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
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
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.
Last edited: