The Golden Joysticks! Democracy at its finest!

Took a look through the votes and Ninty's comparatively barren year meant there was very little for me to vote for. Aww!

I voted.

rant:

I mostly voted for Dark Souls, Undertale and Monster Hunter when they came up. Some glaring omissions, and obviously I didn't touch the youtube bollocks.

Likewise, the difference being that I've never been a big fan of the GJs. Or the gaming Baftas. Or indeed anything of the sort.

I mean, this is the gamecube vote all over again, but I don't really care about what's voted the best thing. It doesn't tell me anything other than the lowest common denominator. And, like Metacritic, the system is never fully reliable. I'm much more interested in reading an individual person's top ten, or Game of the Year, and what they think and why they like it, than being told "the highest number of people didn't hate this one."

I voted and like to every year, but it's not a vote put much weight behind when they announce GOTY compared to something like GDC's which game developers voting for the best game, that he wining team has been recognised by their peers.

What about Indie and AAA, Drunka? To me these should be together as if Firewatch is the best PlayStation game it should have as much right to win that as Uncharted 4, it won't that do sort of need a indie category which as sort of shame but can gives the teams the recognition they deserve.

I pretty much agree with you Mas on the indie/ AAA thing, I just get more annoyed at it.

I had a go at the voting - then I realised I'd played about 4 games in the last year. I even voted for Twilight Princess HD. I'm the worst. And it only took 20 minutes (GR's full-page ads are a ****ing menace)

Gave up voting on the 3rd vote when I realised it was basically all the same games bar the odd change here and there for each category, very few of which I've played and the ones I have played I wasn't wowed by.
I suppose I should ask at this point, was MGSV in last year's vote? Because I wanted to vote for that for every category.

GJ always has weird cut off points, I think MGS was added late last year, not that we should be praising half finished games!

As for AAA vs Indies, I very rarely get anywhere near as much out of indie games as AAA, I don't know if it's because I'm not a fan of the often wanky experiences that are on offer, but even games like The Witness, that are as close to being right in the middle as you can get don't stand anywhere near the experience I've got from The Witcher, Uncharted or Deus Ex, so to me getting to recognise it as a great game at all is nice.

Drunkalilly wrote:: I mean, this is the gamecube vote all over again, but I don't really care about what's voted the best thing. It doesn't tell me anything other than the lowest common denominator. And, like Metacritic, the system is never fully reliable. I'm much more interested in reading an individual person's top ten, or Game of the Year, and what they think and why they like it, than being told "the highest number of people didn't hate this one."

The big difference for me, between this and the GC vote, is that I care about the sum total of our opinions because the vast majority of us are great people. I don't care about the (wrong) gaming opinions of Jonny 'Idiot' Public.

Yeah the cut off point is late September which means MGSV (Gintendo's GOTY) would have been in it last year vote and why Forza Horizon 3 is in this year.

Well your are Mr Crumpy which does explain a lot with the whole indie games, but indie games are changing that we see things like The Witness, No Man's Sky, Hellblade and Death Stranding that the Indie in a lot of cases aren't just your emotional games like a Inside (not played but what people tell me), Journey, Gone Home anymore but stuff that would have been considered back in the PS2/CUBE/XBOX era as like the slightly lower tier of game but with the odd game that can sit above the rest.

Oh yeah, the Golden Joysticks. They're a thing.

Every year I forget these even exist, then I pop in quick enough to see the industry is still continuing to circle jerk to its own big budget mediocrity and I leave as uninterested as I entered.

I miss mid-tier games. Everything's either big budget "AAA" titles or indie titles now.

PoGo is in contention for GotY? hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, it won't get far at all. In the only category that matters though, what was everyone's Nintendo Game of the Year? I voted for Xenoblade X because I'm legally obligated to, but with the exception of Yokai Watch and LoZ Tri-Farce Heroes (That's probably too harsh, but I like the wordplay) it seemed like a pretty good category.

