If Giant Bomb Decided GOTY A Different Way

I had this idea while watching some of the personal lists earlier this week: what would it look like if Giant Bomb adopted a voting system akin to The AV Club, wherein each staff member has their own Top 10 list, the list is assigned points values, and the points are then totaled up and that decides the final list? I decided to add the numbers up myself, and this is the final result.

#1: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (56 points, 7 votes) / The Walking Dead (56 points, 6 votes)

#2: Journey (29 points, 6 votes)

#3: Mark of the Ninja (21 points, 3 votes)

#4: Fez (17 points, 2 votes) / Forza Horizon (17 points, 3 votes) / Hotline Miami (17 points, 3 votes) / Mass Effect 3 (17 points, 2 votes)

#5: FTL: Faster Than Light (16 points, 4 votes)

#6: Far Cry 3 (14 points, 2 votes)

#7: Spec Ops: The Line (11 points, 2 votes)

#8: Halo 4 (10 points, 1 vote) / Sleeping Dogs (10 points, 2 votes)

#9: Asura's Wrath (9 points, 3 votes) / Rhythm Heaven Fever (9 points, 2 votes)

#10: Diablo 3 (8 points, 1 vote) / Syndicate (8 points, 1 vote) / ZombiU (8 points, 1 vote)

It's not a perfect system, as you can see by the approximate six thousand ties, nor am I saying they should adopt this system. I just think it's some pretty interesting data, and it also allows to see what would happen if people like Alex or Drew got to be more involved in the decision.

Here's some other stuff I have from making that up:

The Rest

The Ballots

I would rather have irrational and arbitrary choices from arguments than a mathematically precise summation of their personal lists.

How about that? INDEED

@JZ said:

How about that? INDEED

How about what? Your post looks exactly the same as it did before.

That is pretty interesting data. I enjoy the way they do it now, but that's more out of a selfish love for the annual GOTY podcasts. Your breakdown is cool though, and reveals some interesting things about the games in question and the guy's opinions.

@JZ: What?

This is interesting and its nice to see that Mark of the Ninja is high on the list.

I was hoping someone would do this. It's interesting to compare the differences.

Although I think keeping it to an actual list of ten would've been better rather than including ties. But I suppose it's not hard to figure it out from here.

Nice work duder. Interesting to see some data. Joystiq I think does something similar there's some dark mathematics involved that nobody but Luddy understands.

Ahg, Math. 
What are you trying to do to me before new years? There's no point trying to fill my brain with information for smart people mere days before drinking like a nutjob! 

I might be wrong, but I believe X-Com actually would get 57 points.

I myself think it's super interesting that Walking Dead and XCOM are tied for Number 1, but XCOM has one more person voting for it.

@Ares42: Yeah, probably. I did this in the span of like 25 minutes + am pretty bad at basic math. I would not be surprised to find a couple mistakes in here.

Some more stats:

• XCOM is the only game to appear on every list.
• The Walking Dead/Journey both appear on every list except Jeff's.
• The Walking Dead came first or second in every list it was on.
• Syndicate/ZombiU make the top 10 despite being on only one list each.
• Halo 4 came first in every list it was on. Unfortunately for it, it was only on Drew's.
• FTL appeared on the most lists without making it on to the actual top 10 (4 lists).

Haha that first reply perfectly exemplify the spirit of Christmas.

On a more positive note, good job compiling that data. It's interesting to see. I still prefer the good ole "let me argument longer than all you assholes" podcast deliberations they have now. More entertaining that way.

That's some really interesting data. I don't know if anybody has done this yet, but you can resolve a lot of the ties by giving precedence to games that appeared on more lists:

You know what? I could totally live with that list. I have to say, though, I wouldn't want to replace the current setup. I love the bickering, I love the arguments, and I love the compromises. I feel like there's a certain raw realness to the proceedings.

If that happened games that not all of them got to play would be unfairly penalized. They can't all play every game after all. If Brad, for example, wasn't able to play X-com (and therefore awarded it no points) would it be any less of a game?

