Giant Bomb GOTY 2019 Discussion Thread

Well, why not add my $0.02.

I'll echo the mild disappointment. Doesn't affect my plans to stay premium or anything like that, but I definitely am feeling less engaged with these GOTY casts.

I think the big thing for me is that the 3 days of recaps is a bit too much, and a bit too full of games that people don't really have too much to say about. This is compounded because everyone is (understandably) feeling the time crunch of only a week of deliberations, and there's a pressure to "get through the list" of the games. Unfortunately, this both gives some games short shrift (per Marino's recap, 10 games got a minute or less of talk), and in a lot of cases it's very repetitive of the discussions that have happened on the weekly podcasts, which go into far more depth anyways.

Hell, I didn't even realize they talked about River City Girls in the recaps, but Jason getting time to go on in on the music category was fantastic! I will say the decision to remove the nominations part was smart - it didn't really add too much, since there wasn't much discussion about nominations.

On the flip, and fully cognizant the last day isn't out yet, the awards categories have evolved in a great way. The best multiplayer "thing" is immensely more interesting than "best multiplayer" and opens up discussion for trends in the industry. I'm a bit sad to see best styyyyyyle leave, but I think that change was ultimately sharp - it's a bit more inclusive of different game styles now. These are where the discussion really shines, and I think are ripe for doing fun stuff - and it's been where some of the best conversations in the past have happened (the "best console" discussion a few years back was a great discussion on the future of the industry).

My unsolicited advice - I'd cut those 3 days of recaps down to 2. Maybe don't do every game that came out, have each staff member talk about 2-3 games that were influential for them, maybe a big AAA and an overlooked gem. So you could have Jan talking a ton about Pokemon, but also Indivisible (which I really wanted to hear more about!)

Regardless, I really appreciate the work you all put into these. It's a highlight of my year.

I'm really surprised that they would prioritize spending 12 hours to just recap the year instead of video content while they're all together. Could cut a lot of time off to make space for video(s) and move the remaining time to talk more in depth about the relevant games brought up in categories. I would take cutting all of the recap off if it meant even just one more video of them all doing something together.

I find this format very boring again:(

Used to love goty podcasts and videos. I really worry about giantbomb, I was a premium member right from the start until just a month or so ago when my auto renewal payment didn't go through and I just left it. They just keep making the wrong decision about everything, selling to cbs(gamespot) splitting to East and west, upf becoming boring rather than fun and goty becoming extremely boring. Maybe the last day will be great. I still enjoy the podcast and maybe the next sale I will get premium again. Or maybe Jeff will get sacked and start allover again and make it like the old days again :).

I've heard they only had one week to produce all the GOTY content this year, as opposed to the usual two. Apparently there was a late Thanksgiving this year, which caused some scheduling problems? Faced with this time constraint, the GOTY deliberation podcasts were for some reason prioritized, and that's why there's a lack of group videos this year.

I'll believe that, it's a believable explanation. But it doesn't prevent the situation from being unfortunate.

Through the years I've come to really appreciate the video content Giant Bomb produces for GOTY season. What a season. Especially the last couple of seasons with the Holiday Specialtaculars, where I really think they hit their stride and made some of their best stuff. I've come to expect and look forward to it. Breaking that stride, expectation and tradition feels like a bummer, a travesty and a crime against Hitsmas. I hope they'll come back in styyyyyyle for 2020.

edit
There is now Winter Games. Hooray!

We’re getting Winter Games! I still think the balance has been off this year (too much emphasis on the relatively dull parts of GOTY, not enough on Specialtacular), but at least the Specialtacular stuff is not quite as thin on the ground as it seemed. I would still strongly urge the crew to consider if there’s a more efficient way of doing the GOTY stuff if they’re going to be so short on time together in future. I get what the recap is for, but maybe limit it to only games where they have enough to say to justify a discussion so that they don’t have to lock themselves in a podcast room for quite so long.

