Poor Metro, it should have been the hipster AAA
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Rock Paper Shotgun's GOTY 2013 [John Walker responds to your deep concerns]
- Thread starter epmode
- Start date
Poor Metro, it should have been the hipster AAA
jim-jam bongs
Member
Oh and XCOM, Dishonoured DLC and Call of Juarez. Europa isn't really indie either.
Damn you Ubisoft for being so pre-French-ious
Damn you Ubisoft for being so pre-French-ious
charlequin
Banned
Where's Risk of Rain?
I think it's representative of the state of PC gaming in 2013 that there's more high-quality small-scale/indie titles than you can easily fit in even a top 24 list.
They mentioned that they're going to do a number of "runner up" entries after today and I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these turn up there.
All joking aside, Skyrim is one of the most obvious and straightforward GOTY contenders in recent memory for me, purely on the basis of lost productivity. I don't think I've ever had as strong an experience where I could log onto three separate platforms and see a giant wall of friends all playing the exact same game, or had nearly as many people mysteriously coming into work late, as I did with Skyrim.
Yes, I agree with your false dichotomy; the jocular critique of mass-market gaming press culture is no better than the ignorance produced in this thread by people who found it excessive to put even five seconds of effort into reading or critical thought.
Some games get better with age, but I think we've seen pretty strongly this year that Bioshock Infinite is one of those games that gives you indigestion a few months after you eat it.
LabouredSubterfuge
Member
I can't believe they prioritised gameplay over graphics and marketing budget. Do they actually think we play these things?
Far Cry 3 is a great game.
LabouredSubterfuge
Member
No I'm afraid it's not because it's not Thief or Thief 2, sorry that you had a wrong opinion there.
partyphone
Banned
I'm convinced that the real derrick01 died about a year ago and the mods are sockpuppeting his account. He's a grotesque caricature of himself now.
Dont be such a fucking hipster. Bioshock had a story. A story! About mature topics even. Cmon how could they leave it out?
RPS, holding back the games industry since 1873
Are we mixing up Derrick critiques now by accident or as a joke? I'm always confused.
LabouredSubterfuge
Member
Bro the game had shoot-bang guns, a story and it even had a twist. My understanding of objective video game reviews tells me that BI is pretty much perfect.
HEAD EXPLODE
Oh heavens it's not! It's not! Minesweeper is a dreadful guessing game of no value. Hexcells is meticulously crafted logic puzzles of sublime joy. It has more in common with Picross, but is distinct from comparisons.
LabouredSubterfuge
Member
Wait does he not like one of the first two Thief games now? How deep does his contrary-ism run?
He does but he usually brings them up when talking about shit like Dishonored's praise or stealth games in general. Then again I tend to tune the far cry 3 stuff out cause I dont give a crap about the game. Would rather play Stalker.
rosaceadude2112
Member
stalker is always goty
Dog Problems
Banned
Wow, that's awesome they chose that as their game of the year. It's also mine!
charlequin
Banned
He keeps threatening to vote in the GAF GOTYs but I know that's just a ruse, he doesn't like anything but Euro Truck Simulator and that's disqualified!
Hello you lovely fruitcakes. I'm John Walker, one of RPS's editors, and I'll try to explain a few of the things about which people are confused/VERY CROSS.
1) So yes, Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a PC site. Not "tends toward PC", or "is mostly about PC". It's about PC. We're a site that has exclusively covered PC gaming for over six years. We all own consoles, we all play console games, but our website is about PC games alone. Why? Because six years ago there were no PC-dedicated sites, so we started one. That seems to have worked out okay.
An awful lot of people seem annoyed we don't point this out "often enough". We kindasorta figured that having it written at the top of the site on every page might give it away? Perhaps we'll make it flash.
So that hopefully goes some way to explaining why there aren't any console games in our articles about our favourite PC games of 2013.
