ResetEra Games of the Year Awards 2018

Rei · Jan 23, 2019

I agree with everything on the list really. The shocking part is just the top platform, Xbox being higher than the Switch lol.

Gonna pick up a few games that I haven't played yet, such a wonderful list. Glad to be a part of the voting again.

elcoldtown · Jan 23, 2019

nib95 said:
Very interesting. When you say you've collated data from over 100,000 game ratings, from where were those ratings taken from? And when you speak of people's profiles and favourite games you used to calculate the most loved, which outlet or source? Appreciate the data and the post!

Hey! As I mentioned in the post, I work for RAWG (which is a database and a tracker similar to Grouvee, Raptr, IGDB, you name it), so the data is our own: our users's ratings and profiles.

RestEerie said:
oh boy......The Last of Us Part 2 is gonna be huge
Like if you think Uncharted 4, GoW & Spider-man are sales blockbuster...i think last of us part 2 have every good chance to smash those records (if it lives up to expectations)

We'll see. From the promo materials published, it's going to be at least as good as the original. I hope they won't screw up the story, the gameplay looks solid already.

Melchiah said:
On a serious note, thanks for sharing the data. It's interesting that Bloodborne is there, but not Dark Souls. The same goes for PUPG and Fortnite.

Thank you! To my mind, Bloodborne was a real system-seller back in the days and also the data shows that people tend to think of Sony's exclusives as of favorites. Dark Souls is close to the top-20 (if we sum up the numbers of Dark Souls and Prepare to Die Edition) but didn't make it to the list.

tyfon · Jan 23, 2019

One reason for the big gap in RDR 2 top marks vs "not included" is probably since it's so long and the fall-off rate is quite high from what I can tell.
Personally I haven't finished it yet so I couldn't put it on the list.

I stopped this autumn since I had issues with the mission setup and things but now after reading a few threads I have decided to take it up again and play it for what it is, not try to force it to be something it is not. So I have decided to make my self not be irritated when it takes away player control, force me into a cut-scene or whatever and just enjoy what there is to enjoy. It _is_ a very pretty game and people say the story is better in the end and I hope that's true. I don't mind the controls themselves that much.

So far it seem to be going ok, but even so it wouldn't make the top of my list but I think it might have been in my list if I had finished it.
I had spider-man at #10.

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

benny said:
Squabbling over platforms is such a non-issue when you take a single step back. Why aren't the most popular free-to-start games on mobile consistently scoring high on this site? I'm pretty sure that almost everyone on ERA has a smartphone with either access to iTunes or Google Play whereas not everyone has a PS4.

No need to be snarky. I'm just laying out the facts from the OP.

Obviously, if the whole community thought that a free to play mobile game was among their top 10 games of the year, then yes, it would be seen here.

In fact, if everyone placed the mobile game as their #10 it would get 1157 points and end up at #4, and if everyone would place it as their #6 it would get 2314 points and end up at #2.

On the other hand if the question was "Which is the game of the year for you?", one vote per user, then the mobile game wouldn't be seen and it would look like this instead:

1. God of War, 330 votes
2. Red Dead Redemption 2, 152 votes
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, 80 votes
4. Celeste, 62 votes
5. Monster Hunter: World, 51 votes
6. Marvel's Spider-Man, 46 votes
7. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, 43 votes
8. Astro Bot Rescue Mission, 42 votes
9. Hollow Knight, 35 votes
10. Into The Breach, 22 votes

Ignoring the mobile game example, with the top10-list voting we got this:

1. God of War = 2351 points
2. Marvel's Spider-Man = 1463 points
3. Red Dead Redemption 2 = 1442 points
4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate = 1082 points
5. Monster Hunter: World = 843 points
6. Celeste = 833 points
7. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age = 575 points
9. Assassin's Creed Odyssey = 459 points
10. Detroit: Become Human = 436 points

And just for science, here is the global aggregate media GOTY:

