How to Predict The Game Awards | Semi-Ramblomatic

This week on Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee shares his wisdom for how to predict the winners of The Game Awards.
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[@SecondWindGroup]

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[@raven2785]

Look guys, I'm absolutely no one and I may be in the minority here. But just a suggestion: Get more color options on your stuff. The black gamer T-shirt/Hoodie is about as lame and cliche as Call of Duty. You don't have to get all the colors of the rainbow either, just the option to choose between white or black tees would be a good improvement, and one that will help you out to stand out among the sea of Black gamer shirts with [INSERT GAME LOGO HERE]

[@jaywerner8415]

Remember Total Biscuits Yearly "Arbitrary Awards"? Those where good times.

[@hazukichanx408]

Already got my second wind pride phoenix shirt, loving that so far! Gorgeous design, and it supports a thing I love. Good stuff.

[@BirdRaiserE]

That emotion-based game awards system you presented at the end is baller, I would back that

[@gazhibs]

Cries in International Shipping. Any UK suppliers....??

[@IareZeke]

I would love to see a "retrospective game awards" where Yatzee goes back through each year and declares the best came for each emotive category he's described here

[@Vesperitis]

I predict Undertale will sweep a lot of awards there.

[@WeIsDaTyrantz]

*best came*

[@godminnette2]

Considering how long it would be and that would be a lot of scripting/editing to do, it would probably work best as an episode of Windbreaker.

[@IareZeke]

@@godminnette2 yea I could imagine it being a series, one episode for each year's retrospective

[@TheNovusSpes]

That could be really neat, plus all the hindsight of what has actually stayed with you over the years and what *actually* shaped and changed the industry.

[@camerontauxe]

It really speaks to the care and research that goes into The Game Awards that Dave the Diver was a nominee for "Best Indie" even though the name of the studio and the name of the massive conglomerate that owns the studio is right there on the title screen. They just saw pixel art and said "oh, an indie game"

[@Fachewachewa]

It really speaks to the professionnalism of press and influencers that spend their life talking about games, yeah

[@Shoelessjoe78]

Damn good game though 🍻

[@chronicbrightside8757]

Yeah, they seem to treat indie more as a genre or aesthetic than anything else. Or maybe these days any game that isn't some massive triple-a tentpole title is considered indie.

[@gwen9939]

@@Fachewachewa Where does that fit in? Second Wind is technically also "Press and Influencers", they're just independent ones.

[@Fachewachewa]

@@gwen9939 Nominees and winners are selected by the jury, and the jury is made of press and influencers from around the world. Geoff and his team didn't decide to call Dave the Diver and indie game, journalists did. (and the trick is that they can then complain about Geoff and the Game Awards because they call Dave the Diver an indie game, it's the perfect crime)

[@dangilboa6496]

So, basically what Yahtzee proposes, is for the game award to become what Total Biscuit's arbitrary award used to be. And having games like "Transistor" winning the "Most striking aesthetic" award. RIP TB, you are still missed.

[@635574]

If we want to maken categories that work we need to rate game components separately, and have multiple categories in each component. Narative, aesthetic, design, audio. But even when doing that, no awards show covers everything. Where are the best racing game and best MMO? Lmao.

[@jamesruth100]

@@635574 In fairness, MMOs are such a weird genre to try and award. If WoW or FF14 releases an expansion, does that mean it gets to be nominated alongside newcomers? That hardly feels fair to me, since you're pitting titanic games that have stood the test of time against the new kid on the block that may drop off the face of the earth in the near future; New World, for example, was the hot new shit right up until it wasn't, and now it struggles to hit 20k players some months. If there's a year where there are no newcomers, are you just pitting the big, long-established titles that are still around against each other? And that's not to mention how broad MMO is without diving into sub-genres; how do you compare an MMORPG like WoW against a genre clusterfuck like Roblox? How do you compare those against whatever the heck Second Life is? It'd be weird to try and derive a standard of quality from games that are doing completely different things.

[@mrsejanoz523]

'The TotalBiscuit Memorial Awards' has a nice ring to it, no?

[@MagicCardboardBox]

Nerdcubed does the same sorts thing every year for Christmas, 25 games winning random awards

[@dangilboa6496]

@@635574 I think that you are mixing game components with game Genre, and that is exactly the point. Judge a game by its aesthetic, or audio design, regardless of the game mechanisms or marketing positioning ("best mechanic" or "best innovative mechanics" can also be a category). it will be much harder to judge that objectively but this is also why the reward will be so much more satisfying. Take a look at which games Transistor was competing with (Arbitrary award 2014, around 32:30 time mark) or sound tract (around 2:30)

[@cinnis5670]

If Second Wind started their own game award show I'd gladly tune in every year. Even if it was a small yet earnest production, I feel like it'd offer a good counterbalance to the corporatism of TGA.

