/09/2016.html

We were talking about communities, not critics. Also Uncharted in general, I thought, not just UC4, though there are plenty of other places Pokemon Sun/Moon would beat UC4 if we are, like Tumblr, Twitter, etc.
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wait i thought people were saying gfaqs tongue in cheek

but people are defending it...

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I mean there are three games that actually did win an overall majority of GOTY awards: Skyrim, The Witcher 3, and Breath of the Wild. GameFAQs got all of those!

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Huh I had no clue Death Stranding won so many awards last year

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LiquidOshawott posted...

Huh I had no clue Death Stranding won so many awards last year

Its mainly from small outlets and some fan votes. Incidentally other aggregators give it to RE2. It kind of shows why these aggregators arent great, because Death Stranding won 0 major awards.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

We were talking about communities, not critics. Also Uncharted in general, I thought, not just UC4, though there are plenty of other places Pokemon Sun/Moon would beat UC4 if we are, like Tumblr, Twitter, etc.

I could be wrong but I think "reader's choice" is more talking about communities, where it did dominate compared to other games, as opposed to the critics who voted it evenly with Overwatch.

I'm not entirely sure where a community like gamefaqs would fall under with those categories but I don't think it'd be considered a media outlet.

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Aecioo posted...

wait i thought people were saying gfaqs tongue in cheek

but people are defending it...

I was completely serious.

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Man 2016 was not a good year for games huh. Haven't played XV but oof being sandwiched between two great ones.

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Love this GOTY from 2015

Entermix Magazine industry insiders' Choice (JP) : Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

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Definitely not. It's not our site either. There's far too much elitism and gatekeeping to take it seriously. If it's too popular, someone will shoot it down with a contrarian take. It's like the opposite of the overly mainstream TGA.

IGN panders to hell to western devs. Absolutely not.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/12/03/every-ign-game-of-the-year-winner

GameSpot at least gives Nintendo some more leeway and Japanese developers as well. 2009 for Demon's Souls and 2013 for A Link Between Worlds is surely worth praising.

https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/every-gamespot-game-of-the-year/2900-653/

But then Middle-Earth and Half-Life: Alyx? Really??

It's probably easier to trust a site when you at least see the nominations and winners for various categories and not just GotY.

I wouldn't trust any site that didn't feature Persona 5/Royal as best RPG though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_5#Awards

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andylt posted...

Man 2016 was not a good year for games huh. Haven't played XV but oof being sandwiched between two great ones.

You have Doom and Hitman so its definitely not a bad year tbh

though I dont think there is such a thing anymore

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LiquidOshawott posted...

You have Doom and Hitman so its definitely not a bad year tbh

though I dont think there is such a thing anymore

You're right, I shouldn't knock the year that gave us Stardew Valley and Pocket Card Jockey. The GOTY picks don't seem to have held up very well though, it's a pretty boring set of sequels+Overwatch+Pokemon that they were spread between.

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vidya gaem awards

2019: Sekiro
2018: Smash Ultimate
2017: Nier: Automata
2016: Doom
2015: Witcher III
2014: Bayonetta 2
2013: Metal Gear Rising
2012: The Walking Dead
2011: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

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Todd and Aaron

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firefdr posted...

gamefaqs polls

GameFAQs GotY polls aren't really official GotY polls. Because you never see developers (or their parent publisher) mentioning that they won a GameFAQs GotY award.
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LusterSoldier posted...

GameFAQs GotY polls aren't really official GotY polls. Because you never see developers (or their parent publisher) mentioning that they won a GameFAQs GotY award.

got em

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LusterSoldier posted...

GameFAQs GotY polls aren't really official GotY polls. Because you never see developers (or their parent publisher) mentioning that they won a GameFAQs GotY award.

I wonder why not. They can stick it in the marketing and it's not like anyone is actually going to check how important GameFAQs is.
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LusterSoldier posted...

GameFAQs GotY polls aren't really official GotY polls. Because you never see developers (or their parent publisher) mentioning that they won a GameFAQs GotY award.

Another reason why I like our polls more.

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After Gametrailers.com got shut down back in 2016?

Every gaming website feels expendable to me and could get shut down at any time.

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Todd and Aaron

Oh yeah this is an important one, can't believe it wasnt mentioned
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Whiskey_Nick's Best _____ topics

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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Todd and Aaron

who

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