1. God of War - 172
2. Red Dead Redemption 2 - 122
3. Marvel's Spider-Man - 16
4. Celeste - 7
5. Fortnite Battle Royale - 4
6. Monster Hunter: World - 4
7. Return of the Obra Dinn - 4
8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 4
9. Tetris Effect - 4
10. Astro Bot Rescue Mission - 2

I'm not saying that the voting process should be changed or whatever. I'm just using the figures that we got to show some facts, how the math adds up, how a game with less actual GOTY votes can end up above the rest simply from being everywhere. I'll very much look forward to see what happens next gen, especially if we get off-sync launches so the userbases varies a lot. Switch will probably become a juggernaught, it's already up there from being a perfect secondary platform that almost everyone here have and N can't launch a new console anytime soon.

Deleted member 12352 · Jan 23, 2019

leng jai said:
I really don't understand this Sony bias narrative some people are trying to push..

When majority consensus doesn't align with your own opinion, it can be easier to lash out at everyone else for being "biased" rather than face the more likely scenario that the only bias causing the problem is your own.

Playsage · Jan 23, 2019

I just noticed...

Why the hell is Monster Hunter World under "Action Adventure" and not under "RPG"?

Nax · Jan 23, 2019

Playsage said:
I just noticed...

Why the hell is Monster Hunter World under "Action Adventure" and not under "RPG"?

I know this argument of what an "RPG" is always comes up. But I believe it's because it only has loose RPG elements. It fits much more nicely into action adventure. Octopath and DQ XI are certainly RPGs in comparison.

Lys Skygge · Jan 23, 2019

I was so busy this month that I completely forgot to vote my GoTY this year. Anyways, #1 is exactly where it should be, and the top 10 is pretty great 👍

Congrats to God of War!

Hieroph · Jan 23, 2019

SweetNicole said:
7. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age = 575 points, 2 honorable mentions

10. Detroit: Become Human = 436 points, 6 honorable mentions

I'm really happy that these two made it into the top 10. We got one insanely amazing year for gaming in 2018, and I honestly don't think we'll get a year as good as 2018 for at least a few years now. Lots of releases got lost in the crowd but it looks like lots of people found these two gems at least.

Parenegade · Jan 23, 2019

Personally I stopped voting because Era's tastes are sort of limited in comparison to my own. Multiplayer games don't get love on Era. Voting for one is like voting for a Democrat in a red state lol.

I mean we didn't even have a MP game of the year. Fortnite's greatest accomplishment, the biggest MP game of this generation, was being the 2nd best mobile game.

I'm sure everyone has their reasons for not voting but that's mine.

Playsage · Jan 23, 2019

Nax said:
I know this argument of what an "RPG" is always comes up. But I believe it's because it only has loose RPG elements. It fits much more nicely into action adventure. Octopath and DQ XI are certainly RPGs in comparison.

But it's even less an "adventure" game. Ok, it has a plot, but... what else?
Then, its RPG mechanics are pretty evident and a major part of the core experience of the game.
It certainly isn't less of a RPG then, you know, Dark Souls.

In any case, then... It would be an Action game first and foremost.

btkadams · Jan 23, 2019

Ashhong said:
Did Xbox not have a single high profile exclusive this year? Literally didn't chart

Are you not counting Forza Horizon 4? It released on the Windows Store but so will every Microsoft published game for eternity.

Han · Jan 23, 2019

I see the list and my first thought is: "Oh, I played none of these 20 games."

Well.

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

Ashhong said:
Did Xbox not have a single high profile exclusive this year? Literally didn't chart

Forza Horizon 4 is the highest rated console racing game since the PS2 era with 18 10/10 from the media according to metacritic.
Only number 16 here though.

Han said:
I see the list and my first thought is: "Oh, I played none of these 20 games."

Well.

PC only gamer?
I played 3 :P
/PC gamer with consoles at the side

Ashhong · Jan 23, 2019

btkadams said:
Are you not counting Forza Horizon 4? It released on the Windows Store but so will every Microsoft published game for eternity.