[@Voltaic_Fire]

I'd happily watch that awards ceremony too.

[@hazukichanx408]

Any video game awards ceremony in which the mainstream Games Industry ("games _industry"..._ sounds kinda dystopian, dunnit?) has no say in anything, is a ceremony with at least some potential merit. People are all up their own asses about little kids being given participation trophies, but when corporations decide their own product just won the Crazy Amazing Award at their Hip With The Kids Awards, that just shows it's a good game?

[@declanashmore]

"Winner of the Golden Wind" will look great on any box. Or "Vento Aureo" if you want to attract *that* crowd.

[@themambawarrior2290]

Isn't that basically the best, worst, and blandest games list?

[@linesthatinterlace]

I would really be into this.

[@helljester8097]

I quite like the idea of an award like "Best Powertrip" for the one that made you feel powerful and "Best tearjerker" for the one that made you sad.

[@starmaker75]

Honestly when you see the game awards as the game media going "see I'm just as amazing as movies, painting and the like" you start see why the winner are so weird. Then again the steam awards were some how even weirder.

[@MiaWinter98]

well, the steam awards are community voted, and thus, has a lot of trolling Like, look at what Starfield got as an award, if that isn't making fun of it idk what is

[@MazeFrame]

@@MiaWinter98 Starfield indeed got that award to make fun of its lack of what the award says.

[@WhiplashSL]

@@MiaWinter98 As well as Red Dead Redemption 2 winning the "Labor of Love" award, which is basically the VGA equivalent to "Best Ongoing Game", despite RDR2's online mode being put in maintenance mode.

[@SimuLord]

I love the Steam Awards because they're the biggest demonstration of "never change, Internet" out there. There's a little touch of the old Newgrounds and Homestar Runner and golden age of Something Awful still plucked like an ember from an otherwise long-dead flame in the choices.

[@hazukichanx408]

@@MiaWinter98 Did it win the _"Oh look, it IS another The Bethesda Game, what a surprise~"_ award?

[@CushionSapp]

Maybe they should make a game awards equivalent of the Razzies (with the same amount of glitz and glamour as the actual Game Awards)

[@E1craZ4life]

As well as an award ceremony for bland games.

[@armelior4610]

Way too much work to come up with just a few nominations ! ... Well, this year they had to put remakes and expansion packs just to have enough, so maybe you're on to something

[@E1craZ4life]

@@travismcnasty4239 No, salt counts as a flavor.

[@Wraithfighter]

Given how much the Razzies are a complete dumpster fire, I’d rather us not. There’s way too much negativity in the gaming space already these days, anything like the Razzies would quickly descend into bullying and rage-bait bullshit.

[@adrianmedeiros8431]

The Golden Extraterrestrial awards. Get it? Atari ET? I'll see myself out

[@TheRogueWolf]

I wish we could just admit that all awards shows are arbitrary bullshit and we only validate them because we want validation in turn for liking the things we like.

[@davidaitken8503]

I genuinely want good games to get some recognition because good games are often desperately in need of getting some free publicity. Unfortunately there never seems to be any game awards ceremonies that are focused on actually choosing the best games because they are the best games.

[@SimuLord]

And for those of us with deeply niche tastes (my last four Game of the Year picks were Super Mega Baseball 3, Medieval Dynasty, Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord, and My Time At Sandrock), the awards shows can be safely ignored except for the occasional desire to pretend it's 2013 and we're all still smug hipsters saying things like "you wouldn't know them" of our favorite bands.

[@buggiemara4902]

@@davidaitken8503 But the problem is that "best" is different for so many people.

[@snil4]

@@davidaitken8503 The main problem is that all these shows are rotten to their core by design because they have to, the general audience doesn't like random shmucks on the internet that tells you that the best game of the year is one that looks like one guy made it in his bedroom (don't kill me, I love pizza tower as much as everyone else) and as seen by the steam awards and the result's backlash it seems like the general audience can't decide what they want either. So we're left with one option and that is letting the gaming outlets decide for us, like all their decisions it's mostly inflicted by money and it's also how they get their voice heard so loudly that we just accept it as "official".

[@SavageGreywolf]

The Oscars have been a joke for decades

[@danger_design]

As much as I begrudgingly enjoy your cynical and deadpan style of humor - what I really show up for are these golden kernels of independent thought, which are so rare in the modern industry. Thank you for leaving your old channel, Yahtzee. 💚

[@Formoka]

Totally agree with awards for the emotions the games evoke. If we actually want to treat games as art, then they should be creating emotions in us as a primary goal. The best art makes you feel something.