No disappointment. Nothing ever lasts forever. I appreciate what has been made and the effort put into it.

If I don't want to watch the videos and just see what games won each category...where do I find that? I've looked under the Words section but didn't see anything. Am I missing it somewhere?

I think the reason that this year’s format feels more flat than previous is because it’s a discussion of all games, regardless of passion from the crew.

Having categories for awards means that all the games discussed, even the “let me have my say” ones, comes from a place of passion by at least one person. So they’re already starting from a shorter, more focused list with games that folks want to talk about.

I also think the silly categories are important because they offer levity as well as parts of games that might get missed. They’re also argued from a place of positivity. Think of one such as “best shopkeeper”. That’s a fun category to talk through, with only games that they like and the discussion errs on the side of “this shopkeeper was best cause...” rather than “your shopkeeper is worse because...”

To me, categories have to come back as the main format. I would love to see the return of the written articles with summary of the day. I think by including more fun categories, keeping lists tighter, and remembering that it’s all for fun would make it doable.

Some other suggestions I’ve seen sound good too such as recording the podcasts over Skype and recording audio from both East/west and merging together at the end so they can be remote the first week, then meeting the second so all they do is have fun together.

Unfortunately, the passion that existed in previous years just wasn't there this year. I understand the change and why it happened, but it essentially felt like 3 days of recap, and then a standard list. The fun feels like it was sucked out of the room this year...

Not having the hottest mess category is the biggest mess of all!

No Cross Coast Bombcast/Beastcast? Check.

Same bland format as last year? Check.

No videos outside of the Family Feud one? Check.

The GOTY content was one of the reasons why I subscribed and stuff I looked forward to yearly. If 2020 doesn't shape up in any meaningful way, I think I just might archive what videos I like and cancel my subscription. All I listen to is the podcasts this point seeing as how there's barely any meaningful content on here besides the odd Vinnyvania.

My only real comment here is that the first 3 days felt utterly pointless and a waste of time, listened to maybe 20 minutes of any of those. If there was meaningful discussion in any of that I didn't get to it.

I find myself more and more interested in other outlets and their deeper dives into a thing

The lack of group videos is disappointing, the podcast format and missing categories is underwhelming, but perhaps the greatest crime against this year's GOTY is as follows:

WHERE THE FUCK IS ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER'S LIST?

Did y’all know Jeff doesn’t like RE4?

@liquiddragon: I think he needs to repeat it one last time for me to finally get it. Jeff doesn't like what?

Now that I'm finished with the GOTY content:

I think that, sadly, the most entertaining thing about deliberations this year are the way that Jeff slowly revealed over the five days that he probably never actually played Outer Wilds at all.

@dashibuya: Apparently he didn’t think the shooting was good. 🤷🏻‍♂️

No list from Jason?

Edit: Oh, he has been ill. He's going to try to get something out by the year's end.

this is armchair speculation at it's most charitable- but i wonder if the decision to do the 'year in review' was an effort to curb the negativity latent in ranking the games for their various categories. that and give each release its 'day in court.'

if that's the case, i'd rather them revert to a version of what they did in years past- one staff member 'champions' a game they personally connected with. that keeps it positive while making sure something a little more niche or under the radar gets recognition.

the 'year in review' just feels a little heavy in audio format, especially when other sites do similar content in written form.

I don't mind the recap format, but I think I really do mind not having group content like Hitmas, the Mario Party Party from last year, group Beastcast/Bombcast, etc.... that was an extreme bummer. I also felt Hottest Mess was a category missed.

I listened to most of the first day, but then just skipped to the last day and listened to that instead.

Winter games was good. OMG that Goldeneye match was...GOLDEN!

Please tell me ZodiacMF's list is just late, because it was such a Ryan tradition to have him and would bum me the fuck out if they didn't reach out to him this year.

So I guess Outer Wild's the most toothless game of the year huh?