@AlisterCat said:

I would rather have irrational and arbitrary choices from arguments than a mathematically precise summation of their personal lists.

Robots!

Eh, any method that produces that many ties is kind of silly. I'd prefer a top 10 games of the year list to have 10 games and not 18.

Sounds good, but I think the numbers should also be weighted. Some of the games were more passionately defended than others. How that weight should be distributed, I don't know, but it shouldn't be equal.

@AlisterCat said:

I would rather have irrational and arbitrary choices from arguments than a mathematically precise summation of their personal lists.

haha.

also, it's obvious the current individual "votes" = entirely too dependent on what is or is not poised to make the overall GOTY. consolation awards, and the like. i'm guessing the numbers will look a little different if the crew were told there would be no overall GOTY deliberations at all, and instead, it will only be sweet democracy and maths.

Wasn't enough arguing for number 1 this year, was hoping for a blood bath between XCOM and Walking Dead, story vs gameplay.

If Giant Bomb Decided GOTY A Different Way 

Just do it like they do on the Besties. Create a bracket and then no one's favorite game wins.

How far did Jeff get in the walking dead? He's never talked like he got very far into it, if he didn't it's interesting that it made top 2 for everyone that did play through it.

@bvilleneuve: @bvilleneuve: That is a pretty good list except that Fez has 3 votes while Mass Effect 3 has 2.

It's a good system but the problem is that there simply isn't enough data and you end up with all these ties like you see here. It would work for a place like GameSpot where there's tons of people that work there.

Ties or not, if you just take the top 10 scoring games, it's interesting to note that Syndicate, Zombie U and Sleeping Dogs, three games that made the actual top 10, don't make it here.

The idea of a bracket system actually sounds like the most fun. Seeding, bickering over the match-ups, and lot of hurt feelings leads to great entertainment. A lot of people on the forums would flip their lids but maybe they'd realize that the top 10's should never be taken seriously anyways.

It's interesting though I do appreciate the crazy personal lists separate from the overall GoTY stuff.

How dare you bring science into this. GOTY is god's work boy....

@musclerider said:

Just do it like they do on the Besties. Create a bracket and then no one's favorite game wins.

That was both hilarious and frustrating to watch.

@JordanK85 said:

Ties or not, if you just take the top 10 scoring games, it's interesting to note that Syndicate, Zombie U and Sleeping Dogs, three games that made the actual top 10, don't make it here.

The idea of a bracket system actually sounds like the most fun. Seeding, bickering over the match-ups, and lot of hurt feelings leads to great entertainment. A lot of people on the forums would flip their lids but maybe they'd realize that the top 10's should never be taken seriously anyways.

yeah that honestly sounds pretty fun.

if only because it'd be funny to see the walking dead vs. frog fractions or somethin silly like that.

@T0mF5 said:

@bvilleneuve: That is a pretty good list except that Fez has 3 votes while Mass Effect 3 has 2.

Right you are. I was just pulling the data from the main list in the OP.

@Animasta said:

@JordanK85 said:

Ties or not, if you just take the top 10 scoring games, it's interesting to note that Syndicate, Zombie U and Sleeping Dogs, three games that made the actual top 10, don't make it here.

The idea of a bracket system actually sounds like the most fun. Seeding, bickering over the match-ups, and lot of hurt feelings leads to great entertainment. A lot of people on the forums would flip their lids but maybe they'd realize that the top 10's should never be taken seriously anyways.

yeah that honestly sounds pretty fun.

if only because it'd be funny to see the walking dead vs. frog fractions or somethin silly like that.

Oh my god, I honestly don't know what would happen in my mind if I were asked to choose between Frog Fractions and The Walking Dead. I like both of those games so much.

...

You know what? Actually, I do know. I'm going to stop denying it: I think Frog Fractions is a little bit better than The Walking Dead.

I like this idea because it would mean that Syndicate and ZombiU weren't on the list. I'm not saying they are bad games but nowhere near top 10 of the year