I will never understand people discomfort with GOTY going to what the writer feels is the best game of the year rather than one of 5 multimillion sellers that everyone has already played.
Gamers would prefer nothing but Marvel movies nominated for best picture.
Accurate comparison. I mean, at the Game Awards 2016 Uncharted 4 won "Best Narrative" against games like Inside or Firewatch. Uncharted 4 is the closest thing to a Marvel Blockbuster we have - it's completely safe, it has funny banter, very relatable heroes and boring but sufficiently hateable villians so, hey, best narrative. If you'd translate that to being a movie you'd get Iron Man or Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy almost 1:1. Developers, Critics and Fans alike still seem to think that being a Crowd Pleaser is the best this medium could ever strife for, while those are usually the most boring and uninteresting books and movies you could watch.
I think giving media a place in the spotlight despite popularity and sales is a huge part of being a media journalist or critic but instead every Award just seems to go to the safest answer and gaming fans are fucking MAD if they don't.
Why does Devil Daggers not deserve an Award like this? Can anyone give me a reason that doesn't boil down to "Well, it's not a AAA game and those have bigger production values and more features"?
Doesn't sit well me, there were better games. The publication can pick whatever solid game from the middle of the year out of a hat, but it doesn't make it valid.
Not explaining it's mechanics is not gameplay, and being able to watch leader board runs detracts from the game.
It's just super hexagon in a world that already had a good super hexagon.
I'm sorry, but none of this means anything. "Not explaining its mechanics is not gameplay." Huh? What is gameplay? What do you mean? There are three mechanics: you can Jump, you can Move and you can shoot. Enemies pop up and you use those three commands to shoot them. The target of the game and how to achieve it is always clear. Get Points by shooting demons. Finding out an enemy's weakspot has always been a big part of video games. The discovery of secrets and strategies that allows you to get better using a game's core mechanics has always been an equally big part of video games.
"and being able to watch leader board runs detracts from the game."
It detracts from the game? Like, you
want to play the game but you can't because you are destracted by another feature? Do replays in racing games also distract from the came? A spectator mode in a Moba? An Arcade Mode in a Fighting Game? What does that mean? How does being able to check out other people's strategies to perfect your own distract you?