Fredrik said:
Forza Horizon 4 is the highest rated console racing game since the PS2 era with 18 10/10 from the media according to metacritic.
Only number 16 here though.
PC only gamer?
I played 3 :P
/PC gamer with consoles at the side

I somehow glossed over Forza. But still, seeing only 1 Xbox game on there and also practically no presence on the graphs surprised me.

hydruxo · Jan 23, 2019

Parenegade said:
Personally I stopped voting because Era's tastes are sort of limited in comparison to my own. Multiplayer games don't get love on Era. Voting for one is like voting for a Democrat in a red state lol.

I mean we didn't even have a MP game of the year. Fortnite's greatest accomplishment, the biggest MP game of this generation, was being the 2nd best mobile game.

I'm sure everyone has their reasons for not voting but that's mine.

Damn, I didn't even notice the bolded. That is a huge omission not to have a best MP game of the year.

inpHilltr8r · Jan 23, 2019

hydruxo said:
Damn, I didn't even notice the bolded. That is a huge omission not to have a best MP game of the year.

I wonder if the vote is down because MP only posters are self-sorting out of the site?

Murkas · Jan 23, 2019

Neat list. Nice to see Hitman 2 and Yakuza 6 on there.

Do we not have that 'unity' table thing this year that shows which members had similar taste to yours based on the votes or am I just blind and can't see it?

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

Ashhong said:
I somehow glossed over Forza. But still, seeing only 1 Xbox game on there and also practically no presence on the graphs surprised me.

Unfortunately it was a bad year for MS exclusives. Don't know if they released any more than Horizon and State of Decay 2? I played through Hellblade on the Xbox too, it got released in 2018 on Xbox but for most people here it was an old game.

Coulomb_Barrier · Jan 23, 2019

Fredrik said:
Unfortunately it was a bad year for MS exclusives. Don't know if they released any more than Horizon and State of Decay 2? I played through Hellblade on the Xbox too, it got released in 2018 on Xbox but for most people here it was an old game.

That's an understatement. Obsidian's first Xbox/Windows exclusive can't come soon enough.

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

Coulomb_Barrier said:
That's an understatement. Obsidian's first Xbox/Windows exclusive can't come soon enough.

Isn't that years away?
Ninja Theory's next game should be great as well, but it's probably years away too.

Personally, for 2019 I'm waiting for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the first one was my GOTY in 2015 so my expectations might actually be too high tbh, they've got big shoes to fill with the sequel.
Isn't a Gears game coming this year too?

RuudGullitsittingonashed · Jan 23, 2019

So happy for Astro Bot to chart but, I didn't think I'd take as much pleasure in Detroit making top 10. The salt is hilarious.

Coulomb_Barrier · Jan 23, 2019

Fredrik said:
Isn't that years away?
Ninja Theory's next game should be great as well, but it's probably years away too.

Personally, for 2019 I'm waiting for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the first one was my GOTY in 2015 so my expectations might actually be too high tbh, they've got big shoes to fill with the sequel.
Isn't a Gears game coming this year too?

Not sure about Gears. But I forgot about Ninja they're likely to produce the next must-have Xbox exclusive as much as anyone but it'll certainly be an Xbox Next title.

Parenegade · Jan 23, 2019

inpHilltr8r said:
I wonder if the vote is down because MP only posters are self-sorting out of the site?

I mean I'm not sure but I wouldn't be surprised. Fortnite's omission here is extremely telling. Even Easy Allies gave a MP award to Fortnite.

We're talking about a group that didn't have Overwatch in it's top **3** in 2016.

necrosis · Jan 23, 2019

Artorias said:
Well RDR 2 and GoW are both still games and not movies, so the gameplay part is still important to a lot of people. RDR 2 is inferior to almost every game on this list when it comes to gameplay and player agency.

