The Game Awards: 2.5 Million People Voted, But They Don’t Decide GOTY

A staggering 2.5 million+ ballots were cast across all categories on the very first day of voting for The 2017 Game Awards. Voting was opened following the announcement of the nominees in the award ceremony’s 29 categories including Game of The Year, Best Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, and various genre categories; Sports, Strategy, Action etc.

With 2017 being such an insane year gaming wise, the top categories are pretty much toss ups, though in your humble narrator’s opinion, Breath of Wild is the game to beat; though it faces stiff competition from Horizon: Zero Dawn, Wolfenstein II, and PUBG….which isn’t even technically ‘out’ yet.

Fan voting does *not* decide the winners. Rather, it’s a combination of fan voting and “an international jury of 51 global media and influencer outlets, selected for their history of critically and editorially evaluating video games.” Fan voting counts for 10 percent of the overall ‘vote’ while the jury accounts for the remaining 90. Except in the case of Most Anticipated, Best eSports Team, Trending Gamer, Best eSports Player, and Best eSports Game, which are entirely mob rule fan decided.

Which…is absolutely the right move. An awards show like this should absolutely *not* be a popularity contest for the major categories; though popularity should obviously be a factor. By giving fans a level of influence, it engages them in the process, but makes clear the notion that the most popular game is not always the best. If that were the case, Captain America: Civil War would have won the best picture at the Oscars this year.

That said, the most interesting categories are the ones featuring games you may never heard of or had a chance to play. The ‘Games for Impact’ highlights games that deliver a strong message or social commentary and includes indie-darling ‘A Night in The Woods’, Syrian crisis-exploring ‘Bury Me, My Love’, social-anxiety simulator ‘Please Knock on My Door’, and a few others.

There’s also categories for best student game, ‘trending gamer’, and best Chinese game…which is curious considering there aren’t categories for any other regions of the world.

What’s impressive about all of this is how quickly and massively fans jumped to voting for their favorites in the various categories, implying there’s a buzz around this year’s show that’s palpable. And the brain-trust behind the award show is doing everything in their power to capitalize on that buzz, debuting a Facebook exclusive behind-the-scenes series in the ramp-up to the show.

In that ramp-up, it’s fun to think about just how far gaming has come in the past 15 years or so. When The Spike TV Video Game Awards debuted; it signified mainstream media was ready to accept the fact the the medium was as important and potentially world-changing as film, or music, or television. And at the time, the credibility of a cable television was welcome. It also innovated on the typical awards show format by enticing gamers to watch via the promise of world-premiere exclusive trailers.

Now…Gamers don’t need that ‘broadcast’ credibility, and The Game Awards will be streaming just about anywhere you can think of. YouTube, Twitch, Xbox Live, PS+, You can probably watch the thing on your Tamogatchi if you still have it. Regardless of how you watch it…remember *to* watch it on December 7th.

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