[@Oscar97o]

I'd argue that art needs to make you feel something, otherwise it isn't art.

[@ni9274]

What about game that evoke multiple emotions ? Using emotions would result in the same loosely defined categories

[@MizunoKetsuban]

@@ni9274 Even still, it's far easier to broad stroke emotions because they're universal. The problem with the genre categories is that they're terms made up specifically for the medium and hardly have any sort of grander context to fully understand what it represents.

[@deusexvesania1702]

Didn't the Steam asswarts do something like that? Or at least I seem to recall it asking me shit like which game I sucked at and still played.

[@Kumimono]

Award for the game that made me feel horniest goes to... Baldur's Gate 3. Well, fiddlesticks.

[@thedogmaticdirector]

Nice to know I'm not the only one disappointed with Pizza Tower's loss.

[@G13ULTRA]

everyone and their grandma is disappointed dw

[@dorongrossman-naples9207]

As Yahtzee said, it would have won in any sane world. It was astonishingly creative and an instant hit, a super fun labor of love with a clear and expressive creative vision. Just too subversive for the likes of TGAs.

[@DragonNexus]

Everyone was. Even people who hadn't played it yet, like me!

[@StrikeWarlock]

​@@dorongrossman-naples9207not subversive, the dev just didn't have the means to bribe Geoff since the very beginning. Dave the Diver had no business usurping it's spot in the Best Indies division yet here we are.

[@biggreen1456]

at least it was a smashing success and people loved it which in the end is what matters

[@robertstenzel8455]

I think the fundamental issue that created the genre-based categories was the desire to appear like established media, i.e. movies, tv, etc, to give the affair more legitimacy in the eyes of the general public. Movies and tv at their core are just stories with different bells and whistles attached, and they're much easier to catalogue with genre because it's hard to make up a "new" one that isn't just a mashup of others. I'd say games are probably closer to music in that genres can be tough to pin down depending on the tools and intent of the creators. Spiderman 2 is like a steadfast pop star, and Pizza Tower is like a psychedelic prog punk funk band that just makes what they want.

[@vitorpr1245]

So Pizza Tower is like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard?

[@samt3412]

@@vitorpr1245 come to think of it, a song like Robot Stop feels weirdly fitting for Pizza Tower. I could totally see that playing as you enter Lap 2 on a P-rank attempt

[@squmulonimbus]

Yeah, Pokemon, Diablo, and Disco Elysium are all RPGs. Different subcategories, but still RPGs. I get why, but trying to say one is "a superior RPG" seems impossible since it means different things in each case. Genres are helpful shorthand for mechanics or style, but games have such a huge variety, beyond other mediums, that have a category as broad as "Best RPG" seems like a mistake.

[@juunas4997]

Personally the only joy I felt in the game awards this year was seeing hard work of remedy getting a major spotlight. They started as a scrappy little studio in 1995 and grew to be big, but still have their creative director do a silly little dance live to millions of people.

[@jorgetiagosilva]

Same can be said about Larian, with Vincke wearing that full plate armor to the ceremony

[@1wayroad935]

My only real problem in game awards is that the same 4 or 5 games get nominated for the major awards.

[@ImortalZeus13]

That’s the only real problem?

[@Did_No_Wrong]

To be fair Baldur's Gate earned those rewards after years of development and early access. I won't complain about that unlike the past 2 years where God of War and last of us 2 were snatching awards left and right regardless of category.

[@PrinterThorn]

That's true for a lot of awards shows though. Because obviously the game/movie/show of the year nominees would get a lot of things right and when you have so many judges who aren't allowed to communicate with each other, the big stuff will stand out more

[@negative6442]

​@@Did_No_Wrongtlou2 winning best action game over Doom Eternal is what convinced me to never take the VGAS seriously

[@Phantom-kc9ly]

@@negative6442 the message takes priority over reality

[@ThePoltergust5000]

The 1-2 punch of Pizza Tower endorsement between this and the "Games I Didn't Review" video made me very happy after spending all 2023 curious what Yahtzee thought of it/had to say about it, hahaha

[@akamal92]

I think Yahtzee's idea of categorizing games by emotion holds merit and would like to add a further emotion: Wonder. So many open world games say that they offer a world full of wonder and adventure but are full of lies. The winner for the Wonder category should be one that makes the player want to explore the world of the game.

[@samt3412]

Would SMB Wonder, ironically enough, not qualify for this category?

[@majormoron605]

Introducing transparency to the games industry, what a novel and excellent idea.

