Topic: Do Game Awards matter to you?

award shows in general were ruined for me once i learned how they generally work. I'll admit it's nice when a game i like happens to win, but in truth it doesn't matter to me at all. i'm incredibly cynical regarding them, i just think it's nepotism and political favoritism that tends to win these awards, and i'm usually right.

For instance i loved Spider-Man for 2018, it did not win GOTY, it did not change my opinion on Spider-Man whatsoever.

there is only 2 things of real value to me with award shows. They highlight otherwise overlooked work, this is especially true for me regarding the Oscars, and new game reveals like at TGA.

but this year, as in past years, i don't bother watching them live, i wait for news to reach me later. I got way more bang and way more hyped from the news coming from the Disney Investor Day reveals.

for the record, i personally really liked The Last of Us Part 2, was/will defend it against haters. it's perfectly a contender and worthy for GOTY. that said, i knew it'd end up winning everything because it also ticks off all the right boxes for the right sort of people deciding these things.

my personal GOTY (so far) for 2020 is Ghost of Tsushima and Hades (tie between them). I still haven't really played Cyberpunk 2077 to judge it yet. But i still really liked Last of Us Part 2.

@Neoguardian86 I have "Hades" on my radar. Is it really that good?

@Scollurio I think Hades is fantastic, a very cleverly put together action rogue-like, and i typically do not like rogue-like games. the game's characters and stories are put together in such a way that every instance feels organic to your playthrough.

I was seriously surprised and impressed by Hades and i recommend it to anyone interested. I think it's SuperGiant Games's best game yet.

I am going to go against the grain and say that, in general, I do like and appreciate awards. That applies to games, films, books - any critical appreciation of artistic media, I guess. Whether my buying habits are affected by who wins - probably not with games, but I may be inspired to check out a nomination I was less familiar with, especially in the more niche categories.

That said, I also think some people might be surprised how many “normies”, who only pick up one or two games a year outside of CoD or FIFA or Madden or whatever, can be swayed by a “Game of the Year” sticker on the box.

No way I’d sit down to three hours of watching the ceremony, though! I’ll read the stories in five minutes the next day.

Same here, I forgot to say that when I posted before. The winners and announcements are easy to find online when the show finishes anyway.

I usually vote on polls, but they don't matter to me beyond entertainment and definitely don't affect my buying decisions

For buying decisions a GOTY award will never make me to purchase something. It is only for prestige.

No.

I couldn’t care less tbh. Just like movie awards or popular music. Critics and most people have poor taste IMO.

It's fun to watch once a year, but the brand itself doesn't tell me anything about the quality of the game

All your replies make me wonder, if from a big tech company's perspective and from the perspective of the game devs, if that whole award thing is just a glorified vehicle for ads and premier trailers on purpose.

Why not just call it a "GAME DIRECT" and the only "voting" that really matters - if at all - is the player's choice, I'd say...

Thank you all for so much input.

Not at all.

I love the idea of the Game Awards, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

They either need to go all in on it being a commercialized "Gamer" hype event (do away with any sort of artistic pretense and have all categories be solely decided by "player's voice", so the most popular games win & the masses are generally happy), or get more serious on treating games as a form of art (massively drop the amount of announcements & eSport elements, as well as any public voting/influence, and have the awards solely voted on by the journalists, or better yet drop the journalists too & have the voting jury consist only of people who work in the industry, like the Oscars operates, so that despite whatever bias' some may/will have, we can at least be sure the winners are picked by people with a studied academic/technical understanding of how games are made & why a certain element in this or that game is so good), so they might get a modicum of credibility.

As it is now it seems like it wants to be both, and as such I don't think it really satisfies anybody. I mean clearly tLoU2 won it's awards because of it's "merits as art", however Among Us is a 2018 game that won it's award for no other reason than it became popular in 2020, so clearly the show's focus is mixed. It doesn't help that they've been so fluent & inconsistent with their own rules, as remasters & GotY editions were widely known to be ineligible for awards the first few years, yet here we were this year with enhanced editions of Mortal Kombat 11, Street Fighter V, & Persona 5 all nominated in various categories, and after reading through their FAQ it seems like their old rules were quietly disbanded at some point and any games from previous years are fully eligible for awards if they receive new content or social appeal they lacked in their release year.

I really want to like the show, but they need to clean these things up.

I've heard really good points lately that the Game Awards tries too hard to be for everyone, so no one is that into it. I feel confident in saying that NO ONE was happy with the majority of game announcements. There is no audience that specifically is invested in preview trailers (half of which have minimal to no gameplay) for more than 1/3 of the games they showed, regardless of who you are. It's like a bad E3 conference, but way longer.

I don’t really care about them. I watched for the announcements and I guess it was fun to watch the winners reactions (specifically when Innersloth won for Among Us).

I like the motivation boost for the devs, but it won’t make me buy the game.

I watched the first 2 hours of the show(It was on in the middle of the night UK time). I found it surprisingly snappy. Awards were handed out at record pace, and some of the reveals were genuinely good. I think in terms of announcements and presentation, this was the best event of the year.

@Scollurio It mattered a lot more to me in the 90s and early 2000s. Before the Internet became what it is today. I wasn't inclined to pay a subscription for a gaming magazine, so what games I didn't hear about from friends, I heard about via GOTY shows.

But today they matter very little to me.

No.

Not even a little bit. I play good games no matter what critics think or award them.

@Heavyarms55 Good point!