To update my earlier feelings:

I actually really liked the top 10 discussion this year. Maybe not as strong as other years but it felt way more civil and nobody really dominated the discussion. If that's what they were aiming for, rather than just being dickheads to one another, I think they nailed it. So, yeah, there's definitely something positive coming from the discussions format. It's maybe just that the three days spent on recapping was a bit much. Two days should perhaps be the max.

Just a quick idea on all of that: maybe day 1 should be talking about the 20 or so main GOTY award contenders - separate them out and make them special instead of having them getting lost in a 'Sort by Release Date' format. This also builds some anticipation for the deliberations and gives these games a more prominent spotlight. Then, on day 2, talk about the rest of the category contenders that aren't up for the main award (e.g. Later Alligator, Kingdom Hearts 3, Kind Words, Link's Awakening, etc.), alongside any honourable mentions (positive or negative) that also stand out but haven't been nominated for anything (e.g. Dicey Dungeons, Horace, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, etc.). Essentially, discussing the games that don't need as much of a spotlight as the top contenders.

I think this approach (or something similar) would give the recap podcasts more structure and purpose than just running down a list (without creating that much more work on the back end) while also ensuring that they remain spaces where people can be effusive about the games they love without the competitive edge, negativity or shoutiness that can sometimes seep into the category deliberations.

That way, by day 3, the categories are clear and the nominees are clear. If someone thinks of something else for a category, sure, shove it in. It's not an exact science; it's just a structure to stop the recap from running into day 3 while retaining the well intentioned reasons for its existence. Hopefully something like this would free up time for an extra day of categories or extra time to spend on group content.

Anyway, that was an excellent Winter Games! I was so happy to see it after expressing my original disappointment that we wouldn't be getting anything. I still feel a little bummed out by no Hitsmas and other whacky stuff but we kept at least one annual tradition going and it was a good one so I'm way happier than I was earlier today!

It seemed and felt like... a tough year for the crew. Some stuff going on that we saw; a lot going on that I'm sure we didn't see in their personal lives. Despite my earlier disappointment, today left things on a good note and, for that, I am glad. Thanks folks.

I appreciate that they did Winter Games this year, I liked what I've seen of it so far. I know everyone's down on things, but I'm just trying to give credit where it's due.

Coming in a bit late to the discussion! Here's my two cents:

When it comes to GOTY I've come to expect long, heated arguments (like Brad vs. Jeff on Doom vs. Hitman) and four or five other videos (like Hitsmas). This is the first time that I've been disappointed by their output.

Most of my disappointment stems from my expectations - there is no promise or guarantee that they're gonna do the same thing twice, or that they're gonna hold my interest. When I try to look at things from different perspectives, a lot of the opinions are very relative. For example, however unbearable the three days of discussion might be for me, maybe there's something about them that is actually positive and more interesting than what they used to do if I could bring myself to listen to the whole thing. Getting rid of some of the silliest categories was also a huge bummer, but maybe they were working too many hours before and decided to focus on the more important ones in order to have less crunch and a healthier work environment.

There are only two things that I struggle to accept. One is the production level of the Feud and Winter Olympics videos (mostly the audio, which was really bad). The other is how uninspired and dull the solo features were for the most part (the fun is in seeing the crew bounces off each other). It all just felt poorly planned and hastily put together, from the animated intros to the cuts between segments.

I think it would have been a better move for GBE and GBW to do their own separate silly video features instead of trying to bang out a couple of them on the same week they are doing GOTY deliberations. It probably would have led to more and better content. Then again, that's just my opinion. I think there may be many other factors we're not privy to and therefore are not accounting for when we manifest our discontent.

Lastly, I'm of the opinion that if you don't like something, just don't spend money or time on it. I don't think an artist or critic or content creator has to change what they do just to please me. Having said that, I've been a premium member for five years and I'm not planning on changing that; the content they put out during the year is really what I'm here for. To be honest, I don't even know if any of the crew are gonna read this or if they'd give a shit about my or anyone's opinion - I'm only posting this because, in case they do, I think there is some constructive criticism in what I've said.

