2012 Game of the Year Voting/Discussion Thread

Welcome to the 2012 Game of the Year Thread!

Please read the rules carefully before casting your ballot. Ballots not in compliance will be entirely discarded.

Voting Rules: You must vote for at least two (2) of the nominees in order of preference (first, second, third, etc.). You may vote for up to five (5) of the nominees in order of preference. You may not vote for the same game more than once. Your votes will carry a base point weight:

1st Place = 10 points

2nd Place = 6 points

3rd Place = 4 points

4th Place = 2 points

5th Place = 1 point

Furthermore, your vote will be multiplied by the number of trophy points, divided by 20, at the time I tabulate your vote. There is a maximum of 500 trophy points that will count towards your vote (so x25 max). The minimum trophy point weight is 1.

Voting will close on Friday, January 11, 2013. You may modify your vote until that date.

Please try to make your post clear by bolding your vote so that it's easier to find for me.

Discussion Question: I'd like to get everyone's opinion on a GOTY question. The way games are released has been changing. Games like Minecraft, Terraria, Gnomoria and so forth aren't really "released" so much as they're put out there and developed for a number of years - a trend that will probably grow with Kickstarter. Other games like Witcher 2 and Dark Souls were released on one platform one year and another platform in a different year. Other games are released in one country one year and in a different country in a different year. With that in mind, is it appropriate to try to restrict a "game of the year" to a particular "release" year, when the release year is no longer easily defined? Or is it better to simply say that the game of the year is simply the one you played the most and liked the best this year, regardless of the release year? I'll provide my thoughts on this issue in my voting post below.

The Nominees: Ok, on to the nominations. We had over 100 people nominate about 60 different games. I'll apologize right now in case I've made any errors in tabulating the nominations - that was a lot of stuff to sort through. Assuming I have it right, let's move on to your twenty 2012 Game of the Year Nominees (in alphabetical order):

Ascension: Storm of Souls - (no wiki article available)
Borderlands 2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands_2
Crusader Kings II - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_Kings_II
Dark Souls - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls
Diablo 3 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_3
Dishonored - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishonored
Dragon's Dogma - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_Dogma
Eador: Genesis - (no wiki article available)
FTL: Faster Than Light - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light
Guild Wars 2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_wars_2
Journey - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_(2012_video_game)
Legend of Grimrock - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Grimrock
Mark of the Ninja - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_of_the_Ninja
Mass Effect 3 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_effect_3
Spec Ops: The Line - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spec_Ops:_The_Line
Torchlight II - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchlight_II
Tribes: Ascend - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Ascend
Walking Dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(2012_video_game)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown
Xenoblade Chronicles - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoblade

Changes:
12/26: Since 2 of the first 4 voters had a hard time voting for a minimum of 3 games, I've changed the minimum voting requirement to 2 games.

For the first time in years, I don't have a clear-cut GotY favorite. I've played many really solid games all year long and I could easily swap the rankings on the ones below. In fact, I very well may do so before the voting is up.

My Ballot:
1. The Walking Dead - I don't like adventure games. Yet I had an emotional reaction to this game, something that I haven't really had since Torment. It's less a game than a great piece of storytelling.
2. Eador - Absolutely came out of left field and grabbed me during the month of December. A brilliantly balanced piece of turn-based strategy gaming.
3. Guild Wars 2 - I spent an awesome couple of months with GW2, but haven't touched it in the last month. At the same time, it's a wonderful take on the MMO genre with many new innovations that keeps the game fun.
4. XCOM - If you asked me 3 or 4 months ago, this would have been my GOTY. And it still may be. I loved the new take on one of my all-time favorite classic games.

The Eligibility Question:
We certainly don't want the GOTY to become the Game of All Time, but there are too many variables to define the "release date" any more. What happens if Kerbal Space Program adds a few new development features, is ported to the XBOX and becomes just the must-have game of 2013? Is it ineligible because it was technically released in 2012 on the PC? What would have happened if the Baldur's Gate update was wonderfully done and got everyone back into it? Is it eligible or ineligible? There are too many variables and the typical release schedule is no longer so strict. Gnomoria would have gotten quite a few votes this year, even though it's in beta. My feeling is that any game once available for purchase should be eligible unless it's previously won the GotY before.

1) Dishonored
2) XCOM
3) Walking Dead

Man, I find the arguments in favor of Storm of Souls being included because 'it is a self-contained expansion' to be pretty spurious since you can't buy it by itself, unlike the physical edition. It's not gonna win, though, so I guess it don't make no lick of difference.

1. Walking Dead
2. Mark of the Ninja
3. Spec Ops: The Line

1. XCOM
2. Diablo 3
3. Mass Effect 3

I have finally played XCOM, and I can safely say it is amazing.