It's really outdated mechanically.

i would strongly dispute both of your contentions

there's only so much refinement that can be given to a genre of games, especially one with a setting like rdr2. you can't exactly have a grounded cowboy game where arthur is able to summon giant snowstorms with ancient runes, for example. rdr2's gameplay is more or less perfect for what it looks to achieve, imo

and while the combat of god of war is great, the game's mechanics are far from perfect. the impediments to fast travel until extremely late in the game & therefore being forced to spend an eighth of the game in a frustrating-to-control boat are examples of this

to be clear, i really liked god of war; i just think that rdr2 is better on basically every level. such is the nature of opinions, i suppose

Parenegade · Jan 23, 2019

necrosis said:
i would strongly dispute both of your contentions

there's only so much refinement that can be given to a genre of games, especially one with a setting like rdr2. you can't exactly have a grounded cowboy game where arthur is able to summon giant snowstorms with ancient runes, for example. rdr2's gameplay is more or less perfect for what it looks to achieve, imo

and while the combat of god of war is great, the game's mechanics are far from perfect. the impediments to fast travel until extremely late in the game & therefore being forced to spend an eighth of the game in a frustrating-to-control boat are examples of this

to be clear, i really liked god of war; i just think that rdr2 is better on basically every level. such is the nature of opinions, i suppose

I mean I'll be frank.

There are people who think the prequel films are the best Star Wars films.

If you think there's absolutely nothing wrong with RDR2s gunplay or how it controls I don't know what to tell ya. You're right that opinions are opinions.

necrosis · Jan 23, 2019

Parenegade said:
I mean I'll be frank.

There are people who think the prequel films are the best Star Wars films.

If you think there's absolutely nothing wrong with RDR2s gunplay or how it controls I don't know what to tell ya. You're right that opinions are opinions.

i mean, no, i don't think there is anything wrong with rdr2's gunplay or controls. that's a pretty stupid assertion, especially with nothing to support it

Han · Jan 23, 2019

Fredrik said:
PC only gamer?
I played 3 :P
/PC gamer with consoles at the side

Yeah - PC only this gen. With Celeste, Dead Cells and Into the Breach still on my wishlist. No interest in Dragon Quest.

Still struggeling with myself if I should buy a Switch or a PS4, but my backlog on the PC is already huge.

Raptor · Jan 23, 2019

Parenegade said:
I mean I'll be frank.

There are people who think the prequel films are the best Star Wars films.

If you think there's absolutely nothing wrong with RDR2s gunplay or how it controls I don't know what to tell ya. You're right that opinions are opinions.

Gunplay is good, controls however.....

Episode 3 for the win :P

benny · Jan 23, 2019

Fredrik said:
No need to be snarky. I'm just laying out the facts from the OP.

Obviously, if the whole community thought that a free to play mobile game was among their top 10 games of the year, then yes, it would be seen here.

There was no snark intended. I'm just confused why you seemingly see the point I made when it comes to a free-to-start mobile game but not when it comes to Spider-Man.
The operating mode is what individuals thought was worthy of being included in their ballots. That has nothing to do with how popular a gaming platform is globally.

You see Spider-Man charting high and think: Must be teh bias and more people vote for it because PS4 is the most popular console on ERA because it sold more globally.

I see Spider-Man charting high and think: Must be some artifact influenced by the self-selected group of individuals on a japanese-slanted enthusiast forum that play more on consoles and prefer singleplayer games over the actual most popular gaming platform which is mobile and the actual preference being multiplayer.

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

Han said:
Yeah - PC only this gen. With Celeste, Dead Cells and Into the Breach still on my wishlist. No interest in Dragon Quest.

Still struggeling with myself if I should buy a Switch or a PS4, but my backlog on the PC is already huge.

I can relate to that haha, my Steam backlog is freakishly big. Haven't played the games you mention either. I mostly just end up playing No Man's Sky these days tbh, and everything else just sits there. NMS is a great game though, now.

I'd go with a Switch at this point if I were you, it's a great secondary platform. And PS5 is likely on the horizon and I can't see that it comes out without backwards-compatibility so the exclusives you've missed will be better there than on PS4, and the multiplats are better on your PC as you know.

Nocturnowl · Jan 23, 2019

Parenegade said:
I mean I'm not sure but I wouldn't be surprised. Fortnite's omission here is extremely telling. Even Easy Allies gave a MP award to Fortnite.