I don’t need 5 days of GoTY podcast blood sport like some people in this thread, but I think the 3 days of recap podcasts could be cut down to 2. I don’t know what you do with the extra day, but 3 days of recaps is too many. Probably about 1/3rd of the time spent talking in the recap episodes was on games that somebody studied up for 3-4 hours for a quick look, then never played again.

It’s fine that Giant Bomb isn’t GameSpot, and there isn’t a GB mandate to review every game and play every game to completion. But if nobody played a game to completion, I don’t really see a point in spending 90 seconds giving a milquetoast first impression of it; 95% of the staff didn’t play the game and have nothing to say, and even the one person who led the quick look and is talking about it has no strong feelings one way or the other about it.

@eduardopaulo: I feel like you summed up my criticisms perfectly. I was disappointed this year, so much so I actually voiced it rather than just shrug it off.

Just because I find it's difficult to parse the actual criticism from people getting mad about how arguments were made or, the list itself. I usually just try to enjoy what's produced and be open to change. This year just sticks out as a real low point in GOTY content, and if I'm in the minority, then more power to the ppl who enjoyed it. For me, it's exactly like you said in regards to the solo videos and I feel like the lack of videos I was interested in, made me less tolerant of the audio issues.

We'll see what next year brings!

The biggest disappointment this year was no "biggest disappointment" award

Last years Biggest disappointment was their single greatest discussion EVER. IT was absolutely brilliant.

go make your own website, folks.

Man... I had damn near the same exact experience with Outer Wilds that Jeff did. Granted, I knew about the translator thing, but it didn't help much. I tried that game the first time, put a couple hours in, didn't know about the computer on the ship, had no idea what I was doing or where to go, died a bunch before I ever found anything, flew to a new place every time I died, only to die again before finding anything, finally got to something to translate and had no idea what to do with it, died again and said "I don't think this game is for me". I never even made it to the end of a time loop because I just keep dying.

Came back later in the year, started over, put a couple more hours in, found the ship computer this time, made it farther in the game this time, but still never got to that magic point where the game clicked for me the same way it did for everyone else. I just keep dying before I could get much done, or was frustrated with the ship controls, and keep saying "This game just isn't for me. Maybe I'm just too dumb for this game." Maybe it's because I also don't like Majora's Mask, and felt pressured into getting stuff done before time ran out, because that's how I felt playing Majora's Mask, and that led to a lot of stupid deaths, stupid decisions and impatience.

Am I missing something or did I not see an article wrapping up the GOTY results like Jeff's "Here's What Won" from last year?

I didn't get to the end of the week's worth of podcasts so if they said on there that there would be no written top 10 list I missed it.

Not a fan of the format for the past two years. I'm not saying go back to the gold format, but tweaking the current one would be appreciated.

I have Thoughts about the change in format, but I'll keep that to myself and only make one reasonable request: why not post the awards & top 10 as an article like they've done....every year up until now, I think? Or did they do this and it's buried somewhere I can't find it?

Count me in as another disappointed subscriber. I totally get why they wanted to change formats two years ago. Even though I really like the prior format, I understand why they felt like it was too adversarial and was forcing the podcasts to be full of people cutting down some of the best games of the year.

My problem is what they've replaced it with. You might have not liked the earlier format, but you can't say it didn't promote debate and deeper discussion. Now with these last two years of GOTY podcasts you get hour after hour of one to four people saying the same things about games that they said months earlier on other podcasts and Quick Looks, all while everyone else sits in silence. It is so rare to get both coasts in the same room together and to spend the majority of that time having every member rehash what they've already said this year seems like a giant waste of that. They've done away with a lot of the fights and tension, but in doing so they've done away with most of the fresh insights and discussion.

Likewise, I can completely understand why they cut the GOTY production time from two weeks to one, it's got to be tough to leave your family for half a month in December, but it really shows in the amount of content we're getting. I've long stopped expecting to get the kind of cool well-produced theme pieces we got years ago, but this year we're short on even everyone together playing games.

