Sergio

Zelda is my personal GOTY. Nier is not in my top 5, but I felt the knocks against it could be made about every game but Mario Odyssey, especially PUBG. I think it’s ridiculous that PUBG is even within top 3, let alone GOTY.

I think it’s crazy the amount of hate Abby had for Nier, and her arguments against it were ridiculous. She played 8 hours? *GASP*

Strong list. I think Ben’s, Alex’s, and Brad’s were my favorites this year, because they had most of the games on my personal top 10.

@donaldb: Pointing out how Abby approached the deliberations of this or any other award isn’t misogynistic. I’m a big fan of Abby’s work on Giant Bomb East, and I was looking forward to her being included on the GOTY stuff. I liked her personal GOTY list, because I actually liked many of those games. If she articulated during deliberations better to reflect her list and wasn’t as dismissive of any game she didn’t play or style of game she disliked, I don’t think as many people would single her out as often, even if they disagreed with the results. I disagree with some of the choices made that she contributed to because she never gave a convincing argument.

Look at how the rest of the crew handled things. They weren’t automatically dismissive of games Abby put on the list even if none or only one other person played it. They let her argue her case, before deciding whether or not to include it. While most of them were dropped because they “couldn’t hang” she did manage to get Damian on one list, when it probably should have been Gregg. Dan epitomized the approach I respect. He clearly isn’t a fan of Nier, but was able to acknowledge what it accomplished, telling them to stop making him like it. I think in some of the later categories, Abby took that conciliatory approach once it was clear certain games were locks.

I hope she’s better next year if she sticks around.

@bacon: I think that’s the reason Damian made it to top 3 of best character. At least she’s given up going immediately after Nier on some of these later categories, since she learned she’s alone in being automatically dismissive of it — with Dan hate-liking what he’s hearing lately.

This may be the perfect list(s).

I was expecting the best villain in BotW to be lightning or rain.

@hassun: Hmmm... it’s as if this game should have won some type of award.

@theinvinciblemark: The Digital Foundry analysis said it’s one of the few third-party games that is noticeably better on Xbox One X than PS4 Pro.

@berfunkle: The expectations Square tends to have on some of its past franchises that sold well, but not enough for them, makes me think that they won’t give him the budget he deserves.