Honestly, maybe its because I never paid much attention to it, but I never imagined Starfield as a contender for GOTY. I don't have a switch so I wasn't able to play it, but to me it's seemed like this year was always Tears of the Kingdom's to lose. From what I've heard about it from people I know and from the public in general, I think Zelda is the one that's gonna win and I honestly don't think BG3 even deserves to be seriously in the running. It's a good game, but just that, good. I don't think it ever really goes beyond being just good fun and I feel as though every aspect of the game has some degree of glaring flaws that become apparent as the game goes on. From the poorly balanced combat that can swing from too easy to too hard thanks to the encounter design and the heap of really powerful magic items we're showered with, a story held together by duct tape and string basically from the start, graphics that are great by the standards of the genre but basically about average by the standard of other games that go for graphical fidelity the way its trying.
However I do agree with what someone else said about game of the year not actually mattering. Just enjoy the games you enjoy, it doesn't really matter what the industry says in any regard.
This is actually my take too (though to be fair I haven't played Starfield.) But having played ToTK and BG3, if I had to choose a GoTY it would be ToTK and it's not even close. (And this is despite me actually preferring BG3's genre.) BG3 has its moments where it shines, but there's just too much wrong with it - including, most unforgivably in my eyes, some basic functionality just not working on consoles, and they decided to go ahead and sell it despite this. Honestly I really don't think Larian should be rewarded for that.