We're talking about a group that didn't have Overwatch in it's top **3** in 2016.

Fortnite does have the speedbump of having been around in its popular battle royale form for the last two years while still labelling itself as early access.
It's an oddity here, to the point that even mainstream sites have a completely uneven split on who has or hasn't reviewed it or nominated it for anything.

That said you are right that multiplayer focused games get given some stink eye around here by some.
I recall many people happy that Overwatch didn't win awards because quite simply "it's a multiplayer game", which means it doesn't count for some reason.

More embarrassing is knowing I once held a similar narrow view so I get it even If I also think it's pretty dumb (funnily enough, it was OW that broke that view for me, my GotY for 2016 and I'd stand by that now)

Elandyll · Jan 23, 2019

Fredrik said:
I can relate to that haha, my Steam backlog is freakishly big. Haven't played the games you mention either. I mostly just end up playing No Man's Sky these days tbh, and everything else just sits there. NMS is a great game though, now.

I'd go with a Switch at this point if I were you, it's a great secondary platform. And PS5 is likely on the horizon and I can't see that it comes out without backwards-compatibility so the exclusives you've missed will be better there than on PS4, and the multiplats are better on your PC as you know.

It's definitely a good argument, but obviously you'd have to factor in gaming tastes.
As far as the indies go, the pc has had pretty much everything and early, so portability would be the only difference (and being able to play Nintendo 1st party of course but if he was a big fan he probably wouldn't even be asking the question).

Otoh the PS4 has all the AAA that isn't on pc (like RDR2, Spidey, etc), the Sony 1st parties which is quite different if you like your games more heavily on the story/ cinematic side or the "different" stuff like Gravity Rush, Last Guardian or Dreams.

Sure, one can wait for the PS5, but the counter argument of "why wait" can be made, if you consider that the games you'll buy will still (probably) be compatible when/ if you eventually trade up?

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

benny said:
You see Spider-Man charting high and think: Must be teh bias and more people vote for it because PS4 is the most popular console on ERA because it sold more globally.

I see Spider-Man charting high and think: Must be some artifact influenced by the self-selected group of individuals on a japanese-slanted enthusiast forum that play more on consoles and prefer singleplayer games over the actual most popular gaming platform which is mobile and the actual preference being multiplayer.

No bias thoughts at all, but yeah I definitely think a game that everyone plays will benefit with this point system, as I also exemplified. There is no need to construct some hidden agenda to my posts, I'm just posting what I see in the data, the figures are all there in the OP. Check them yourself. Spiderman had less people thinking it was the actual best game of the year and more people that thought it was the second, third, fourth etc best game of the year.

If you would plot it up on a graph you would see clearly where most people placed those two but here is just some raw data:

Spidey
1. 46 votes
2. 120 votes
3. 135 votes
4. 103 votes
5. 65 votes
...

RDR2
1. 152 votes
2. 96 votes
3. 78 votes
4. 52 votes
5. 37 votes
...

Deleted member 1656 · Jan 23, 2019

I wish I had played Dusk before the deadline. God damn would it have made my list.

hibikase · Jan 23, 2019

Fredrik said:
No bias thoughts at all, but yeah I definitely think a game that everyone plays will benefit with this point system, as I also exemplified.

So then by your logic why did an exclusive win over a multiplatform?

Parenegade · Jan 23, 2019

Nocturnowl said:
Fortnite does have the speedbump of having been around in its popular battle royale form for the last two years while still labelling itself as early access.
It's an oddity here, to the point that even mainstream sites have a completely uneven split on who has or hasn't reviewed it or nominated it for anything.

That said you are right that multiplayer focused games get given some stink eye around here by some.
I recall many people happy that Overwatch didn't win awards because quite simply "it's a multiplayer game", which means it doesn't count for some reason.

More embarrassing is knowing I once held a similar narrow view so I get it even If I also think it's pretty dumb (funnily enough, it was OW that broke that view for me, my GotY for 2016 and I'd stand by that now)

I mean it really came to rise in 2018. It launched in Sept 2017.

