I know the Game Awards are not exactly some longstanding institution with precedents set in bedrock, but it feels weird seeing a DLC/Expansion in contention for “Game of the Year.” Especially when the game the DLC is for already won Game of the Year.
I agree that Shadow of the Erdtree was a massive “game-sized” expansion, and I’m certainly not trying to minimize the work that went into it. But at the same time, DLC (as good as it might be) tends to build upon foundations already laid in the core game. Foundations that, in this case, were already considered and judged for this category.
The Diablo 4 expansion was pretty great, and while I haven’t played them, I’ve heard good things about the Factorio expansion and what Destiny has put out. Do you think it would make more sense to create a category for expansions to existing games, so they could be judged along similar criteria? Is it unfair to simply add more content to a game that has already garnered critical and commercial success and take a GOTY nomination spot from a game that hit the shelves this year?
Thanksgiving tomorrow, no comic Friday. Back on Monday!
I don’t own Elden Ring. If I went to the PS Store and bought Shadow of the Erdtree, could I play it? If not, it’s not a game, it’s a game expansion. It’s like calling lettuce a sandwich even when it’s not accompanied by bread, bacon, or tomato.
Ah, well, that’s not really the issue. They’re not trying to pass it off as a full game. They’re just letting DLCs be nominated alongside full games, fully aware that they are DLCs.
They’re pushing it as “Game of the Year” so in a way they are trying to pass it as a “game” while saying it’s DLC. They’re trying to have their cake and eat it too. Or they’re saying “Yes it’s lettuce, but it’s also a prime contender for the best BLT you’ve ever seen.”
Yeah, I guess the category title doesn’t make much sense anymore. But I don’t think that means they are literally trying to convince us these are full games. I guess we’ll see.
I don’t think they’re trying to convince us DLC is a game, they’re just trying to say that DLC is the same as a game. It’s doublespeak. Why they don’t just make a DLC category is beyond me. I guess it wouldn’t have the same “prestige” as Game of the Year.
Yeah, all that I agree with. They could have something like the “labour of love” award Steam does, for example.
Could a DLC win Game of the Year, if it’s main game didn’t? IOW, say Elden Ring didn’t win it, and, in fact was never even nominated. Could a DLC elevate the game to GotY in everyone’s eyes?
Actually, after talking to my son about it… it’s all about the value, or the money, after all. If a game wins GotY then the publisher can put that on the advertisement and it has value… “hmmm, what game will I play now, this one or that one? Well that one was GotY, it must be good” and it brings prestige. Now what if the game didn’t win, but the DLC did, can the game claim it? After all, if the DLC won, you can’t play the DLC without the game, so the game MUST be good…
I feel like having a category for DLC is a simple solution. They got categories for everything else. It isn’t like DLC are super rare and they would have any trouble filling the list in that category.
I completely agree, it’s the logical thing to do
It’s probably about “DLC of the year” just doesn’t sell as well as “Game of the year”. It’s mostly marketing
Yeah, Larian should every year make a small DLC and thus BG3 will win all GOTY awards till the end of days.
Definitely!
I mean to be fait, even if one were to remove the OG game’s foundation, Shadow of the Erd Tree is a more complete game than most of the games that came out this year.
You can’t remove the OG game from consideration here, though. Even with all the content Erdtree added, there are years worth of work the team DIDN’T have to do (combat systems, animations, AI, UI stuff, etc) to make it happen, because they’d already done it to make the base game.
By this logic Elden Ring should not have qualified, since it built on top of years worth of work the team DIDN’T have to do (combat systems, animations, AI, UI stuff, etc) to make it happen, because they’d already done it to make Dark Souls (1 & 3; 2 uses a different engine).
May as well disqualify anyone who uses an asset from a store or an existing library within the engine, right?
Stop being disingenuous, you know exactly what the difference is we’re talking about. FromSoft getting Erdtree up and running on top of Elden Ring is a different level of work than it took Black Myth Wukong’s devs to get their game up and running and in contention for GOTY.
