Gaming Is "game of the year edition" a meaningless term?

[FAST6191]

Floating around the internet I saw some videos and some articles discuss game of the year as though it was something of note and should a game company/publisher dare to release a GOTY version without the original or a spinoff of it being called that by a "major magazine/site"* it was a bad thing.

*see also- circle jerk

For my money GOTY became a synonym for gold/1.5/enhanced editions (which usually boils down to expansions bundled) much like DLC became a synonym for what expansion packs and in some regards mods do and other than a minor fondness for roundups I do not note it at all; certainly "I will wait for the [inevitable] GOTY version" is used in the same context as "I will wait for the [inevitable] bundle with all the expansions" that I have seen. However much like the time I ignored/laughed at some mouthpiece positing second hand games might not be all that acceptable and something actually happened I thought I would attempt to see what things are like outside my own head.

To that end "game of the year"- functional equivalent to gold/1.5/enhanced edition aka game plus DLC/expansions/updates or a meaningful term?

 

[pokefloote]

Pretty much. I only see GOTY of games with add on content. The actual games that should have the title of game of the year never get it, so...

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

GOTY to me just means "Here's the game and most (if not all) of the DLC for a cheapish price!!!" and nothing more, as essentially that's really all it is.

 

[CrimzonEyed]

GOTY games in stores are most of the time just "extra content/dlc" versions.

Game of the year award on the net such as the website spike have is also kind of meaningless, since every person on the world have different taste.

for example skyrim won last year spike GOTY. (I think?)
But that doesn't mean everyone like it.
I don't care about magazines/websites GOTY or their reviews. I always make my own GOTY list of each genre.

I don't trust game reviews from big websites because of the high amounts of bribing/fanboys's.
Instead I check several smaller sites for their reviews + youtube reviews and summarize what people have say'd, rated and how the gameplay have looked like.

 

[Gahars]

GOTY to me just means "Here's the game and most (if not all) of the DLC for a cheapish price!!!" and nothing more, as essentially that's really all it is.

Pretty much this, especially since anyone can apparently claim that their game is the Game of the Year.

I mean, Dead Island got a GOTY edition. That's not to say the game is horrible, but game of the year? Really?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

It's just a branding. There's no real definitive marker for "Game of the Year" due to the diversity of awards given for video games. There's no Oscars or Grammys. No, the VGAs isn't anything close to that, it's basically just a lot of really bad jokes, game advertising, and a few debuts.

They could just as easily rebrand a game as "Ultimate Edition" or something and get the same effect. It's basically just a re-release of the game with DLC. Like I have Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition on my shelf and it's basically the same as "Fallout 3: Game of the Year" in terms of what the package offers.

 

[Hadrian]

A lot of them just seem to be "Genre Game of the Year". I mean I loved the PC version of Dead Island, it took a while to get into and the initial bugs pissed me off but once they were fixed I loved the game but it wasn't "Game of the Year", zombie game of the year...hell yeah. I did play it the second time this time with a different approach and still enjoyed it but it had it's flaws. A sequel though could easily become a potential "Game of the Year" candidate once they've fixed what was wrong. I can't say I was into the DLC though.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

GOTY are usually bundles that contain additional content, like all DLCs or expansions for that game.

Otherwise a marketing gimmick perhaps

 

[Rydian]

In most cases "game of the year" is a shit term that says nothing. You know, like "cutting-edge",

In the times it does tell you something, it's because the GOTY edition is a specific base version (useful to know for hacks/mods).

 

[weavile001]

its usualy the samething, but more expensive..

 

[MelodieOctavia]

GOTY started meaning "expansion/DLC edition" to me around the time Morrowind GOTY came out.

 

[thiefb0ss]

Game of the year usually means that more than half of the community is annoying twelve year olds.

 

[BryceOne]

My first GOTY game was No One Lives Forever a long time ago. GOTY editions are basically the PCs version of PlayStation's GREATEST HITS series. Just means the game has sold a certain number of copies or has been highly acclaimed by the top magazines / websites.

 

[FAST6191]

Heh it only just clicked that The Operative/No One Lives Forever developers went on to make condemned and Fear... neither of which I actually played but that is a different discussion.

Anyway it seems we have something of a consensus save for BryceOne who it might be said is not yet somewhat jaded- so in theory it could be a mark of a quality game but in practice/the absence of a Oscars esque event it is more of an excuse to rerelease a game albeit usually with any extra content or on rare occasion a few tweaks in the case of Europe developed open world/RPG type games (Witcher, divinity 2...) but potentially without the stigma of being said to be rereleasing a game.

I shall carry on ignoring and/or laughing at those that get upset or would raise an eyebrow at a game being dubbed a GOTY despite under the strictest definition of the term it not being "worthy" of the label. Either way I am OK with the model- all other software seems to work on a rolling release concept and some other things get directors cuts yet games are rarely/outwardly seen to follow said model.

 

[qlum]

I would much prefer if devs called them things like Gold edition, Platinum edition, complete edition, I really don't like the self proclaimed game of the year nonsense sure its a marketing technique that is used for ages, I think the first game I owned such an edition of was Morrowind which may have deserved it. However its still quite arogant to call your game that way and it doesn't really say anything about the edition itself. Sure that is also partially the case with things like gold edition but they are quite standard so is a gold edition including all the expansions released until now. Goty's don't even include everything most of the time.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

its usualy the samething, but more expensive..

Not really. They're usually the same game with all the DLC for a slightly higher price.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

its usualy the samething, but more expensive..

Not really. They're usually the same game with all the DLC for a slightly higher price.

And usually much cheaper than buying the game + all DLC separately.

 

[Originality]

I just see GOTY as "sales have been falling, so let's rerelease the game to generate some new interest/sales".