2) Let me explain, in its entirety, how we pick our list:
Our annual calendar is a list of our ("our" being the six of us - Jim, Alec, Nathan, Graham, Adam and me) favourite 24 games from the year. There's no agenda, no conspiracies. We list out all the games we covered favourably in the year in a Google Doc, everyone puts their name by games they want to see on the list, and we get rid of those that no one picks. That gets us down to about 30-40. Then we go through again, looking at games with only one name by them, and see how passionate that person is that it make it. So, say Hexcells. I was the only name, but I would have gone on a rampage with a scythe if it weren't included. But then I was also the only name by Ittle Dew, and wasn't passionate that that make it. If that still leaves us with over 24, we begin the arguing. Or we gang up on one person and tell them their pick is stupid and they smell. Eventually, through a combination of complaining and giving up, it's wittled to 24, and that's the list. Everyone with their names by the games writes a contribution for that day's article.
Those that are left over, all those games that didn't make the cut, get put into the Leftovers - articles we put up over the holidays that give them their honourable mentions. So to all the "Where's Shadow Warrior/Gunpoint/Binfinite/etc?" questions, the answer is in the Leftovers. Games that either didn't receive enough votes, or enough passion, to get in the top list, but still may well be great, and in another year may well have got in. You may well STRONGLY disagree. Awesome! Good stuff. I'd be interested to see your list too.
3) The indie to mainstream ratio surprised us too. Which hopefully indicates that this is not our attempting to, um, look cool? Good heavens, I wouldn't know how to try. We just picked which games we liked best! As a website we don't distinguish between AAA, AA, indie, or whatever, in terms of what gets coverage. We just write about PC games. This year more of our favourite games happened to be independently published. Sorry to disappoint hipster-spotters. But AssCreed 4, Dishonored DLC, XCOM, Gunslinger, Saints Row IV... they're not exactly from indie studios!
4) I didn't make Gunpoint, more's the pity. That's Tom Francis, formerly of PC Gamer, sitting atop that pile of gold. We all know Tom very well, and have seen how he dances when drunk, and have played Peggle on his digital projector.
5) Yes, Kentucky Route Zero is episodic, and only two of those episodes are out. HOW DARE WE?! It's pretty simple. The first two episodes of KRZ were our favourite gaming times this year. It doesn't matter if the next three episodes are just the developers' farting onto a table. It doesn't change that our favourite time with a game in 2013 was KRZ. That's it.
6) DOTA 2 was on last year's list. You will eventually come to terms with this.
7) Robert J. Sullivan - our talent has just reached 4.8% of IGN's, so not long to go.
I think most of people's outrage could be addressed if they read the big piles of lovely words we've written explaining why each game has been picked. I mean, I realise it's much easier to instead post here rhetorically DEMANDING to know why, but then I'm passive-aggressive.
I shall forever remain surprised by people's fury when our list doesn't uncannily match their own. But then I shall also go on to become furious when I read someone ele's list that doesn't match mine. I'm nothing if I'm not a hypocrite. So I get it - it's frustrating when your own opinions aren't reflected. But shhhhhhh, shhhhhhhh, it's going to be fine, shhhhhhh, just go to sleep now, c'mon, that's it, shhhhhhh now.
John Walker
Editor - www.rockpapershotgun.com
1) So yes, Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a PC site. Not "tends toward PC", or "is mostly about PC". It's about PC. We're a site that has exclusively covered PC gaming for over six years. We all own consoles, we all play console games, but our website is about PC games alone. Why? Because six years ago there were no PC-dedicated sites, so we started one. That seems to have worked out okay.
An awful lot of people seem annoyed we don't point this out "often enough". We kindasorta figured that having it written at the top of the site on every page might give it away? Perhaps we'll make it flash.
So that hopefully goes some way to explaining why there aren't any console games in our articles about our favourite PC games of 2013.
2) Let me explain, in its entirety, how we pick our list:
Our annual calendar is a list of our ("our" being the six of us - Jim, Alec, Nathan, Graham, Adam and me) favourite 24 games from the year. There's no agenda, no conspiracies. We list out all the games we covered favourably in the year in a Google Doc, everyone puts their name by games they want to see on the list, and we get rid of those that no one picks. That gets us down to about 30-40. Then we go through again, looking at games with only one name by them, and see how passionate that person is that it make it. So, say Hexcells. I was the only name, but I would have gone on a rampage with a scythe if it weren't included. But then I was also the only name by Ittle Dew, and wasn't passionate that that make it. If that still leaves us with over 24, we begin the arguing. Or we gang up on one person and tell them their pick is stupid and they smell. Eventually, through a combination of complaining and giving up, it's wittled to 24, and that's the list. Everyone with their names by the games writes a contribution for that day's article.