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

hibikase said:
So then by your logic why did an exclusive win over a multiplatform?

Exclusive or not, more votes, consistently from place 2-10, will help you climb the list with the point system.
There is 1 point difference between being at the first place in the list and the third place.
Spiderman had most people thinking it was the third best game of the year.
Spiderman also got more votes all the way from number 2 to number 10 which obviously helps here.
RDR2 just got more people thinking that it was the actual best game of the year.

The voting data:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-games-of-the-year-awards-2018.94625/#post-17047524

Spiderman
1. 46 votes
2. 120 votes
3. 135 votes
4. 103 votes
5. 65 votes
6. 46 votes
7. 30 votes
8. 20 votes
9. 18 votes
10. 18 votes
Total: 601 votes

RDR2
1. 152 votes
2. 96 votes
3. 78 votes
4. 52 votes
5. 37 votes
6. 33 votes
7. 22 votes
8. 18 votes
9. 16 votes
10. 12 votes
Total: 516 votes

The points voting system
1. 4 points
2. 3 points
3. 3 points
4. 2 points
5. 2 points
6. 2 points
7. 1 points
8. 1 points
9. 1 points
10. 1 points

Why would you do that? · Jan 23, 2019

I didn't feel like voting this year because this wasn't personally an exciting year for me game-wise. But it's nice to see the results! Thanks for putting this together. It'll be useful in helping to decide what games to pick up in the future.

QuiteSomething · Jan 23, 2019

We got BoTW wining the 2017. It single-handed destroys the argument about playerbase carrying the GOTY vote

Fredrik · Jan 23, 2019

Ruslnis said:
We got BoTW wining the 2017. It single-handed destroys the argument about playerbase carrying the GOTY vote

Global playerbase or the community playerbase?
WiiU + Switch had lots of owners at this board at the end of 2017. BOTW got 1235 people's votes. For comparison, GoW got 747 people's votes.

Edit: I would actually very much like to see a well-constructed platform ownership poll, I think we would get all kinds of cool data from that. How many owns a Switch? How many owns a PS4 Pro and Xbox One X? How many have a gaming PC? Etc

Version 3.0 · Jan 23, 2019

benny said:
My approximately subjective feelings tried to be expressed relatively:
God of War > Red Dead Redemption 2 >>>>>>>>>> Spider-Man > Shadow of the Colossus Remake

Converted to the ERA point system:
God of War > Red Dead Redemption 2 = Spider-Man 2 > Shadow of the Colossus Remake

Interesting point. It would be fun to see how different point systems would affect the results. IIRC, back a few years, the top game got 10 points and it went down from there. Or what would happen if users could allocate points from a total (say 25 points). But we'd probably need a cap, because the way these come down to "my #1 game must win" rivalries, too many people would just give 25 points to their top game.

Anyway, it's probably not worth the trouble. It's all in good fun, but doesn't mean much. I love seeing good games get recognized, and also get a kick out of people getting mad that they did.

benny · Jan 24, 2019

Fredrik said:
No bias thoughts at all, but yeah I definitely think a game that everyone plays will benefit with this point system, as I also exemplified. There is no need to construct some hidden agenda to my posts, I'm just posting what I see in the data, the figures are all there in the OP. Check them yourself. Spiderman had less people thinking it was the actual best game of the year and more people that thought it was the second, third, fourth etc best game of the year.

If you would plot it up on a graph you would see clearly where most people placed those two but here is just some raw data:

It's not just the data. You're making this case with quite some bad games.

RDR2 is more popular globally. It's also on two platforms, even if you may claim that Xbone owners on this forum are a tiny minority. But more importantly it's been discussed three times as much as Spider-Man which would probably be a good nap-kin stand-in for engagement number. If I had to take a guess, the engagement numbers pre-release for both highly anticipated AAA games would still skew in favor of RDR2.

Let's not forget this is what people started replying to:

Fredrik said:
Spidey is a bit different with three times less #1 votes than RDR2. Personally I feel that it's wrong. Lower-voted games on the most owned platform can obviously climb high up on the list simply by being mentioned by the masses. Essentially quantity over quality.