Bahimiron and SqueakyFoo , I've changed the rules to a minimum of 2 games.

Man, I wasn't even trying a smartass. I read your rules and then completely blanked on adding a third title. Whoops. Well, thanks for accommodating my dumbness!

My List:
1) Crusader Kings II
2) XCOM: Enemy Unknown
3) Diablo III
4) Guild Wars 2

Eligibility:
Let them all fight for dominance. No restrictions other than "No previous GoTY winners".

1) Mass Effect 3 incl. all DLCs (never played launch version)
2) Dishonored
3) Dark Souls

Honorable mentions: Sleeping Dogs, Spec Ops, Max Payne 3. Not played Walking Dead yet.

1. Guild Wars 2
2. Mark of the Ninja
3. XCom

I don't understand the point of this. Are we worried a bunch of Eador viral marketers are going to flood to the board and make it win?

Charles convinced me that this is the way to go.

I'm not clear what you're saying. So a game available for purchase in 2010 should be eligible to win win GOTY in 2013?

Also, "available for purchase" is a very vague term these days. Is creating a kickstarting for a pre-alpha game mean it's available for purchase? When was Mechwarrior Online available for purchase? The early beta founders packs? Late beta when they started doing non-founders tranactions? When they claimed to be out of beta?

Keeps sockpuppet accounts down to a bare minimum and weights posts accordingly. Other forums have used post count in a similar fashion.

That's my position due to the same reasons you mentioned, but it's up for discussion.

It's easier to define that than to define "release date". Available for purchase - can someone go buy and download the game right now? Many kickstarters wouldn't be eligible because they don't remain available after the kickstarter has closed.

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Borderlands 2
3. XCOM: Enemy Unknown
4. Torchlight 2

Re eligibility: I would not deprive anyone of their vote, but at the same time I think it's a little cheesy voting for the same title a second time simply because your favorite game was released on another platform. Maybe they'll release ME2 on handhelds next year!

1. Mark of the Ninja
2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

It makes the gamer in me feel like I need to go out and get more trophy points so that my votes have more weight in this [ultimately meaningless] GOTY vote. It also hurts my all votes are equal sense of communistic fairness.

Blackadar, thanks for doing this. By the way, Eador: Genesis does have a wiki.

1. FTL
2. Eador: Genesis
3. XCOM

It's simple - all votes aren't equal. Those who contribute to this community are rewarded for doing so. Some people will like that, others won't. But the alternatives also have downsides and IMO that's the least of the evils I can choose. The last thing I'd want to do is set up the voting to encourage things like sockpuppet accounts, which would create more work for the mods and lead to more disruption.

tylertoo , that ain't the wikipedia I know and love. :)

Trophy points and/or post counts correlate very poorly with how much someone contributes to this community. I have more trophy points than you, but organizing the GOTY vote is probably more valuable than anything I've contributed here. I can't see anyone caring enough to sockpuppet up the voting, and don't see why we can't just do a minimum post count requirement of 10 non-spammy posts to vote, but maybe there are good reasons for it I'm not seeing. I hope I'm not coming off as hostile at all - you asked for opinions and I'm sharing mine.

I'm glad there's a narrowing-down thread, because I recently picked up Eador and goddamn what a fantastic game. It's completely surpassed all the HoMM games, and Age of Wonders as my favorite fantasy 4X/wargame.

1) Dark Souls
2) Eador: Genesis
3) Guild Wars 2
4) Mass Effect 3
5) FTL: Faster Than Light

1. Borderlands 2 - The most fun, and joy I've had playing a game this year. Also, incredibly surprising at the quality of storytelling in what was essentially, a comic book shoot and loot.
2. The Walking Dead - Game storytelling at one of its finest.
3. FTL - Hurray for Kickstarter!
4. Dishonored - Here's hoping this did well enough to bring back the age of simulationist worlds and systems style of gameplay
5. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition - Just Because

Eligibility

I'm not sure I like the idea of any game being eligible for the 2013 GOTY discussion.

I'd like to highlight the best games made available that year. Many of us are already swamped by backlogs such that each successive year becomes a catch-up parade of old games. This is all well and fine for you and I'm not going to tell you how to play, but I do think that each year brings out a whole series of new games that sometimes do try to push the genre, gameplay and general industry forward. I want to highlight those games, not keep looking over our shoulders for the games we like but need to catch up. Occasionally, I get that a few masterpieces gets a few releases staggered across the years and they'll be great no matter what year they are released in, and I'm honestly not sure where to draw the line in their eligibility. I'd like to say open to a wider public and is at least a post-beta build, but even that is fairly debatable what's with a ton of games getting constantly updated. Also, with games being released in different countries, (e.g. Eador, Xenoblade), I'll take the year it was made available to the wider public that the actual year it was released. And by wider public, I mean you majority white folk in the US, cos that's where this board is based.