Those that are left over, all those games that didn't make the cut, get put into the Leftovers - articles we put up over the holidays that give them their honourable mentions. So to all the "Where's Shadow Warrior/Gunpoint/Binfinite/etc?" questions, the answer is in the Leftovers. Games that either didn't receive enough votes, or enough passion, to get in the top list, but still may well be great, and in another year may well have got in. You may well STRONGLY disagree. Awesome! Good stuff. I'd be interested to see your list too.
3) The indie to mainstream ratio surprised us too. Which hopefully indicates that this is not our attempting to, um, look cool? Good heavens, I wouldn't know how to try. We just picked which games we liked best! As a website we don't distinguish between AAA, AA, indie, or whatever, in terms of what gets coverage. We just write about PC games. This year more of our favourite games happened to be independently published. Sorry to disappoint hipster-spotters. But AssCreed 4, Dishonored DLC, XCOM, Gunslinger, Saints Row IV... they're not exactly from indie studios!
4) I didn't make Gunpoint, more's the pity. That's Tom Francis, formerly of PC Gamer, sitting atop that pile of gold. We all know Tom very well, and have seen how he dances when drunk, and have played Peggle on his digital projector.
5) Yes, Kentucky Route Zero is episodic, and only two of those episodes are out. HOW DARE WE?! It's pretty simple. The first two episodes of KRZ were our favourite gaming times this year. It doesn't matter if the next three episodes are just the developers' farting onto a table. It doesn't change that our favourite time with a game in 2013 was KRZ. That's it.
6) DOTA 2 was on last year's list. You will eventually come to terms with this.
7) Robert J. Sullivan - our talent has just reached 4.8% of IGN's, so not long to go.
I think most of people's outrage could be addressed if they read the big piles of lovely words we've written explaining why each game has been picked. I mean, I realise it's much easier to instead post here rhetorically DEMANDING to know why, but then I'm passive-aggressive.
I shall forever remain surprised by people's fury when our list doesn't uncannily match their own. But then I shall also go on to become furious when I read someone ele's list that doesn't match mine. I'm nothing if I'm not a hypocrite. So I get it - it's frustrating when your own opinions aren't reflected. But shhhhhhh, shhhhhhhh, it's going to be fine, shhhhhhh, just go to sleep now, c'mon, that's it, shhhhhhh now.
John Walker
Editor - www.rockpapershotgun.com
charlequin
Banned
Thanks for the explanation, John, and thanks also for the tip on Hexcells!
just fyi the post you're responding to was a reference to a really bizarre comparison someone made in a thread about project cars, saying that we should get back to him when slightly mad studios reached 5% of naughty dog's talent
it's well on its way to becoming a venerable and very quickly overused GAF meme
ViewtifulJC
Banned
can we really be sure that's John Walker tho
I crtl + F for "women in video games" and came up with 0 results
mods pls ban imposter
I crtl + F for "women in video games" and came up with 0 results
mods pls ban imposter
not psycho
Member
Sad to see Rogue Legacy and Brothers on there (most overrated games of the year) while Sonic Racing Transformed and Volgarr the Viking are nowhere to be seen (best games of the year along with Spelunky).
But at least Spelunky gets a mention, it's a worthy GOTY.
But at least Spelunky gets a mention, it's a worthy GOTY.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
Rockpapershotgun is a lovely PC centric website and that's where I go to get all my PC news!
But get back to me when John Walker's talent reaches 5% of Kieron Gillen's
But get back to me when John Walker's talent reaches 5% of Kieron Gillen's
thecouncil
Banned
How can 2/5 of a game be the best game of the year?
lol. oh jeez.
lol. oh jeez.
The thought of protesting this year's vote because of that has crossed my mind a few times. I'm very salty about that.