This isn't just you going against the world and us not understanding what the numbers mean, Mason.

The core point is WHY is the game on people's ballots. It's there because people think it's one of the best games they played that year. Not because it's on a popular console platform.
Fortnite, Helix Jump and PUBG Mobile are all more popular (= download numbers) and chances are that Fortnite, being represented on every platform of note was played by participators of this poll. It still didn't show up high, because the people that make up this forum didn't think it was one of the best games for them.

Your posts are basically: I can't believe quality (RDR2) didn't win out over quantity (Spider-Man, which was sold less and had less engagement on this forum than RDR2) won. The numbers mean it has to happen and then you post your tables of numbers again and again as if that makes your point true.

There is no denial that a consistent game that shows up on ballots will rise to the top because all we're doing is point accumulation instead of weighted scoring.
Why don't you ask yourself why a game that was so extremely anticipated and had higher engagement numbers on this forum shows up less on ballots?

I'll let you in on my pet theory: RDR2 was played by more on ERA, but it was also more divisive. *Shock*

Fredrik · Jan 24, 2019

benny said:
There is no denial that a consistent game that shows up on ballots will rise to the top because all we're doing is point accumulation instead of weighted scoring.

Thank you, that's exactly what I'm saying.

benny said:
I'll let you in on my pet theory: RDR2 was played by more on ERA, but it was also more divisive. *Shock*

Well that's certainly a theory, but nothing that you can back up in any way. You're just noticing less votes. It's not like we have a peak of posts down at #8-10 for RDR2 supporting your idea that those who played it are surprisingly disappointed, Spiderman has more of the lower spectrum votes as well.

Another theory is that RDR2 got less votes simply because people hasn't played through it yet and didn't vote. It's a huge game and we know people are still playing it.

But instead of creating alternative theories, why not just try understanding the voting data, isn't that why it was presented?

Yes I will post the figures again now ;o)

Spiderman
1. 46 votes
2. 120 votes
3. 135 votes
4. 103 votes
5. 65 votes
6. 46 votes
7. 30 votes
8. 20 votes
9. 18 votes
10. 18 votes
Total: 601 votes

RDR2
1. 152 votes
2. 96 votes
3. 78 votes
4. 52 votes
5. 37 votes
6. 33 votes
7. 22 votes
8. 18 votes
9. 16 votes
10. 12 votes
Total: 516 votes

Look at the 1-5 positions. By using this data we can for a fact see that Spiderman got more votes, especially around the third place on lists, and with this point system it came out above RDR2 because of that even though RDR2 had more #1 votes.

And this is in a nutshell how the points system works. You can actually see exactly this on the last year voting too, where Super Mario Odyssey was so very close to pass even BOTW because it had more #2-5 votes.
I haven't gone into detail on Horizon Zero Dawn voting data but I got the feeling at the time, and was vocal about it, that there was some weird postings going on that caused it to drop down, but this is all for another discussion.

Anyway, this is history, it will be clear how well the points system works next gen when the userbases are reset, theoretically Switch games should start climbing the GOTY votings as long as great games are released until PS5 and XB2 start to catch up (not talking about global sales, just the community playerbase).

Saten · Jan 24, 2019

DQ11 and MHW is so hype
I like command RPG so DQ11 is so good
I haven't played Dragon Quest series ever. But DQⅪ is so awesome

tyfon · Jan 24, 2019

Fredrik said:
Another theory is that RDR2 got less votes simply because people hasn't played through it yet and didn't vote. It's a huge game and we know people are still playing it.

I was extremely hyped for RDR2 pre-launch and I played it a lot in the beginning.
But I was never able to finish it before the voting ends because for me personally it turned out to be a drag and I had to take a break from it. I can't really put a game on the list that I have not finished.

I'm back into playing it now, but I don't think it would be on my list regardless as I keep getting frustrated by certain things (not the controls) and it makes it much less fun for me.

I know some people absolutely love it and I don't hate the game I just when I look at the whole package there were much better games for me this year.
It's very divisive since a lot of people absolutely love it and I wish I was in the category.

