Is this whole GotG thing ridiculous?

asinine, hodge-poge, arbitrary.

That's what I think of YOUR poll!

I dig it

I went with Aye just because I think that it only became ridiculous once people started to take it too seriously. It's really not a big deal.

It's ridiculous, but that's the fun of it. You should lighten the hell up.

Well it's all for fun. It's not like one game being outvoted by another is gonna change my opinions regarding those games.

This gen has provided us with some really good games.

Not really any more than these things usually are. Which is to say, yes, but I also don't care.

Did I say arbitrary? I think I meant thesaurus.

One too many, going home. ;)

It's supposed to be a bit of fun, not a prestigious award that will retroactively banish all losing games from existence.

It is very silly. I'm glad it's happening.

It's all in good fun. There's nothing to be taken from the voting really, as what you enjoy the most should be all that you care about.

I do think some of the seeding is suspect. But its a fun thing.

The Dark Souls love is making me question everything I know about video games though....

@shagge said:

But my favorite game lost! This invalidates me and I'm on the internet, so WAAAAAAAAAH.

In reality, who gives a fuck what game "wins" this thing? It's just for goofs, it's not like the game that wins will be instated by a Lawperson as the most Bestest game of the generation forever and ever.

balderdash! flim flam! [/mrboons]

With that attitude you'd fit right in with the gamefaqs people during their character battles.

So you're telling me there's a chance...

It's pretty stupid, but I guess it was something to do? ME2 isn't the worst game ever and The Last of Us barely beat a game that doesn't have gameplay. Dark Souls is the heartwarming tale that will ultimately fall short at the invincible wall of "wasn't played by as many people."

Its fucking Giantbomb man! We come here to laugh at people throwing pie down the toilet. This system launch is making people REAL edgy.

Yes?

It's not a big deal. Checked out a while ago.

As opposed to bad gameplay!

See I can have fun too!

Of course it is. I voted for Fallout 3 over Super Mario Galaxy, but those two games are incomparable, and one is seriously missing out if one doesn't play both.

I enjoyed Dark Souls more than I did Red Dead Redemption. Is it objectively a better game? No. Is RDR objectively a better game than Dark Souls? Again, no.

Mass Effect 2 is going to win. Mass Effect 2 is a great game. There are plenty of games that I enjoyed more, including Mass Effect.

So, sure, it's ridiculous. Picking a GOTG is like picking a Painting of Eternity. Is Starry Night better than Mona Lisa? Everyone sees (experiences, absorbs) something different, so who's to judge? But as long as people remember that it's ridiculous, it's all in good fun.

As it stands, it's mostly in good fun...

@mlarrabee: I don't see ME2 winning that easily tbh. ME3 tainted people's views of that game pretty harsh.

It's absolutely ridiculous, and I love it for that reason. People taking it so seriously make it amazing. I know what games I love from this generation, but it's fun to see people fight about it.

The only ridiculous thing here is your lack of an avatar.

@artisanbreads: Well, The Last of Us is going to win the majority of the Game of the Year awards; I guess if that qualifies as "bad gameplay" then sure. A small minority of people didn't like the combat, darn. Mass Effect 2 has mediocre gameplay. Dark Souls has awesome gameplay. Dark Souls loses. So the two rules of the pollsters are: whatever was played by more people wins (CoD 4 excluded) and whatever has worse gameplay is quite likely to win (see for example: Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Dragon Age), Bayonetta went out in the first round and probably has the best gameplay other than Arkham Asylum, Arkham City wasn't even in the bracket, neither was Vanquish. Gameplay is not what people want, fuck gameplay.

Gonna concur that it is both ridiculous, not in execution so much as the entire concept is silly (the only GotG with any meaning is a personal one, not a collective). Also going to concur that it's not meant to be taken seriously, even if some misguided souls do, lighten up.

Yes, but Les raboteurs de parquet is better than both.

Is Duke Nukem Forever the video game equivalent to The Fountain?

It's just a fun, silly little thing. I think you shouldn't care so much.

I do think it's a bit weird doing the generation's best when it isn't quite over yet. Odds are, all the biggest games are already done. But what about Dark Souls 2? Persona 5 (when it inevitably comes out on PS3/X360)? Seems poor to have this voting already.

It's fun! I like it!

@punkxblaze: The Fountain is liked by crazy people, so yes.

Well, sure. It's all ridiculous and most of the matchups are nonsensical.

But it's still a silly thing to dick around with. Nothing to get too bent out of shape about.

Games that were on both big consoles will beat out far superior games that only came out on one.

Who cares? They're just forum polls. I don't get why people get so worked about it.

(except when Sleeping Dogs beat GTA V, that was fucking awesome)

(and Dark Souls beating Spelunky was still bullshit)

you can just read the first line and topic of one of those threads and see its not worth going into. the fact theyre popular blows my mind as well.

Brothers not being crowned GotG is the real tragedy here :'(

This. It's just a fun internet poll. Nothing to take serious.

Giant Bomb was made on the backs of people doing and saying absurd things. Like Coke chugging contests or year-long debates on the validity of hamburgers as sandwiches. Support Giant Bomb. Support shenanigans.

It's a bit of fun for fucks sake.

It spurs some good discussion, and frankly, I've got to say that the Giant Bomb community is so much more respectful about people's differing opinions than other online gaming message boards that it actually doesn't feel like pouring acid on my eyeballs when reading justifications and arguments.

It's also just interesting to see all these people hash out things and come to some kind of consensus! It's fun, and it doesn't make any of the games I enjoy feel any lesser.

They are dumb stupid fun, I quite enjoy them! It's not like the outcome really matters anyway, games that don't win GotG don't suddenly evaporative and cease to exist... Right?... RIGHT?

When you have a bunch of people deciding on what the "Game of the Generation" is, you'd expect at least a little ridiculousness. I mean, the title of "Game of the Generation", in and of itself, is ridiculous.

Excluding Brothers, WoW is surely game of the generation anyway. Doesn't matter that it was released just before, considering it went on to dominate pretty much the entire duration of this gen.

Well, it's a list of what many consider to be the best games of this generation, and we simply vote for which one we liked best. At least, that's what I'm doing. Nothing about that seems asinine to me.

Sometimes two games get put together in a single bracket and are of such extremely opposing genre's that the results seem to skew towards one obvious winner 'cause OF COURSE this game is better than that game when put next to each other - but that game might have an overall bigger importance when considering the impact it had on this generation.

why would you take any of it seriously? it's just an excuse to look back at the games.

Yeah, it's completely ridiculous. That much was stated from the start in the initial post. Arbitrarily picking one game from this entire generation to be objectively "better" than every other one is a preposterous notion.

But this website was built on preposterous notions, so why not? It isn't hurting anyone (unless they decide to take it seriously), and it's a chance for us to contemplate what our favourite games are - and, for me at least, to look back over the past eight years (-ish) and admire what an incredible generation packed with fantastic titles it's been. The fact that it's ridiculous is what makes it so great, in my mind.

What these guys said.

As a hardcore Giant Bomb user, but only a casual member of the forums I can say this GOTG stuff has ruined the forums for me. It just feels like massive spam and actual discussion is buried. I've been an admin for some pretty major communities and we would keep something like this in a sub-forum to avoid alienating a big chunk of the users.

I will slink back into the shadows now.

Jeez, calm down people... this is just a community vote and no more serious or ridiculous than the bombcrew choosing their GotY.

Super Serial crowd... It's a forum game, more or less. Who cares?