Maybe I'm cynical but The Game Awards are something I've always had a certain degree of disdain for but I think even this year the lineup of nominees for the hype machine are sort of grim. For those that can't be bothered to go look what they are I'll list them here.
-Astrobot
-Bolatro
-Black Myth: Wukong
-Shadow of the Erdtree
-Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
-Metaphor: Refantazio
This is just the GOTY category but I find that no one gives a fuck about the other awards. All discussion revolves almost entirely around these titles so who gives a fuck about anything else? That aside though, this lineup is just fucking depressing. Astrobot is a shite mascot platformer that failed to push PS5s, Bolatro is the token indie entry in a thinly veiled attempt to make it look like the awards aren't just a AAA circle jerk, Black Myth Wukong is just "another souls-like", Erdtree is a fucking DLC for a game from 2022, FF7 is a padded remake that butchers key scenes from the original and Metaphor is about the only thing on the list that skirts the line of being an "original" game, despite at it's core just being fantasy Persona,.
This lineup has even had the effect of turning me into a tin foil hat conspiricy crackpot. DLCs have won awards in the past in minor categories but this is the first time that one has been in the running for actual GOTY. My dumb theory is that some money-men have greased the palms of award show organizers for Erdtree to be entered and for it to win so that FromSoft can make extra dollar of a "Elden Ring: GOTY Edition" that includes Erdree.
But if you ignore the specifics of this years show in particular, The Game Awards are just a pile of dumb bullshit as a concept. 90% of the votes for winners are peformed by a jury consisting of people from various games media outlets and I wan't you to think very carefully about that. Think of the kind of absolute dumbfuck that works for any big gaming website or publication. An entire enthuisast press made up of easily manipulated morons that barely have the motor function required to operate a control pad or keyboard pumping out the most stock standard gaming opinions day after day so that they can maintain funding for their site and access to developers and publishers. These idiots are the ones who get to say what the best games of the year are. I'd be willing to bet money that the games these people have played over the course of the year can be counted with just your fingers.
But even if it was a completely public vote, a vote where dedicated communties of niche weirdos could push for whatever game they love to get some recognition, it wouldn't matter because deciding a game of the year in the current year is just daft by design. Not one person, nor group of people has had the time to even scratch the surface of things that were released this year. I'm not saying that in order to make an informed decision on what a potential game of the year is you have to play EVERYTHING that year, but I guarantee that the judges for this show, along with most people (myself included) have barely scratched the surface on things that came out in 2024.
There is a channel I quite like on YouTube challed YourMovieSucks who does these "best of" videos. One example of this is his best films of 2015 video which was released in 2018. He gave the year of 2015 some breathing room while watching as many films as he could from that year both big and small, and then made a list based on that much broader viewing. I feel like that's what The Game Awards should be doing. Fuck GOTY 2024, we should be crowning GOTY 2018 around this game thus giving judges and general audiences a bit more time to experience what 2024 had to offer outside of the big budget, heavily marketed titles.
At the end of the day, none of it really matters, it's all just twats shouting their opinions from the rooftops. I base my personal GOTY selections on stuff I played that year rather than stuff that was released that year, none of this affects me on a personal level really. But these are award shows are somewhat important to developers and publishers and their outcome will have an effect on the industry at large in some way and if you ask me, it's making things considerably worse year on year.
Fuck you Geoff
