Smash managed to get in with Ulitmate.
Maybe the press will wake the fuck up for FH6. Or they’ll be super kind to Fable to compensate for back to back to back snubs.
Even if Forza Horizon 5 got nominated for GOTY there’s still no way it’d ever actually win knowing how critics tend to vote.
Nomination is the win anyways.
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This show doesn’t deserve a “click” from anyone.
The awards are a joke and the reveal trailers pop up on YouTube (in 4K) immediately after the trailer was shown (not after the show) so I won’t be missing anything. Nobody will really.
Sometimes awards shows can be really dumb. Bob Dylan didn’t win a solo Grammy until 1979. Many years after all his classic albums were released. I think we all know the TGA are a joke. Nobody watches for the actual awards.
The hard part is the reveals, not the awards. Awards are easy.
The other thing is the press outlets have no standard method for picking their 5 winners, and many outlets will require all the games they pick as nominations to be played by the editors putting them forward.
This means those in the press who mainly game on PSX will not likely play Xbox games no matter their quality, so with PSX being the most popular platform among the gaming press that is an inherent and systemic problem in and of itself. Outlet’s editors will simply say ‘I am sure it is great, but since I haven’t played it myself I don’t feel comfortable choosing it as a nomination’. Furthermore, we have the timing nonsense
Nov 5th: press ballots are due in Nov 12th: redo ballots are due in for the few who requested them Nov 19th: the supposed “deadline” for a game’s availability to press
Pubs releasing games in November either have to find a way to make sure everyone at a press outlet plays their game (which tilts the playing field towards the most popular console) or just hope that the press outlet will give their game the nod based on hype/faith that the game will be good regardless of who there played it. To do the former means the game must be finished and available to press about a full month prior to the purported “deadline”.
Note that some games are genuinely not eligible during any year too(!!). For instance, next year Starfield will release on the day that the redo ballots are due. Unless XGS gets the press access to the game in mid-October, it will be screwed over as the press won’t have had time to play it, and there might not be interest in playing it from other editors at the outlet to consider nominating it.
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https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1461116172401885199 https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1461116174272544774 https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1461116493048037381
Update (Nov 17, 2021)
Since posting this article, I received a flurry of information from members of The Game Awards jury, as well as game developers themselves which add some important additional context as to why Forza specifically didn’t make the grade this year.
Geoff Keighley has stated on Twitter that Forza Horizon 5 was indeed eligible for this year’s awards, with the cut-off date being set at November 19. However, game journalists were told they had to submit their picks by November 4th. Forza Horizon 5’s early access period didn’t begin until the 5th, which calls into question just how much eligibility it had in real terms.
In Geoff Keighley’s defense, they do include additional information in the email pack to Jury members, informing them that ballots can be altered up until November 11. However, I was told that this information isn’t highlighted clearly enough, and not enough time was given in general.
My take is ultimately, I get it, it’s hard building award shows, lining up timings, review embargos, and all of that, on top of the existing busy Q4 period. That just accentuates my point that if Jury members didn’t have enough time to properly assess a game that is eligible in 2021 but won’t be eligible in 2022, it calls into question the general fairness of the award process. Veteran game developers should also be on the panel to offer their insight and perspective, which often diverges wildly from games press, perhaps partially due to how secretive the industry can be. I heard today from a musician who noted that their gaming OST work had enjoyed more streaming plays across streaming sites than all the other nominations from that year combined. I also heard that publishers’ marketing departments who are familiar with the process go to extra lengths to provide access as early as possible before the ballot cut-off date, to increase their chances of being of being considered.
I think ultimately everybody wants The Game Awards to be as good as it can be, if we have all collectively decided it is the de facto game award show. By not including game devs in the Jury, by not giving enough breathing space to the games themselves, it’s hard to understand how they could be considered completely fair. Should they even be fair? Does anyone really care that much? I’ve never watched the Oscars personally, but hey, it all depends on what your expectations are for these types of events. It is completely my opinion that the weight of scrutiny over the years seems to favor cinematic action games, but maybe I’m taking it all a bit too seriously, but I’m not a game dev. It’s like I said above — game devs of all stripes do deserve to be celebrated in a big way, but a big fair way, where the weight of opinion doesn’t fall on a relatively few number of overworked, pressed-for-time game journalists who probably haven’t even played most of the games that have been nominated this year. It falls on a wider conversation about the constraints of game criticism and the relationships between press and marketing in general, but I digress.
I appreciate what Geoff and his team seem to be trying to bring to the games industry, and I think most of us here do too. But, Forza seems to have been screwed by the process here. This isn’t about platform wars as some love to suggest because oh no we are Windows Central after all. This could’ve happened to Gran Turismo, or Super Smash Bros, or any other game that you think deserved the top celebration. Geoff Keighley has shown himself to be willing to evolve The Game Awards, though, so I suspect things may change again next year.
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Jez is really raging, love to see it.
It’s also really strange that companies (wonder who…) are gaming the system when it totally isn’t important and doesn’t matter.
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I do believe the condition should be changed next year. The cutoff date is too anti against the big hype games. Going by that logic, Starfield won’t get nominated and as of now, that game is being treated as second coming of Skyrim. Unless it flops, but really, it has a strong chance to be incredible with resources and time from a trillion dollar company that is all-in.
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The cutoff date in November is just stupid. The show should be in Jan/feb. That is a VERY easy fix for gEofF.
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Thanks for this. For some reason I really thought Smash Bros Wii U was a remake / remaster of the 3DS one. You are right, this is the only exception.
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Jez don’t care he going in i love it lol
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Why would other journalists join in? They are the jury that created this situation.
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Pretty much this. Wish TGA was in mid February and included the entire calendar year plus it would be great to have a gaming event earlier in the year as opposed to having really nothing major until June.
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Been saying this for a while now. Good to see more visibility on the matter. Hopefully there is enough outcry (at the process being super faulty, not perceived snubs) that things change to something sensible for 2022. Otherwise we will be in the same situation with Starfield a year from now since it also will fall into the trap of bad timing.
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It’s not a coincidence he wrote it as Windows Central is one of the few major publications not represented in the TGAs. No projection bias or fear of biting the hand that feeds. Many devs have responded very positively to Jez’s article. He did a killer job.
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I’m legit starting to wonder if the TGAs should just drop the GOTY award altogether. Seriously, how do you truly compare an FPS RPG to a racer to a puzzle game to a Third-Person Action Adventure? The best comparisons you can draw between them will typically be on surface-level shit. What has the most graphics, the most story, the most what have you? Not what has the most satisfying gameplay loop or what has the most potential for experiential storytelling or what is the most technically proficient. Like, if these shows are just a commercial from hell anyways, everybody fucking wins. Keep the technicals and direction but have no true Game of the Year. Because the winner of Action Adventure predicted the last four fucking awards.
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I think 90% of what Jez said was correct, but pretty overdramatic. “A snub of the ingenuity of the entire industry.”? "“Dereliction of duty”? Tone it down a bit, mate.
Increasing the nominee list to 10 would help a lot.
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I think the games industry has this weird inferiority complex with the movie industry. For a game to have “merit” it needs to be like a movie. I think the journalists just reflect this.
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