XCX, definitely - but I reckon you're being too harsh on YKW. As I said in my review, it's a good game, and definitely deserves to be up on a stage with the likes of Robobot, even if it's not necessarily better than them.

I went for Fire Emblem Fates

I think Pokemon Go has a shoot at GOTY, really it isn't but this is a punlic vote and you asked everyone single person Pokemon Go what the GOTY is and I bet Pokemon Go wins.

Maybe YKW doesn't deserve the criticism I give it, I only played the demo and wasn't sold by it at all. On the PoGo front though, as much as it has taken the mobile gaming platform by storm and broken every record that exists it's still very much just a casual mobile game. If a miracle happens though and it does win GOTY will PoGo be the first mobile game to get such an award?

I don't think it will win the goldenjoystick or any mainstream GOTY but my point was it's a huge casual game and if you asked the people that played it what their GOTY is well mine would be Uncharted 4 but that mate of Jays posting on Facebook about Pokemon Go and games for the first, it likely be Pokemon Go is their GOTY.

Hey guys! Who did you vote for in the YouTuber category? What a crazy bunch of characters, eh? Whoa there!
(I couldn't find a "I'm too old and don't know these people but they all look like c**ts" button, so I skipped it)

You mean to say you're not a massive fan of Matt HD Gamer? He's a tremendous content creator, his best video is definitely the one where he played that game and talked, or that other one where he played a different game and shouted really loudly. What a character!

I'm looking forward to the scary game one where he's surprised.

His name's Matt HD Gamer for crying out loud; it'd be like me starting a YouTube channel called BBC Micro Apologist.

Do it.

Crumpy Andy wrote:: GJ always has weird cut off points, I think MGS was added late last year, not that we should be praising half finished games!

As for AAA vs Indies, I very rarely get anywhere near as much out of indie games as AAA, I don't know if it's because I'm not a fan of the often wanky experiences that are on offer, but even games like The Witness, that are as close to being right in the middle as you can get don't stand anywhere near the experience I've got from The Witcher, Uncharted or Deus Ex, so to me getting to recognise it as a great game at all is nice.

I'll not have a bad word said about MGS. However I'll side with you on the indies, as much as some of them might be impressive experiences, I'm never gonna put one as a GOTY because quite simply they just don't come close to the blockbuster hits.

masofdas wrote:: I went for Fire Emblem Fates

I think Pokemon Go has a shoot at GOTY, really it isn't but this is a punlic vote and you asked everyone single person Pokemon Go what the GOTY is and I bet Pokemon Go wins.

Not a chance, most of the casuals who don't usually play games enjoyed this but most of them aren't playing now as the appeal wore off, I'm sure they'd much sooner vote for something with a longer lasting appeal like FIFA (I feel dirty saying that).

Yeah FIFA is a good shout or something like COD which was sort of my point that if the vast majority who were asked to vote were casuals what would be the outcome as the goldenjoysticks even though its rather lame, they're gettign gamers to vote by putting the vote up on gaming sites like gamesradar which those casual won't be going on.

Why? TSmurf though why is a blockbuster going to be your GOTY over a inde what makes one so much better also it is heard to say what is and isn't indie now as The Witcher 3 is a technically a indie.

Whilst I'll enjoy them, they're always going to be limited by their budget, it's not to say indies aren't better experiences but the big hitters are just usually the more complete package. I suppose I'm defining indie as something that a small team will create and release on their own merits without the help of a big publisher up yeah the lines are more and more blurred these days.

We have the winners::

The big winner for taking awards is Overwatch with 5 awards, I do find the Xbox and Nintendo winners odd being a timed exclusive when it seems the category is aimed at exclusives but guess it is due to the timing of the awards and the other game being a remaster especially if you look what's on the VGA list.

The VGA Nominees are up, this is voted by a jury which includes 29 global media and influencing outlets::

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