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Is the new God of War Awards-Bait?

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JCHandsom

JCHandsom

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Nov 3, 2017
4,218
With all the recent praise going towards the recent God of War, talk has been buzzing about how it'll sweep game of the year awards and the VGA's. My question is simple; has gaming reached a point where we have our own "Awards-bait" sub-genre a la Oscar-bait films? Obviously the criteria they are seeking to meet are different, but I have heard many people claim that games like Horizon, BOTW, and now God War are not only critic-friendly but actively trying to copy the formulas of other successful games in terms of both gameplay and story to get high review scores.

Personally, I find it plausible, if a bit nebulous to define. Do you think God of War is Awards-Bait? Is that even a thing within video games? Are there other examples that you feel are more bait than others? Personally, even though I still really really like it, I feel like Bioshock: Infinite was actively trying to garner critical appeal with its marketing and design.

EDIT: Added for clarification
JCHandsom said:
Part of my motivation in making this thread was to examine the ways an "awards-bait" video game would look, and how that might be similar/different from other "awards-bait" media. I also don't think that you need to intend to make something to win awards for someone to label it "awards-bait," so this has nothing to do with whether or not I think Sony Santa Monica are cynically trying to earn big review numbers, in fact I think they're hugely talented developers who put a lot of that talent into creating a great game that I look forward to playing. I'm curious about how people perceive the concept of "awards-bait" games and used GoW as a recent and topical point of reference.
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Deleted member 9486

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It's just a great game for people who like cinematic, narrative-driven action games. And that happens to be a genre that often does well in awards.
 
Joeyro

Joeyro

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Oct 28, 2017
1,757
The closest thing that I would consider an "Oscar bait" in gaming is walking simulators but even then it doesn't really fit the medium.
 
Certinfy

Certinfy

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Oct 29, 2017
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I mean the fact that a game like Forza Horizon 3 totally got pushed aside for GOTY awards back in 2016 says enough. Of course they favour certain types of games. I can pretty much guarantee that even if games like Detroit Become Human and Forza Horizon 4 turn out to be the best games ever of their genres the same will happen to them.
 
pezzie

pezzie

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Oct 27, 2017
3,448
God of War is a linear story focused game with realistic graphics.

Zelda Botw is an open world game with minimal story and cartoonist graphics.

Both phenomenal games, so unless the definition of awards bait is really good game, I dunno.
 
J_ToSaveTheDay

J_ToSaveTheDay

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Oct 25, 2017
18,869
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I thought that "awards bait" in film were films that generally don't appeal to large audiences due to their pursuit of more abstract human themes or trying to pursue something film has never done before.

God of War is basically just a huge blockbuster that tons of people seem to like. It just happens to have a carefully constructed story with high-effort characterization, too...

Unless we as a collective are trying to resist our games growing up again?
 
OP
OP
JCHandsom

JCHandsom

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Nov 3, 2017
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Mezoly said:
Surprise, great games are awards worthy.
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I mean, great films win Oscars, but that doesn't mean Oscar-bait isn't still a thing.

Just to be clear, I'm really impressed with what I've seen of God of War and look forward to playing it, but the critical acclaim it's received raised comparisons to the way certain films are designed to receive heaps of critical acclaim.
 

Deleted member 29682

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It's the new thread bait, that's for sure.

I get what you're trying to say, but it's a bit premature. There's no real pattern to this yet. Cinematic games tend to get a look in more than others though, I'll give you that. You won't see a strategy game get GOTY these days.
 
DarkFlame92

DarkFlame92

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Nov 10, 2017
5,644
Production values are certainly an award baiting criterion,but from the games released so far,God of War is the best one imo. We have to see what Spiderman or Red Dead Redemption 2 has to offer. RDR2 might be an open world breakthrough,you never know and it might leave GoW hardstuck in second place.
 
Mass Effect

Mass Effect

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Oct 31, 2017
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Are you trying to say developers spend thousands of hours, often working overtime and missing out on their families, creating a game to...

win fucking GOTY from The Game Awards?

Really?
 
Cilidra

Cilidra

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Oct 25, 2017
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If these games ares award-bait, then I say keep making more of those!
 
N.Domixis

N.Domixis

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Oct 28, 2017
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No, nintendo and sony just happened to make game of the year games these last two years because they were just really good games. Look at trash like 1776 to see that these types of games don;t always win awards.
 
PeakPointMatrix

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,122
SANTA MONICA CEO: Ok guys

*underlines word "awards" on whiteboard*

CEO: Any questions?

*one hand goes up*

CEO: Wait.

*underlines again*

CEO: How about now.

