Game of the Year Corruption?
One criticism of the mainstream media these days is that they solely publish negative headlines. Newspapers and websites focus on what sells (what gets internet readership), and that means bad news all the time. Barring negative news, journalists can post controversial editorials that are more likely to receive hits. Nothing is more boring than preaching to the choir, after all.
Unfortunately, it seems that game journalism is moving in that direction. Websites are trying to differentiate themselves by choosing a unique offering for recent ‘game of the year’ awards, even if they have to go out on a limb with their recipients.
This is by no means a representative sample, but it says something when one of the largest game reporting websites on the internet, Gamespot, chooses a game for their game of the year that many other sites didn’t even have on their short list. While Demon’s Souls was certainly well received by critics, and likely had upside in retail reception vs. initial expectations, is it really game of the year?
I’m completely supportive of unconventional picks. There is a certain mainstream appeal threshold required for a winner, however, much as the best picture academy award going to a film that wasn’t released worldwide would be dubious. In a year when Uncharted 2, Batman, Assassins Creed 2, Dragon Age and Modern Warfare 2 were all released, it certainly draws the eye when Demon’s Souls wins game of the year.
I’m probably just being cynical, but I have to wonder whether Gamespot judged that awarding Demon’s Souls would draw more traffic, be more profitable and therefore was the best pick. They have gone through some dubious ethical periods before, most notably the Kane & Lynch debacle, and I wouldn’t put it past their easy to buy off army of principle-less corporate drones to choose their awards based strictly on profitability outlook.
Maybe I’m not being fair to Gamespot. Maybe they all really did think Demon’s Souls was better than the greatest game slate released in a decade. Maybe, however, there were other motivating factors involved. Thoughts?
Gamespot’s demon soul’s pick is absolutely more of a way to get more hits to the article. Granted I haven’t played it (surprisingly), I do hear good things so there certainly is the possibility it is valid.
However, I think games are in a different league that media like film or books. It is hard to compete against the huge budget and staff assigned to huge games like Uncharted and shine through. It does happen, but when you have that many resources theres a strong possibility that your game is going to be good. Thats why it isn’t surprising to me that those games win game of the year and, in fact, are very good.
You mention a lot about the rise of the indie game scene and I think the iphone and ds and simpler platforms will open the door for some gems to take on teh big boys.
However, don’t forget that demon soul’s is actually a Japanese game developed by Sony in Japan and then brought to america through the notoriously indie publisher Atlas.
I agree that Japanese and American games have different styles and the audiences are certainly different given the games that are successful there and not here and vice versa … although I think there is going to be some convergence given the success of some recent Western games.
I agree that smaller platforms are going to allow low budget games to compete, you saw some of that this year with people putting Flower forward as a great game, and Shadow Complex ($15 Xbox Live game) even won Xbox game of the year from many sites.
I also think that given the changing model of games where more developers are going to have subscription models / free to play and pay as you go games, you’re going to see many more successful franchises spread over the course of a few years with no real delineation in terms of what’s a major release and what isn’t, making it difficult to decide whether a game even came out this year or not. Should be interesting to see how things develop.