This is awesome! One thing, maybe I'm missing something but MGS4 is on 2008 twice?

@sethmode: I see that now! Thank you! It would be because I just copied and pasted the names, and didn't 100% double check if they followed the same formatting! I'll update the sheet!

This is amazing; thank you! This is exactly the kind of information I've always wondered about GB's GOTY.

Honestly, it surprises me that Giant Bomb doesn't use a points system, based on list order, to determine the entire sites GOTY Top Ten List, like you've done here. It would save so much unnecessary BS and talking in circles every year.

Forever and after proving that SAINTS ROW 3 WAS ROBBED. Fun experiment! Thanks for putting it together.

Can someone please take this spreadsheet and make one of those memes with the American election news guys that are just pointing at a giant screen full of polling numbers?

Despite Jeff's claims, it seems they actually nailed 2009, and completely compromised and screwed up 2017. Mario was robbed.

This is really cool, good work!

2017 was such a wonderful year for gaming... then I see PUBG winning. Bleh. oh well. Past's the past.

Saints Row finally got justice in 2021.

Listening to their argument for it on the recent Hotspot actually really drove home why that game won for me. I had the exact same feeling that Jeff had when that thing dropped. I did not want to play anything else. PUBG was, at the time, unlike anything I'd ever played before and I'd be surprised if anything comes close to it in the future. The emotions it elicited purely through the mechanics of the game were so intense.

That's not to say that there aren't extremely valid criticisms of the game, but the fact it was able to capture the zeitgeist so completely with fairly limited resources makes all the more impressive in my eyes.

@nameredacted: It's well established why they don't do that. And I'm glad they don't because that would be boring as hell.

@bisonhero: Here is my very poor quick photoshop.

@lanerobertlane: Looks good to me! Also props for editing around the guy in the foreground. Surely there were pictures of these studios with less foreground obstruction, but I appreciate the effort nonetheless.

That 2012 list is bizarre.

This reminded me that I haven't played Bayonetta 2 yet. I even own it on Wii U, but never bothered to buy the console.

It would be pretty cool to see the site incorporate an analysis like this, just as a comparison point in the final day recap. With a quick note pointing out the major differences between the lists created by collaboration and automation, heh. It might be possible to point to moments in the discussion that explain the discrepancies as well.

@doorbot: Watching them go in circles about music yesterday was ROUGH when the could just do this ranked ballot method and settled it.

Updated with the release of the 2020 lists.

This is good fun. I am very much a believer that the way they actually handle it is much preferable - the problem with averaging the staff rankings is that you tend to get some real "passion picks" on personal lists which even that staff member wouldn't argue is actually the "best" game of the year but rather one that just happened to be really special to them.

Likewise it's why they tend to avoid just pure voting - it's much more interesting IMO to make a case for why you think a game deserves to rank in a category or top ten than just have it based purely on what more people liked upon first glance. The other big issue is that sometimes people just don't play certain games and so they don't appear on their personal list, but on a staff list they'll happily cede to a positive consensus from the staff members who have played it.

With all that said, I still think this is a really interesting thing to look at - in part because it differs from the actual lists, and so there's comparisons to be made where you can see games that actually were very well liked amongst the staff but that no-one felt strongly enough about to argue hard for on an "overall" site list. Appreciate the insight!

Crazy how close 2018 is with their final list.

Finally Super Mario 3D World makes it on to the 2013 top ten list.

@y2ken: That's a very good point. I will say, there were moments in the most recent ones, where I think they would have benefitted from independently ranking something on a case by case basis instead of constantly talking in circles about it. It could be a last resort lifeline of sorts when they're not making any ground. "Everyone blindly rank these 3, and whatever one gets the most points gets the spot".

I am also for abolishing the filibuster politically as well.

@neely: Just in time for the re-release!

I mean, I think the discussion is the interesting part. I don't really need a top ten, ordered or otherwise, but I'm also the kind of person who prefers scoreless reviews.

But the statistics nerd in me appriciates the work gone into these lists