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 ONE: WTF, Your GOTY made me LOL It’s January 2009 and, as we still await that flying car The Jetsons promised us, those looking for reading material have a long list of Game of the Year features to rate, berate and shake an angry fist at. At the other site I write for (X3F) we decided to shy away from a collective GOTY list, primarily because our staff is so small. In the end my overall tip-of-the-hat went to Fallout 3 from Bethesda Softworks. Once our individual lists were out of the way, X3F held reader’s choice polls to vote for the community’s best and worst of 2008. While there were many points of contention toward the titles picked for the poll, one stood out in my mind. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, 2008’s Game of the Year? Hey, I love me some Mortal Kombat but I don’t know about that. Okay. Maybe it's possible. If your ideal game is a mash-up where typically heroic figures are possessed by magics from a mythical dimension then do battle with both the good and evil in multiple worlds in order to save civilization from something goofy as all hell then MK vs. DC is ... top three. Easily. The reason MK vs. DC stands out in my mind is because of a comment made in our GOTY Poll – which consisted of 13 titles – where a user asked, “Where is MK vs. DC?” Meaning, why wasn’t it included in the 13 titles vying for the Reader’s Choice Game of the Year? 
With hundreds of games released per year across multiple platforms and devices the problem becomes boiling it down to one. THE one. Not to knock your socks off but with so many varying opinions on the internet it’s impossible for everyone to agree. I know, surprise! But what I’m seeing now are readers who genuinely question a media outlet’s ethical decisions because of the game they selected. Joystiq has had some words thrown its for selecting Fable 2 as the 2008 game of the year, much like a monkey flings excrement at visiting Zoo patrons. Someone specifically, and I don’t know who he or she is but I was pointed in the direction of his/her blog, was so angry that instead of flinging balls of excrement they just dropped trou (as in trousers) and shat all over his/her keyboard in anger. In the blog the major argument made was that Fable 2 was in no way, shape or form a contender for game of the year because it was not innovative, ground breaking or substantial. Then, in a hail of What-the-fuckery, the blog named Mega Man 9 and Rez HD on its own Top Ten of 2008. I suppose retroactive innovation accounts for some points … even if one of the games was innovative in the 80’s. 
My point is, you’re not right. I’m not right. No one is right. The point of the Game of the Year in today’s industry is nothing more than the process of adding a few logos to a re-released title’s box art. It, like Metacritic, is a tool used by the PR side of the industry. On our side of the fence the day a game of the year list is released is the day no one wants to be online. The firestorm of anger can sometimes be frustrating ... if the writing staff hasn’t become numb to the comments, that is. It doesn’t really mean anything to anyone. But, we put so much effort into it that it makes the whole process seem necessary. It's our mistake too, I suppose. Think about it. If we ignored it we'd be like those people who kiss their teeth at Valentine's Day. "It's just a Hallmark holiday to sell some greeting cards!" They yell to friends. Those are the people we talk shit about behind their back. The games industry and the people so deeply entrenched in it need to rid themselves of this validation mentality. If you like something you don’t need to be told it’s okay to like it. You don’t need to berate someone else for liking something you don’t. You aren’t required by some Message Board law to add dollar-signs in the place of the letter ‘S’ when referring to Microsoft or Sony or to call publishers out and claim their franchises are dying because the platform it released on didn’t follow your predetermined life-path. This isn't news. But hey, it's just one of those things the internet taught me.  | Xav de Matos is a contributing editor for the Joystiq Network at Xbox 360 Fanboy. He is also a panelist for The HUD, AOL GameDaily's weekly op-ed discussion forum. Questions or suggestions for this or future features may be directed to xav [at] joystiq [dot] com. |
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