[@lika290kuk]

They give definitions of categories on their site. Still kinda bs.

[@hazukichanx408]

"Wait, so we... _don't_ just say what the suitmans want us to? And this is allowed, legally? Are we sure?" -Mainstream Games Media

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

The game industry is as transparent as those PNGs with a checkered background

[@scarletice]

I can't be the only one who thinks that Second Wind letting Yahtzee run their own "Second Wind Game Awards" in his vision would be awesome.

[@ThePCguy17]

I love that last reward, not for the honesty, but for the implication that Yahtzee plans to take _all_ the bribes and only actually honor one of them.

[@realtalk13]

the game awards would never wilingly give awards based on their ability to evoke an actual genuine emotion out of audiences, because it would reveal the gaping maw of blandness of most triple A games, which are designed to make you feel engaged enough to play but dissatisfied enough that when they release a near identical copy of the same game 2-3 years later, you'll buy it with the hopes that it improved in a meaningful way vs gotten a shiny coat of paint

[@15oClock]

Industry that begrudgingly rely on the arts are like your estranged dad: they will never admit to having emotions, despite any somewhat functional relationship with it relying on them

[@GNatanel]

Incorrect. The bland AAA games will win those anyway. Again, the point isn't to be accurate. It's to pick the most bombastic games to win. Best game that made me cry? Whatever new Assassin's Creed. Best game that made me smile? Here's the new Nintendo game. Angry? Here's the biggest multiplayer shooter of the year. Etc.

[@ni9274]

in 2023 only Hogwart Legacy, Diablo 4, Immortal of Aveum and the avatar game fit your description of what most AAA games are supposed to be, most AAA games in 2023 were not bland at all and were clearly not designed to leave the player "dissatisfied enough" . This year we got: Baldur's Gate 3 (Imo it's AAA since it has a AAA budget and Larian is the size of AAA studio), Armored Core 6, Phantom Liberty, Alan Wake 2, Re4 and Dead Space remakes, SF6, TOTK, Final Fantasy 16, Spiderman 2, Super Mario Bross Wonder.

[@Thanatos2k]

@@ni9274 Tears of the Kingdom didn't leave me satisfied though. I found it an immensely boring retread, with all the interesting innovation done in the previous game just copy and pasted.

[@Voltaic_Fire]

Did you mean to say "engaged enough to pay"?

[@danhighlander]

What about drawing on your old theory? -Best Context -Best Challenge -Best Catharsis With the Best Game being something that balances the three

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic563]

The issue with that is that it heavily rewards games that focus on just one of the three, leading to the possibility that runner-ups will devolve into almost exclusively walking sims, arcade games, and skinner boxes, and the occasional masterpiece for GOTY.

[@dogehkiindogeborn5339]

What's this theory from? seems quite flawed without context

[@danhighlander]

@@dogehkiindogeborn5339 It's one of Yahtzee's old columns from That Other Channel. I think about ten years ago now. The brief cut of the theory is that what makes games good can be distilled to those three pillars (and what makes games bad lately has been an excessive focus on Catharsis).

[@Thanatos2k]

Literally they should have a "Best Pay To Win" award and it's simply the game for which the company paid the most in a blind auction.

[@supermoo7087]

That’s a fantastic idea haha, I think it’d be even better if the money then went to a relevant charity so that a worthy cause would gain some money and possibly exposure.

[@karelsmutny7038]

Please, make your own Second Wind game awards for games based on emotion you feel!

[@tristanwegner]

awarding, comparing and reviewing games around the core emotion they are going for, is something you should do here on second wind.

[@quetzalthegamer]

I think it's best to think of the Game Awards in the same way that Guinness World Records works. Hbomberguy explains this decently well in his video about the Roblox Oof sound. Guinness World Records is a publicity organization, not an assessor of records. The Game Awards I feel the same way about.

[@skeletor8951]

Theres a more important thing to note in FF16 winning best audio, I think, and that's the composer. Masayoshi Soken has an absolute cult-like following as a result of his long and continued work on FF14, notably having made what is regarded as one of the game's single best boss themes while secretly (from the public anyway) in the hospital fighting cancer. You wanna talk about narrative? That's one you wanna run with. So given that, and FF16 not getting any other awards but falling under the umbrella of "sort of obligatory," and there was no way anything else COULD win.

[@godminnette2]

The score is also probably the best part of that game.

[@Thanatos2k]

Like seriously. If you think it didn't deserve best soundtrack, try and find a track from any game last year better than Find The Flame.

[@necroguy11]

Doesn’t hurt either that due to how the Game Awards classifies live service he essentially hasn’t been eligible for a music VGA for years despite being one of the more recognizable/liked composers in the industry.

