Thursday, Dec. 11 is a very special day. Gamers around the world will gather—on their individual screens—to watch the 11th Game Awards (TGA) broadcast. If you have ever perused a TikTok comment section under a video showcasing gameplay of a popular release, you will have seen users spam the term “goty,” meaning “Game of the Year.” From among all of the awards given in the TGA ceremony and other award shows in the video game industry, none are as coveted as the GOTY award. Recognition is given in particular to a team of game developers when they win this award, as development is a great investment of time, money and even health. However, because of strange nominations and wins, The Game Awards have become a problematic yearly affair.
TGA’s website defines the GOTY as this: “Recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.” 90 percent of this decision is made by a jury of gaming media outlets and 10 percent by the general public, who can vote on their website until Wednesday, Dec. 10. There is also the Players’ Voice Award, for which the winner is chosen by the public popular vote after three rounds of voting. This year, there are 30 nominees, while the GOTY has six. That being said, the metric that allows a game to be nominated or awarded is vague and nearly impossible to pin down. Knowing that, we cannot really make any claims as to why some games were and were not celebrated. What we do know is which games won the jury’s vote versus the popular vote.
Let us look at the two games that were both nominated for the highest prize last year: “Black Myth Wukong” from the Chinese studio Game Science and “Astro Bot” from Sony’s Team Asobi. As a disclaimer, I played “Black Myth Wukong” but not “Astro Bot.” The former is an adventure game heavily based on the classic Chinese novel, “Journey To The West,” which follows the monkey king, Wukong and his trials and tribulations in search of Buddhist scriptures. The game is an imagined sequel to the original story. “Astro Bot,” on the other hand, is a game where the player can “join Astro on a supersized space adventure,” according to its official game information on the Playstation store. “Astro Bot” is a nostalgia-filled experience with cameos from many beloved PlayStation franchises. Unfortunately, it is also exclusively on the PS5, meaning consumers who only own Xbox or Nintendo consoles, or a PC, cannot play this game. Take two seconds to think about which game should have won. Spoiler alert! It was “Astro Bot,” while “Black Myth Wukong” won the Players’ Voice…
My confusion is this: How does a game win GOTY if it does not win the popular vote? You would think the “experts” would make the same, if not a similar decision, as the consumer base. It is not the case that “Astro Bot” was a runner-up in the Players’ Voice—it did not even make it past the first round of voting—so how would it deserve the award for having the “best experience”? It also seems rather strange that the jury is primarily made up of gaming media outlets, as “Black Myth Wukong” faced significant criticism from American gaming journalists after its studio told live streamers with early access to avoid discussing “feminist propaganda” while playing the game. Culture war discussion aside, the American gaming industry sees plenty of misogyny in its workplaces, between players and many games’ depiction of women. Accusations of misogyny did not stop the notoriously abusive American studio, Blizzard’s “Overwatch” from winning GOTY in 2016. I am not accusing TGA of being rigged, but it seems as if economic tensions between the United States and China have impacted the gaming industry, and in turn, influenced the outcome of TGA’s G7 nation-centric awards ceremony.
This habit of sidelining Chinese games continues this year. Chinese studio NetEase’s “Marvel Rivals,” a successful online hero-shooter released just before TGA 2024, was eligible for nomination in several categories this year. Which cuts did it make? Only the “Best Ongoing Game” award, which makes it compete with long-running juggernauts such as “Fortnite” and “Final Fantasy XIV” instead of other multiplayer games released in the last year. One could argue that it simply did not deserve a nomination in any other category, but, as I have said before, there is no real way to know why “Marvel Rivals” was—I think unfairly—unrecognized, but we can theorize.
You may be thinking, “So what? What does it matter if the games you like did not win?” I can assure you that I am not a sore loser, but I deeply care about what messages are sent in the gaming industry and culture by the outcomes of TGA. When games based on recycling old franchises and characters to make profits, like “Fortnite” and “Astro Bot,” win over games that are original or utilize developer creativity to remix tropes, mechanics and stories like “Black Myth Wukong” and “Ghost of Tsushima,” it communicates a sour message to the culture: that game companies should transition to focusing on consumerism and marketing over the artistic quality of their product. That is not a culture that I want to participate in. I would much rather see a gaming culture that enthusiastically celebrates innovation, storytelling and consumer-friendly policy across any national borders.
On a higher note, this year’s show is looking more in line with the TGA that I want to see. The nominees for GOTY are all deserving of the prize, and “Expedition 33,” an indie-made action-rpg based on the French Belle Époque, looks like it will ta ke the cake. While I voted for “Hades II”—another indie game—I would not be upset with this outcome. I look forward to sitting on my beanbag, eating popcorn and watching an authentic celebration of an industry and art form that I love—in between loads of ads and announcements, of course.