Spider-man has been much more consistent up in the lists and I think that should count too, not just the top marks. It shows that the game was universally more attractive, not just to a subsection. I prefer this way of voting myself.

(I had spider-man at #10 btw)

Fredrik said:
Anyway, this is history, it will be clear how well the points system works next gen when the userbases are reset, theoretically Switch games should start climbing the GOTY votings as long as great games are released until PS5 and XB2 start to catch up (not talking about global sales, just the community playerbase).

We had a Switch game on top last year.

Kaswa101 · Jan 24, 2019

Happy to see Odyssey in the top 10 :D

Fredrik · Jan 24, 2019

tyfon said:
I was extremely hyped for RDR2 pre-launch and I played it a lot in the beginning.
But I was never able to finish it before the voting ends because for me personally it turned out to be a drag and I had to take a break from it. I can't really put a game on the list that I have not finished.

I'm back into playing it now, but I don't think it would be on my list regardless as I keep getting frustrated by certain things (not the controls) and it makes it much less fun for me.

I know some people absolutely love it and I don't hate the game I just when I look at the whole package there were much better games for me this year.
It's very divisive since a lot of people absolutely love it and I wish I was in the category.

Spider-man has been much more consistent up in the lists and I think that should count too, not just the top marks. It shows that the game was universally more attractive, not just to a subsection. I prefer this way of voting myself.

(I had spider-man at #10 btw)

It goes both ways for me. The points system shows the popularity, if everyone list a game they thought was alright but not really the actual game of the year then it will still be high up on the list. A one vote system for the actual best game of the year makes only top quality matter. Imho that's what the game of the year is all about. I didn't even play through 10 games last year so I really struggled to even put together a top 5 list :P So for me a one vote system would be better.

I totally respect that you didn't place a vote before you played through RDR2 btw, some people here get all cranky when a reviewer don't play through everything in the game before rating it so I hope they do the same before voting for the GOTY. RDR2 was crazy slow at the start too, it easily took me 20 hours before I started warming up on it, so rating it early is certainly doing both the game and yourself a diservice.

tyfon said:
We had a Switch game on top last year.

BOTW was on WiiU too but Odyssey was up there as well so it's quite clear that the Switch playerbase is already big in this community, as said before I think many bought Switch as a secondary console for the portability and general uniqueness, but the BOTW hype certainly helped too. BOTW and Odyssey actually got nearly twice as many votes as GoW. That's quite impressive with less than a year on the market. So the global sales means nothing as far as I'm concerned, it's all about the community playerbase.
However, I doubt that a new $400 stationary console is this lucky. Maybe if we get some crazy must have hardware surprises plus a mainstream type of perfect 10 game that gets everyone to jump in. But we'll see when we're there.

btkadams · Jan 24, 2019

Fredrik said:
Another theory is that RDR2 got less votes simply because people hasn't played through it yet and didn't vote. It's a huge game and we know people are still playing it.

I voted Spider-Man as my number 3 behind Tetris and God of War. RDR2 was not even on my list. I put 2 dozen hours into RDR2 and went from enjoying it to absolutely despising it.

Plenty of people love RDR2, but you can't dismiss the number of people who have shared the same sentiment as me on Era. There are threads all the time about people's frustrations with that game. It absolutely is a divisive game.

Even Giant Bomb had it on their top 10 game of the year list while they simultaneously had it on their Most Disappointing Game list because of the division amongst the staff.

Fredrik · Jan 24, 2019

btkadams said:
Plenty of people love RDR2, but you can't dismiss the number of people who have shared the same sentiment as me on Era. There are threads all the time about people's frustrations with that game. It absolutely is a divisive game.

To be fair, every game gets hated on here eventually. :s
But no doubt, RDR2 clearly got to that point surprisingly fast though. But it's a slow-starter, honestly wouldn't have been on my list either unless I pushed myself to keep going because of the hype/scores. I wouldn't be surprised if many who hate the game are still on the earlier chapters.

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