I've been a subscriber since the start, and I will continue to be. I still really like the site, but this was clearly the worst GOTY season batch of content they've ever produced. So many things here feel like a step back, from the elimination of categories like Hottest Mess to the lack of a written article summarizing the awards. The only thing that seems as good as it ever was is the guest top tens, which Alex did an amazing job with.

i'm at day3 now and it strikes me that when a big game that multiple people have played pops up ,they immediatly snap into a mode where they all bring up the negative aspects of a game as a group. Like Jedi Fallen Order in general was a game a bunch of them enjoyed quite a bit, but the aspects they want to discuss the most is the performance, the glitchiness, T-posing enemies, how it's like an amalgamation of all the popular game things stuffed into 1 game, how bad the climbing is, how bad the signposting is, how bad the trainsequence tutorial is, how bad the sliding parts are , how the combat didn't click, how cheap some of the bossfights felt. Yet despite all that, most of them played that game and had a general good time, but they just spend 80% of the discussions pointing out the negative aspects of a game.

Now imagine what happens when a game they all don't like at all pops up for discussion. You get near an hour of negativity that makes it sound like there's no redeeming qualities at all to be found. Yet, that negativity was one of the aspects that made them change their GOTY process. At some point, it's just the way games get talked about if even a game that the group generally had a decent time with has more time spent on negative aspects than it's positives.

The Winter Games video was great, even if lacking with a festive theme. I do still miss Hitsmas and Rock Band 4 greatly, but perhaps next year. This is definitely not a reason for me to unsubscribe, as this is just something nice that happens in the end of the year.

Outside of all that, Death Stranding sure didn't put itself onto that many lists! I guess I didn't really expect it to, but dang, no mention of it on any staff lists. Better luck next time, I suppose?

I'm not interested in the GOTY discussions anymore but I have been disappointed with the video turn out this year so far. To go to the effort of bringing the whole team together and then not play games together seems like a wasted opportunity to me and the short individual videos make for a poor substitute imo.

EDIT: Some clarification, I really didn't like the old format for the GOTY discussions and that's why I don't listen to them any more. The newer format seems like it should cut down on the rampant, asinine negativity of the previous years but at this point I just don't find much value in the staff's takes on games so I don't bother.

I think the screw should have skipped the long trip to SF and stayed home. The GOTY podcasts are so dragged out and boring to listen to at this point.

Enjoyed the personal videos they did during the week, and of course the Beastcast that followed by the end of the week. And again they could have done these with out travel and being away from their families.

But i guess they get a lot of visitors doing the whole top 10 GOTY that it's worth it for them to keep doing it. I could do without it and would love a refresh of the end of the year content. But that's my opinion and no one has to like it.

@jesus_phish: Also, to add to your point, most of the comments in this thread have been constructive and level-headed, even though many of us are pretty disappointed in the GOTY format this year.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with it but it's definitely been streamlined to celebrate the games rather the dumber shit. The long list of deliberations gives a lot of games their due. I miss the apologies and please stop's of the year but I feel they get railed on as they happen.

I really hope that Jeff and team look at this thread and take it to heart. Everyone in this thread loves GB - that’s why we’re all so passionate.

Please consider bringing back the written daily summaries, silly categories (especially hottest mess), playing games together in festive attire, and anything else you all think would be fun.

And I'll throw in my sentiments about Sekiro being given the cold shoulder. I beat that game twice and enjoyed it after hours and hours of hard work. The game demands an ability from the player much, much more than Souls. You have to engage that game on it's own terms.

It's my game of the year but I could happily live the rest of my life never playing it again. It has broke me.

@muffinmcmuffin: I'll never understand this outlook, it's clear a large chunk of the fanbase did not enjoy GOTY this year. I don't get what makes them "entitled" or "whiny". Most of what i see here is people reiterating what they loved about GOTY in past years, and why this year has fallen short.