But I do like to keep the idea that GOTY discussions are meant to highlight the games that not only are our favorites, but they ones that stands out from the crop of stuff released every year. In the hopes that those games get some attention, and maybe some monies to keep doing what they're doing.

Vote Weighting

I doubt there's a legion of spam accounts and bots just waiting to come in and muck up our community votes, so like Hanacker, I do feel a little wary of using trophy points to weigh our votes. I don't get as many trophy points, most likely cos I don't post a lot in LP, make that many witty posts, or post in the animated gifs, macro-images, etc threads or anything political. I would however, like to think that I am somewhat a part of this community, even as I'm not as well liked as someone like say, Lizard King or Angie. (sob, sob) I like the GOTY discussions and getting to vote, and I'd like all of us to feel like that our votes aren't measured by how often we posts, or the quality of our general posts elsewhere in the forums.

Either way, you are doing the work, so I hope that I'm peeing on that too much.

I'm fine with weighed votes, cos I genuinely believe that my vote is worth more than Hanacker's.

I bet if Hanacker started an LP in the next week, he'll bump up his trophy points to be more than you.

Pick a good LP Hanacker. Maybe a Walking Dead LP, or Analog: A Hate story. Or the best, a Dark Souls LP, where we chronicle each and every death in lurid detail.

I don't know if the Dark Souls fan base has enough breadth to get me enough likes. If you could like a post more than once it might work. I was going to Let's Play Rampage, but even that was too much effort for me. Although if I need to beat Bahimiron, I might be able to power through one. I wish I hadn't already finished 3 episodes of The Walking Dead, and I feel like someone already did Analog: A Hate Story (but maybe that was just the game before or after? Edit - There have been 2! But none for Digital: A Love Story...).

1) Dark Souls
2) Journey
3) XCOM: Enemy Unknown

1) XCOM: Enemy Unknown
2) Crusader Kings II
3) FTL

1) Dark Souls
2) XCOM: Enemy Unknown
3) FTL

You don't LP for the likes. You LP because it's in your blood.

Bonus likes if you get it running before the Amazon sale ends. What?

1) Dishonored - Closest thing to the Golden Age of Looking Glass yet.
2) Dragon's Dogma - Fuck me why was this so good? Look forward to the sequel, so long as they don't turn the awesome boss fights into QTEs.
3) Spec Ops: The Line - Apocalypse Now: The Game. Finally. Also a wonderful "fuck you" to all the nationalistic, gung-ho military wankfests that have been shitting up shooters.
4) Dark Souls - Though I wouldn't honestly put this on here since I'm farrrrrrr from finished with it, and I'm playing the PS3 version, but it fucking deserves it. Plus, I'm running out of games to select from this list.
5) Xenoblade Chronicles - Haven't played it, don't even have it (yet). But Charles did not steer me wrong on Demon's Souls, so I'll trust him here and give this a point.

The Eligibility Question:
This can be very complicated, so I say we keep it simple and say "if it got a release that year, it counts". As for games like Minecraft... fuck. Fuck. I have no idea.

This totally steals my original idea of doing a Let's Play of Demon's Souls, with every screen being a death screen and the caption "FUCK."

It'd go on for pages.

1. Dishonored
2. Ascension: Storm of Souls

1. Tribes: Ascend
2. Guild Wars 2
3. Torchlight II

1) Mark of the Ninja
2) Dragon's Dogma
3) Borderlands 2

Your original idea was to do a Dark Souls version of Charles' Legend of Zelda LP?

1. Borderlands 2
2. Crusader Kings 2
3. Spec Ops: The Line
4. Guild Wars 2
5. Torchlight 2

Man, I guess this was the year of sequels for me.

1. Eador: Genesis
2. Guild Wars 2
3. Legend of Grimrock

1. Xenoblade Chronicles
2. Dark Souls
3. Ascension
4. Borderlands 2
I have a feeling Dark Souls would move up to #2 if I'd had more time with it this year, but it's only been a couple of weeks. Ascension: Storm of Souls - The game that finally replaced Uniwar as my go to game on my iPhone. Since I picked it up earlier this year, there hasn't been a day without at least one multi-player game going with someone from here or the Other Board.

1. Legend of Grimrock
2. Dishonored
3. Dark Souls
4. FTL
5. Spec Ops: The Line

So far it is:

1. DARK SOULS
2. Diablo 3
3. X-Com


...but, like nixon66, I've barely scratched the surface of DARK SOULS so probably it is just unluckily suffering from my lack of time to devote to it.

DARK SOULS.