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- To accommodate Elden Ring SoTE, The Game Awards is changing long-standing rules.
- This biased decision is unfair to all past exceptional DLCs like Phantom Liberty.
- A DLC running in the GOTY race devalues the award and discourages new releases of the year.
Video game events like showcases and awards have always been a fascinating prospect for fans all around. Whether it’s getting glimpses of new games or seeing your favorite games being honored for all their glorious feats, the rush you feel is unrivaled. Among these ceremonies, the most sought-after one is probably the Game Awards.
What started as a replacement for the canceled E3 quickly became the biggest gaming awards event. Geoff Keighley’s TGA is a real highlight, regardless of my feelings about some of its controversial policies. Speaking of which, here comes another such peculiarity.
Why it matters: Allowing a DLC, no matter how great, to be included in the GOTY nominees is unfair to past DLCs and hurts new releases. It’s a blatant bias.
DLCs Can Be GOTY Now
The Game Awards has done some pretty questionable things over the years, things I have come to despise. This time around, as if to make it worse, TGA has made DLCs and expansions eligible to be nominated for the “Game of the Year” award.
The game awards really started counting DLCs for being eligible, the year after Future Redeemed came out, what a scam.
byu/Paulo_Zero inXenoblade_Chronicles
It has been common knowledge so far that while DLCs can be nominated for the many categories of TGA, they didn’t qualify for the GOTY section. All this was completely logical. It’s called Game of the Year, not DLC of the Year. An expansion is a continuation of a past game, after all.
No matter how exceptional a DLC was, it never got nominated, which was pretty fair, until this year that is. Out of the blue, TGA decided DLCs could now be selected, and to commemorate this decision, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree was given a GOTY nomination.
The Preferential Treatment Of TGA Continues
How convenient for SoTE, right? It lucked out at the very last minute with this decision. Yeah, as if. This was all a ploy to get Shadow of the Erdtree in the GOTY lineup, yet another example of TGA being biased in favor of certain games and studios.
I had high hopes that The Game Awards would be respectful of the industry.
byu/8bitjer ingaming
I should let you know that I consider myself to be the craziest, most dedicated Soulsborne fan. SoTE is a true marvel of game design and an expansion of unbelievable quality. However, extreme fanboyism doesn’t mean I’d abandon rational thinking. Even I know this is wrong.
Yes, FromSoftware is a legendary developer, and the Souls series is unrivalled, but that doesn’t excuse the preferential treatment. Elden Ring has already won GOTY and countless awards, pulling some strings to nominate it again is just plain bias.
What About Past DLCs, Then?
For a moment, let’s say that this decision was purely merit-based. Certain DLCs and expansions are so good that they can rival full games. By this argument, what about all the great DLCs of the past? Surely SoTE isn’t the only “GOTY-worthy” DLC around.
There is no need to go that far in the past; just look at Cyberpunk’s Phantom Liberty. The DLC that brought Cyberpunk to its peak and completed its remarkable redemption arc couldn’t qualify for GOTY last year simply because of this rule. There’s no doubt it had merit, but rules were rules.
If Geoff Keighley could bend the rules for TGA now, couldn’t this have been done last year for Phantom Liberty as well? That’s not all. Many other fantastic DLCs came out in the lifetime of TGA, like Blood and Wine, what about those? TGA has made a mockery of their efforts.
Consistency is key but TGA doesn't care
byu/Nickulator95 inAsmongold
TGA Is Discouraging New Games
DLCs aren’t the only thing this decision is affecting. It’s also an insult to the logical standing of the award itself. It states “Game of the Year,” which signifies all the new releases of the year. If a DLC is in that race, it devalues all the new games competing.
A DLC has not only itself but also the base game backing it up, especially a game as great as Elden Ring. This gives SoTE an inherently stronger standing, all the while discouraging all the new releases. Plus, this means the DLC stole the spotlight of a new game.
The name “Elden Ring” already enjoyed humongous popularity in 2022; the spot should’ve gone to something more deserving of fame, like Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, for example (TGA did this masterpiece dirty). It’s supposed to be an enjoyable event, not one filled with this much blatant bias.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devotedly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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