utternyms

This one is hard to nail down in just a poll answer. I went with 0%, because, often, Let's Plays (in the sense of a Quick-Look) can serve to get the word out about a game and increase sales. That makes them -- more or less -- free advertising, so in that sense, the developer getting a cut is pretty gross. But when the video content is instead serving as a way to consume the game without buying and playing it, then the developer maybe should get a cut, because the video is eating into sales rather than increasing them. However, if a game is big enough, the sales hit is probably negligible -- like with the GBEast playthrough of Life Is Strange. And then, in really specific instances, if a game is small enough and the content is beloved enough, a full playthrough can be a boon -- the GBEast playthrough of Contradiction. And then what if virtually no one who watched the playthrough would have bought the game anyway? And then and then and then. So yeah, it's really complicated.

@lackingsaint: I think Shadow of Mordor has been mentioned a couple times in 2015, and in general, seems that their collective memory of that game, if I recall correctly, is that it was the best game in an overall mediocre year for games.

I suspect GB's #1s look wrong in retrospect because, when they deliberate, they get mired in technical, "objective" standards as a way of coming to some form of agreement between immensely subjective individuals, and ultimately, that leads to an exclusion of the "human element" that makes for personally memorable gaming experiences. While I absolutely adore the buggy, unfinished mess that is KotOR II, I can't imagine it having reached the top of any collective GotY lists, because, looking at it in any objective sense would sanitize it of the special moments that make it so beloved in my memory. The bugs and missing content would then take the spotlight and give the ENEMY fodder for knocking it out of the top spot. Games don't work when analyzed objectively (shockingly enough).

tl;dr Giant Bomb does GotY right by treating it like the pretentious joke it really is. (Opposite of what the Keighleys did last night by giving out a fucking Lifetime Achievement Award like they think their awards actually mean something. Definition of pretention. You're not the fucking Oscars)

@tothenines: Funny how the shit that stays with us isn't always the shit we think will stay.

Not the one I was thinking of, but Nuts & Bolts definitely belongs on there.

Bingo! Jeff loves Red Dead.

Oh no, don't show this list to Jeff. It's missing a particular game of the generation...

Wow. This thread got me thinking. I'd forgotten that there was a time when the Bombcast didn't have ads. I miss you, Ryan.

@ballsleon: I guess the game's trying to tell you.............DON'T PLAY WITH CONTROLLERS!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA! #PCMASTERRAAAAAAAACE

I hope it works for you at some point. I'm also interested in using a controller; it's a long game, so sometimes I just wanna sit back and relax while I saunter through a poison gas-filled nightclub.

Gnashgnashgnash I hate your favorite game because it is stupid! Growlgrowlgrowl You're wrong about your favorite game because I didn't like it!

I played Knights of the Old Republic I and II around the age of fifteen. The first one was my favorite game until I finished the second, which even more than the original, floored me, not only for the better story--which really was too complex for me to get at the time, though I still loved it--but also for the enhanced gameplay (and that's a harsh reduction of why I love the game so much, but I'm going to make you read an essay on why KotOR II's so great).

Because it impacted me so deeply in the golden years of my gaming life, I still look back on the game with intense fondness. And that's why it's totally cool for me to call it one of my favorite games, even if it's brutally flawed.