The nominees for the 2022 Game Awards dropped November 14, creating an annual water cooler second for gaming followers — for higher or worse. Whenever the record is introduced, you may make sure you hear the phrase “snub” reverberate throughout social media as followers query why video games they like didn’t get into sure classes. Of course, the truth is that there are numerous video games launched yearly and only a few spots to characterize all of them. Only the cream of the crop are going to get in, and that’s at all times going to end in some sore emotions.
This 12 months’s nominations particularly sting, although. Scroll by the record of nominees and also you’ll really feel such as you’ll see a choose few video games repeated time and again. God of War Ragnarok picked up 10 nominations in nearly any class it was eligible for, and Elden Ring predictably grabbed seven, even netting an surprising nomination for Best Narrative. Other large price range titans like Horizon Forbidden West and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II had sturdy showings, nabbing a number of nominations apiece.
The nominations weren’t fairly as sort to impartial video games. Though a handful made the lower, among the 12 months’s best-reviewed titles struggled to earn recognition exterior of indie-focused classes. The contentious outcomes elevate honest questions on the way in which we play and what sorts of video games benefit recognition. Is it a good taking part in subject when it looks like solely the video games with the most important budgets really get to compete?
Scale wins
Indie video games have at all times struggled to make headway at The Game Awards since its inception. Last 12 months’s ceremony marked the primary time an indie gained Game of the Year due to It Takes Two, however that stands because the present’s largest outlier. Scrub again to 2020 and also you’ll be arduous pressed to seek out too many indie video games even nominated in main classes apart from Hades. Instead, titles like The Last of Us Part II, Doom Eternal, and Ghost of Tsushima stuffed the poll.
This 12 months’s present is analogous, although with some encouraging exceptions. Stray picked up a formidable six nominations, whereas Immortality nabbed some high-profile nods in Best Narrative, Best Performance, and Best Game Direction. Smaller, however equally acclaimed titles, didn’t fairly get the identical recognition. Neon White, one of many 12 months’s top-reviewed titles, solely nabbed a Best Action nomination exterior of its indie class placement. Vampire Survivors and Cult of the Lamb picked up one nomination every, whereas video games like The Case of the Golden Idol and Signalis have been neglected fully.
Even when indies do win large, the video games that get recognition are inclined to stroll within the footsteps of bigger video games. It Takes Two is an EA-backed challenge that performs like a high-end Nintendo platformer, full with a narrative influenced by Hollywood animation. A Plague Tale: Requiem, a AA recreation that acquired a Game of the Year nomination this 12 months, is basically The Last of Us on a decrease price range. Even Stray is flashy in comparison with one thing like Strange Horticulture, constructing on 3D journey recreation tropes.
The actuality of the present is that it’s presently unimaginable to think about an acclaimed title like Citizen Sleeper making its method into classes like Game of the Year or Best Narrative, irrespective of its high quality. It can depart gaming’s large night time feeling like a contest of scale designed for corporations like Sony to excel in.
Mass attraction
To be clear, The Game Awards isn’t at fault right here. One might foyer criticism at its class decisions, which favor common genres like motion whereas leaving much less house for smaller video games that suppose exterior the field, but it surely presents lots of house for a big selection of video games to interrupt by. Ultimately the awards are decided by a democratic course of, with nominations picked by a large jury of publications (Digital Trends sits on this 12 months’s jury and submitted our personal nomination poll).
That’s the place the subject will get sophisticated.
There’s a logistical drawback right here that’s troublesome to work round. Countless glorious video games are launched yearly and every voter realistically can’t play all of them. It isn’t just like the Oscars the place somebody might feasibly knock out 5 motion pictures in a day and nonetheless have time to get a full night time’s sleep. Massive video games like God of War Ragnarok and Elden Ring demand an incredible period of time and a focus from voters who might really feel like they must prioritize them to remain updated with the broader social conversations round video games. It explains why an indie like Stray would possibly discover its method on the prime of the category, as its launch generated a large social second due to its cute cat premise.
Time administration tends to favor what’s scorching, and that leaves restricted house for somebody to decide on between compelling, however much less common, video games like Norco or The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. The extra you scale up a voting base — not only for The Game Awards, however for year-end discussions usually — you are inclined to see the dialog shift towards video games which have some stage of mass attraction. Indie titles must marketing campaign twice as arduous to make it on the record, whereas AAA titles are a foregone conclusion.
All of that leaves something like The Game Awards feeling much less just like the Oscars and extra just like the MTV Movie Awards. It’s like seeing a Best Picture subject dominated by Top Gun Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Batman, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (which really did rating a nomination for Best Adaptation). The largest advertising attracts reign supreme whereas groundbreaking indies are left combating for just a few spots that they’ll doubtless lose to no matter PlayStation’s largest launch is that 12 months.
There’s no straightforward answer right here, as a result of any drawback that The Game Awards has is just a social one. Until the broader gaming business values smaller video games the identical method it does a money-maker like God of War Ragnarok, any large-scale, democratized try to find out one of the best video games of a given 12 months might be skewed.
If a recreation you like acquired snubbed, one of the best factor you are able to do is champion it as loudly as you may on no matter platform you might have. Share it with pals and hope that good phrase of mouth helps it construct up the social standing a recreation must earn the popularity it deserves. When a system is gamed, recreation it again.
Editors’ Recommendations