*hand goes down*
 
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TheRulingRing

TheRulingRing

Banned
Apr 6, 2018
5,713
Well, if this is awards-baiting then give me more of this lol

Edit: Actually I do agree with you a bit. There are some types of games that are just more likely to be preferred during these awards and by reviewers.
 
z1yin9c

z1yin9c

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Nov 8, 2017
894
No.... You don't spend so much money to impress reviewers and they are in for making money for short and long term. GOW is for building character to let player emotionally attach to, it is for expressing the creators themselves at a different age and at the same time respecting the legacy of the younger age. It is a complete product, to sell PS4 and use story and character to hold people onto the platform.
 
Doomguy Fieri

Doomguy Fieri

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Nov 3, 2017
5,275
Single player adventures with rich content and best in industry art assets have always been the GOTY front runners.
 
take_marsh

take_marsh

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Oct 27, 2017
7,287
God of War is actually really great. Awards bait sounds like something more for "walking simulators", since they focus almost exclusively on telling a story. Firewatch and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is the closest I'd consider to awards bait.
 
okayfrog

okayfrog

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,968
I get what you're going for, OP, but two things:
1. Lumping GOW and BOTW together doesn't make any sense. As pezzie posted above, the two are radically different games.
2. Awards don't mean as much in the world of gaming as they do in the world of film.
 
DrROBschiz

DrROBschiz

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Oct 25, 2017
16,494
Its award worthy but it wont be a sweep

2018 is chock full of tough competition man

MHW, Spiderman, RDR2 and whatever else is gonna hit this year. Im sure im not even close to naming all the big tentpoles this year
 
Riderz1337

Riderz1337

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,913
If it was that easy to get a high meta everyone would do it. No such thing as "awards bait" in the gaming industry.

They spent 5 fucking years developing that game lol
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

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Oct 28, 2017
26,585
JCHandsom said:
With all the recent praise going towards the recent God of War, talk has been buzzing about how it'll sweep game of the year awards and the VGA's. My question is simple; has gaming reached a point where we have our own "Awards-bait" sub-genre a la Oscar-bait films? Obviously the criteria they are seeking to meet are different, but I have heard many people claim that games like Horizon, BOTW, and now God War are not only critic-friendly but actively trying to copy the formulas of other successful games in terms of both gameplay and story to get high review scores.

Personally, I find it plausible, if a bit nebulous to define. Do you think God of War is Awards-Bait? Is that even a thing within video games? Are there other examples that you feel are more bait than others? Personally, even though I still really really like it, I feel like Bioshock: Infinite was actively trying to garner critical appeal with its marketing and design.
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That would require awards to be meaningful outside of this industry.

They are not.
 
OP
OP
JCHandsom

JCHandsom

Avenger
Nov 3, 2017
4,218
Brian Damage said:
It's the new thread bait, that's for sure.

I get what you're trying to say, but it's a bit premature. There's no real pattern to this yet. Cinematic games tend to get a look in more than others though, I'll give you that. You won't see a strategy game get GOTY these days.
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That's what I'm getting at, yeah. I feel like if I look at a selection of 10/10 games I'd be able to pick out the ones more likely to be picked as GOTY or win awards, but narrowing down the criteria would be tricky.

Mass Effect said:
Are you trying to say developers spend thousands of hours, often working overtime and missing out on their families, creating a game to...

win fucking GOTY from The Game Awards?

Really?
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Do you think the people who made The Shape of Water, or La La Land, or Argo were just making them to win Oscars?

People try and make a good piece of art that reviews well because that makes money, the award is just a symptom of that. I never claimed that myself, just that I've heard other people mention how games try and specifically appeal to reviewers and found it plausible if nebulous.
 

Deleted member 364

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Oct 25, 2017
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The comparison doesn't work because the mainstream audience typically doesn't like Oscar bait movies. God of War is very popular with the mainstream audience.
 
Vadara

Vadara

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Absolutely. I don't even mean this in a negative way, but GOTY awards are definitely usually awarded to a tiny segment of games focused more on cinematics and story-telling than gameplay (BotW is an exception).
 

Deleted member 2793

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I can't imagine something more dumb in movie discussions than "Oscar-bait". Let's please not bring this into gaming.
 
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JCHandsom

JCHandsom

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Nov 3, 2017
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IIFloodyII said:
What does God of War copy for it gameplay? I would very much like to play that.
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The LP I'm watching (Super Best Friends) has the guy playing claim that "This is just like Dark Soul's combat!" in terms of R1-light, R2-heavy, etc., just as an example.

I'm just passing along the thoughts I've heard others share
 
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