Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Golden Joystick Awards sweep

It's always heartwarming for people to recognise their own contributions

See people in many forums talking about how these types of awards that user voting are just popularity contests. Isn't that really the point? I mean if people are enjoying the game, it scratches an itch for them, then they are going to vote for it. Is that not kind of the best judge for if a game has reach the status of same Game of the Year?

Candy Crush has made billions of dollars. Which means that a LOT of people are spending a lot of money on it. That says absolutely NOTHING about if it's a good game. I see user voting awards the same way. A game that is essentially the Mcdonalds of RPGs being popular is meaningless, and people are right to call out the awards it receives if they feel it's lacking.

Let me rephrase, a large amount of people enjoying something doesn't mean it's the 'something of the year'. 'Of the year' implies a level of objectivity that is separated from simply ' a lot of people liked it.', at least in my opinion.

Nope. No it doesn’t. I don’t know where you are getting that from. “Of the year” means for this year, differentiating it from the previous years and the years to come. “This was the most popular game of the year as voted by our participants” does not imply any level of objectivity. That’s what this award is for.

Also, this whole line of thought of “well this award isn’t legitimate because it’s just players saying what they liked most,” is fucking weird. I think an award like that is more legitimate than any other award that can be won.

Hey look, an opinion masquerading as fact. You're better than that Warlocke.

As I said not long ago on another thread …


Perhaps I should have it bound to a key

Na, fair enough. I'm out of this one.

Apologies for coming off so strong there, Boblawblah.

I wanted to say Congrats for the Golden Joystick Award! I keep telling folks BG3 reminds me of the height of Bioware with Mass Effect and Dragon Age, which those type of games seemingly fading into the ether. Here's to many more awards and celebrations to your future. Congratulations on an incredible game.

Hmm, I don't think it's weird when you consider psychology. Many people, especially gamers, can't respect the fact that their taste, interests, or viewpoint may be in the minority. It causes cognitive dissonance. You see it all the time in the youtube ign comment section. The possibility that their "Truth" is not the truth held by a majority of people can be so alarming that their immediate reaction is to discredit said majority as inferior or substandard in some way. This behavior is much stronger among western society where individualism is valued than societies with group based mentalities.

Not really, no, at least not to me. There are already plenty of ways to see what game is selling the best, and how it has been received. Why ask people to vote all together, and not just use metacritic/steam reviews, sales and hand out additional badges based on that? What's a benefit of such badge, if it's handed to a project on a basis of being already very succesful?

If I am looking for "best" award, I do expect at least some kind of process. Did voters even play all nominated games before voting? How were the games nominated? Or is it "I played/watched this game and liked it so here is the vote"? To be able to judge things, on need to experience those things. As such popularity votes indicate just that - popularity. Not a meaningless metric, but also not very helpful or informative one.

So they feel personally invested in the outcome.


What would be the point in doing that?



Awards ceremonies aren’t for us. Promotional reasons aside, they are for people within the industry so that they can receive recognition for their achievements.

If you want to see an awards ceremony with a more comprehensive review process from a select number of voters, that’s what the Academy of Arts and Science’s DICE Awards are for. I think those happen in January.


Again, this isn’t supposed to be helpful or informative. It’s for the benefit of the developers who worked on the games. Not us.

The last two decades of Bioware in a nutshell. And outside of Bethesda, no other genre company has tried as damn hard to win the popularity contest as them. https://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=3245

I'm so pleased to see Larian's talent and hard work receive recognition. As for popularity vs. "something more, " I'm inclined to see it as something of a false distinction, as I suspect a sense of "something special" is baked into many votes.

I understand the need for "technical awards", sort of being judged by your peers. That has a place for sure. However popular or community votes are vital as well. Sure they may not reflect the technology but they do reflect the response from the gamers and in many ways that is more important.

At the end of the day, no matter how cool the tech, the only thing that makes a great game is if it is FUN for the players. If the players enjoy it, get engrossed into it. Without player interest even a great game, well quite frankly does not matter. So when I see people say a reward or accolade does not matter because it is a "popularity" contest, I think they do not really get gaming.

Eh, fair enough. Thank for mentioning DICE Awards. I was not aware of those, so I will try to remember to keep an eye on them. Perhaps, they will be more of interest to me.

WELL DESERVED!

Congratulations, Larian! Well deserved.

What is the difference between PC Game of the Year and Ultimate Game of the Year, though?

Well deserved!

PC Game of the Year is JUST for games on the PC. Ultimate takes into account games on ANY platform.