I would suggest the amount of work is irrelevant (we can all think of games with low work, single creator marvels, that are amazing, and huge AAA games that are abysmal). Factors like ‘is this a sequel or a DLC?’ count and the obvious ones of how enjoyable, novel, etc the game is.
High effort is absolutely relevant – I don’t think you meant to, but you’re kind of implying that indie/solo dev games are low effort. Far from it! Equating more people to more effort is exactly the kind of mindset I think you are trying to advocate against, but I think the people behind those “single creator marvels” would be upset to hear them called “low work”.
if it is not a standalone game for example Elden Ring 2 and you need “a base game” to play this one, then it’s an expansion and it’s not a seperate game and it shouldn’t compete for “game of the year”.
Bioshock VS Bioshock 2 or Diablo I, II, III, … for example are different games even tho they didn’t have to create a world and combat system etc. from scratch as they build upon previous ideas
It’s like having one tv-show and then being able to nominate every episode for “best tv-show”
not really no
and it’s not a new game with a new gameplay either
I don’t get why they don’t just have a DLC category. DLC is worthy of praise in it’s own right, for it’s own reason! Not having the category is honestly more unfair to the DLC than the full games who have to fight it from GOTY.
DLC shouldn’t be Game of the Year. Make a DLC of the year category. Putting only Shadow of the Erdtree is not only unfair to other good DLC, but it’s also unfair to full games that could have had that spot in the GOTY nominations. Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth came out back in January, but has remained my favorite game of the year, it kinda stinks wondering if it would have been on the list if not for a DLC taking a spot. But that’s all, I’m not going to get worked up over it. It’s important to remember… Read more »
Where is Star Wars Outlaws?! But seriously, I am enjoying my playthrough of it right now, and I don’t understand all the hatred towards it. No lightsabers or force powers, yeah I get it, and the female character that some yell “woke!” about. Did these people not play Tomb Raider?
SW Outlaws released too close to the ballot cutoff dates to be in consideration for any awards.
Outlaws still got 3 nominations, best performance, best accessibility and best action adventure. And TBH the fact that the nomination process started before it was even released is an even bigger blow to their credibility for me than a DLC getting nominated for GOTY.
Release date aside, SW:Outlaws was a glitchy, buggy mess for many players. So much so that an at-launch update locked out pretty much every person that bought the game on Early Access (for the head start and some goodies) or was given codes for it, forcing them to have to restart their entire playthrough… pretty much nullifying the head start benefit of buying/receiving it early (effectively ripping them off for that higher price). -Water effects like natural ripples in lakes/ponds were improperly scaled in many cases, making it look like Kay was a miniature on a giant set. Water interaction… Read more »
tbh outlaw got me bored pretty fast…
I’ll wait for a steam sale for Outlaws
Spoken as a hardcore star wars fan
Shadow of the Erdtree wasn’t even good enough to deserve a nomination.
It was nothing but huge open empty fields with nothing to do, and the same type overly aggressive bosses that are made completely trivial with a greatshield that are found in the base game. There was nothing new, surprising, or interesting anywhere to be found in it. A 5/10 DLC, which is disappointing for From Software.
If you accept that argument – that even game-sized, DLC tends to build upon the foundations of the base game – there’s a ton of sequels out there that are just building upon the foundations of Game 1. Like, Mass Effect 2 would’ve been my GOTY for 2010, but honestly a lot of that is just a polished second helping of Mass Effect 1. I’m not saying that DLC should be considered. I’m just saying, you don’t need that justification. DLC is something that already has an asking price of the original game, is intended to be played as part… Read more »
In general I think Remakes, Remasters and DLCs should have their own category.
As much as I love FF7:Re and Silent Hill 2 Again, they aren’t really treading new ground.
I know people will disagree with me about FF7 but think about it this way: Would any of the little winks, nods, nudges and references make any sense to you if you had NEVER played the original game or the other spin offs – all the things that make you say “Oh shit, they CHANGED HISTORY”
No, they wouldn’t – the story would be nearly incoherent
That argument makes no sense with FF7. What you’re talking about is the same thing we see with any game in an iterative series: it makes the most sense when you’ve played the previous games, and you’re going to miss stuff if you hadn’t. Would any of the little winks, nods, nudges, and references in, say, Red Dead Redemption II make sense if you hadn’t played the first? If you didn’t already know where the story would end up? I’ve known people who played FF7 Remake who hadn’t played the first, and they seemed to enjoy it fine. If a… Read more »
FFVII Remake and Rebirth are not FFVII OG and should have been able to participate in a contest as a new game incase this would have been brought up. You can’t say “well in 1997 there was FFVII so this totally new version with updated graphics and gameplay and an altered storyline (which i do not agree with!) is not able to participate”. This isn’t just (as I would have wanted) FFVII with enhanced graphics like they did with VIII, IX and X. I think FFVII Remake and Rebirth is far more enjoyable for those who haven’t played OG. At… Read more »
At first I thought about a counter example like No Man’s Sky, which on release was nowhere near GOTY matetial, but many years later with free expansions – perhaps it would deserve a nomination. But then I countered that with objection: if you consider it as a game with all expansions together – then at which point do you do that? Renominating the game with each expansion doesn’t sound like a viable option either. This made me realize one more point – I haven’t played Elden Ring or its DLC, but I suspect that if a new player with 0… Read more »
Theseus’ Video Game 😄
Thanks for fixing the comic Tim.
good to mention factorio, cause there is no better release this year.
Agreed.
A DLC cannot be a nominee for GOTY, no matter how good or revolutionary, or new it feels.
It’s still a DLC.
There should had made a DLCOTY, and everyone would like that.
I agree that there should be a “best DLC” category. But then what happens with things like Dragon Age Awakening, which was a “standalone expansion”? You could import your character from the main game into it, but you could also play it without the main game at all. Could that get nominated for both best DLC and best game?
(Whether Awakening is actually good enough to win/be nominated for any categories is irrelevant to this post, I’m just using it as an example of a “standalone expansion”)
Its pretty obvious that this was only done so that they have a “legit” reason to give the Goty price to Elden Ring rather then Black Myth Wukong.
This rule change was made so that they can make elden ring can win again ,not because the DLC is worthy of the title.
If any DLC deserved consideration as it also overhauled the original game, and culminated one of the greatest turnarounds of a bad game at launch, it was Phantom Liberty
I remember the same discussion when Witcher III: Blood and Wine won RPGOTY back in… ’16? Honestly: I don’t really care. If the DLC is really good by itself, you aren’t judging it on the basis of the main installment, and it offers enough gameplay to be considered a full game (so about 30h of content, I guess), why not.
That being said, Elden Ring isn’t my cup of tea, so I couldn’t objectively judge it, but I also wouldn’t be able to name a game more deserving this year either (Manor Lords being just early access doesn’t count).
We may not think of it as “long standing” but remember, the first VGAs happened 21 years ago (i know they’re technically different from now, but really they’re the same thing in spirit), hosted by Samuel L Jackson doing a bit from “The Warriors” as his opening. This pre-dates most DLC, especially for consoles, so they’ve had the time to adjust with the changing world. Why there isn’t a “Best DLC” category is frankly baffling as so many incredible DLCs are released.
Yes, this is true! An expansion on a game is not a new game itself! I can only speak directly about games that I personally play, mainly GTA V and GTA Online, but others as well, but when the Heists update and the Doomsday Heist update was released (which both added PlayStation trophies/other platform’s achievements to it) it was not a new game, just an expansion, same with the Cayo Perico Heist, The Contract Update, and all other updates to GTA V/Online over the years. So unless the “update” can be played standalone from the main game, it is NOT… Read more »