Oh man they did leave off Sonic Racing. This...this may just be unforgivable.
PandaPedinte
Member
Maybe it's 2/5 released are really good and they enjoyed the time spent with the game?
Dog Problems
Banned
Yeah, I removed my list once I found out I couldn't vote for what I wanted.
jim-jam bongs
Member
It's a pretty major accomplishment to create a game where 2/5ths of it is already better than everything else released in the same year.
It might have been mine in the GAF thread if it qualified. It's for sure in my top 3. The experience from episode 1 alone was one of the most memorable experiences of the year for me. That's really all that matters in my head. I don't think RPS included it but the two "interludes" Limits & Demonstrations and The Entertainment are also interesting experiences.
chickdigger802
Banned
Now I'm hungry for fruitcake.
ebullientprism
Member
I cant believe this needed an explanation at all. Even if you dont find the list agreeable its still a hell of a lot more interesting and worth talking about than "1 GTAV, 2 TLOU, 3 Bioshock Infinite etc". SMH
That post fails to address my concerns about Skyrim so I shall continue my hate campaign.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
John, we here at NeoGAF wish Dexter the best.
faceless007
Member
I have nothing to say but bravo John.
Thank you. I really appreciate that. Here's hoping for a Christmas moggy miracle.
Huw_Dawson
Member
I am biased, but my 24 PC games of the year would include Skullgirls. Obviously RPS would not include it given the idiotic review they gave it and the fact that they self-confessedly know nothing about fighters.
John is right in his post though - they are a PC site and on are tasked with giving thair opinion on one of the strongest, if not the strongest, years in the history of PC as a platform. I think they made a lot of good choices, too. Europa Universalis IV is a great game. But they did miss a few. Hopefully they will appear in the leftovers articles.
John is right in his post though - they are a PC site and on are tasked with giving thair opinion on one of the strongest, if not the strongest, years in the history of PC as a platform. I think they made a lot of good choices, too. Europa Universalis IV is a great game. But they did miss a few. Hopefully they will appear in the leftovers articles.
LabouredSubterfuge
Member
Are you saying we can't ask why DOTA 2 isn't GOTY?
it's disappointing that certain people had to have some of that shit spelled out for them
Doctor Decimate
Member
rather ashamed that this even warranted an explanation.
Agreed. It's kind of a shame when an interesting and refreshing list of favourite games (which is what GoTY really is) gets lambasted for not including 'x' and 'y'.
Not to mention, people start throwing out conspiracy theories of triple-AAA soft-drink shilling or indie-hipster-snobbery when a list doesn't match their list.
CecilRousso
Member
My own PC only GOTY list would be:
1. Spelunky HD
2. XCOM:EW
3. The Swapper
4. Gone Home
5. Civ V: Brave New World
6. Don't Starve
7. The Stanley Parable
8. The Cave
9. Runner 2
10. Kentucky Route Zero
11. Bioshock Infinite
12. Monaco
That's all new PC games I played this year so far. #1 to #9 are games I actually liked.
KR0 just doesn't click with me. It's to linear in terms of how and where you can move and interact, too much about clicking through endless dialogues, awkward controls, etc.
It's extremely atmospheric, so good looking, very well written, not fun at all to play.
1. Spelunky HD
2. XCOM:EW
3. The Swapper
4. Gone Home
5. Civ V: Brave New World
6. Don't Starve
7. The Stanley Parable
8. The Cave
9. Runner 2
10. Kentucky Route Zero
11. Bioshock Infinite
12. Monaco
That's all new PC games I played this year so far. #1 to #9 are games I actually liked.
KR0 just doesn't click with me. It's to linear in terms of how and where you can move and interact, too much about clicking through endless dialogues, awkward controls, etc.
It's extremely atmospheric, so good looking, very well written, not fun at all to play.
ebullientprism
Member
I have been meaning to pick up The Swapper since I heard about it on Idle thumbs. Keep forgetting about it.
SouthernGangstaNerd
Banned
Oh look a PC thread on GAF is full of uninformed people making knee jerk posts without reading the op or link at all.
Just another day.
Just another day.