The Big Ones

So it appears that it is Game of the Year season again. And as excepted the three Big Ones of this year, the ones to beat, are Grand Theft Auto V, Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. It is an AAA triumvirate of the best the industry has to offer. Depending on whom you ask any one of these games deserves the title of Game of the Year, and by the end of 2012 we knew it would be this way. The annual Game of the Year hubbub is the prime example of everything that is wrong with the way AAA games are made and reported.

The desire to create better versions of pre-existent genres consumes AAA development. The Last of Us perfects the zombie game. Bioshock Infinite is a better version of the original Bioshock, the new high for narrative first-person shooters. Every other open world game pales in comparison to Grand Theft Auto V. There is no more surprise. No more shockingly new excitement or innovation. Everyone wants to make the next one of these, because they are all great games and make a boat load of money. The desire to put revenue before the game plagues the AAA industry and will become the death of it, stopping innovation. As costs increase the risk becomes too great for publishers to approve anything that is not guaranteed to sell. It is this stagnation that hampers invention and creativity.

So which game deserves the esteemed title of Game of the Year? Shame to me because I have no idea. Each and every games publication seems to offer their own Game of the Year award. It becomes so that even individual journalists/critics form varying websites will have different opinions and deliver different rewards. Which one is more worth believing? Which one is more correct? Again, I have no idea. This is the problem with it. Every outlet is trying so hard for attention, continuous reporting and attention getting headlines, that it becomes a confusing mess. The D.I.C.E. Awards given out by the Academy for Interactive Arts and Sciences are often considered the Oscars of the videogame world. The other most known videogames award show is the VGX, former VGAs, hosted by Game Trailers and Spike TV. They went all online this year and most of it was not all that engaging either as an awards show or as a series of world premieres.  Still, their panel is respected the awards are given fairly.

This desire to be first, in both the development and media side of the AAA industry, is the cause of this problem. A shallow, borderline vapid, explosion of awards occurs at the end of every year in the games industry. It is a distraction to look only upon the deemed good of the previous year and ignore the more serious problems in the heart of it all. Everyone, including me, has something to say. I can only hope that at least one of us will get heard. The Age of Gaming will not be giving out a Game of the Year Award. It is for each individual gamer to decide what she/he liked best this year. When it comes down to it the award is just a matter of opinion. Find what you like and play it, show it support and let the developers, publishers and media know, because maybe then once the hubbub has died the real problems in the AAA industry can be addressed.