[@samt3412]

Also, Final Fantasy (and the best JRPGS in general) tend to have really stellar soundtracks. I mean, Nobuo Uematsu is a legend for his work on the FF series, but just about every big JRPG series I've played has soundtracks that stand out as one of their strongest attributes. Also, I'm still mad that Xenoblade 3 got snubbed for Best Soundtrack last year.

[@scaper12123]

Yeah I felt iffy about how readily Yahtzee dismissed FFXVI on winning best music. OK yes, the story and gameplay were pretty milquetoast, but if any game deserved an award for its music it was FFXVI. The soundtrack was beyond incredible and Soken deserved to be recognized for it. Frankly, I feel sorry for HiFi Rush coming out in the same year.

[@NeonIcyWings]

You know, the concept of categorizing games not by semi arbitrary genre, but by the emotions they're going for, would make a lot more sense. Though it might not entirely work as different people feel different things, expectations could make you feel one thing before you get halfway through, and I do think some level of genre is alright, like first person shooter, is pretty descriptive. Though I suppose it's more accurate to say describing games should be less "genre" and more descriptive tags. Turn based combat, third person camera, skill trees, that kind of thing, build an image of a game by describing the most important piece, but even that runs risks of falling into pigeon holing I suppose.

[@Stolanis]

I think tagging is an acceptable approach since it lets you know what genre *elements* a game has, as long as prospective buyers understand that they should probably still look at a few reviews and gameplay footage to understand exactly how all those elements fit together. For example, one of my favourite series of all time, Monster Hunter, can at times be: - a slow Ecologist Simulator where you run around collecting plants and beetles - a Dark Souls-esque boss gauntlet where you fight against giant gribblies - a min-maxing stat nerdathon where you optimise the heck out of your gear - a creative dress-'em-up in which you can show off cool ensembles you've put together Some things, like the ecology and dress-up, you can more or less ignore if you're not really into them, but if you don't like action-packed boss fights and gear upgrading then you're going to have a BAD TIME in Monster Hunter. I dislike cheese, but I like pizza. Sometimes it isn't what's IN a thing that matters, but whether that stuff complements the other stuff (to put it in academic terms).

[@strain42]

I remember what surprised me the most this year about all the GOTY nominees is that normally they toss at least one "indie" game in there just to kind of pretend to act like they consider them on the same scale. Heck, they even GAVE the award to It Takes Two a few years back to really keep up the illusion. But this year they didn't. I remember before the nominees were confirmed I just named 6 AAA games that I remembered coming out this year and managed to predict 4/6 of the games that made the list.

[@fabulousknight1960]

"I just named 6 AAA games that I remembered coming out this year" I think that's the true essence of these awards. It's a "what games were we talking about the most this year (in a good way) & still talk about now?" competition.

[@somnus5326]

That's a very pessimistic view I feel. "The only reason indies are nominated or even won is just to keep up an illusion." I don't believe that.

[@PatchyE]

It Takes Two is published by EA, not indie. Even the "best indie" award on TGA is mostly "AAA' indies. Smaller studios rarely make the nominees even if they made better games.

[@ni9274]

Indie game aren't on the same scale in term of popularity so it's pretty reasonable they won't show up on a mainstream award show.

[@Fachewachewa]

There's no narrative, no one is throwing one indie in there for any purpose because no one can individually decide (or deliberate with the rest of the jury to decide) who's a nominee. It's just popularity votes.

[@jalapenoofjustice4682]

7:21 this is actually much closer to how genres are defined in every other medium

[@marinescu0511]

Alice the Hedgehog's walk to her death pulled on my heart strings

[@essneyallen6777]

You know it really affected Yatzee too because he had not the heart to replace her name with something more stupid for comedic effect xD

[@UnstopablePatrik]

How dare Yahtzee remind me of Spiritfarer out of nowhere?!

[@hazukichanx408]

That game does yank on the heartstrings. A bit much, perhaps; felt like a worn out heart-fiddle by the end of it. But it does touch on moving subjects and thought-provoking situations, which is more than most games have the guts to even attempt.

[@marinescu0511]

@@hazukichanx408 I absolutely agree that I felt worn the fuck out after her death then came the others

[@necroguy11]

Great as always. Only pushback I’d have on this past year is that the FFXVI Soundtrack was genuinely good so it didn’t seem as much of a “well we gotta give them something” as it has in some previous years

[@dominichekashia105]

Even though I didn't care for it much at the time, I really miss what the Steam Awards was when it first started-having much more bizarre and esoteric categories for its awards that were up to the interpretation of the audience, like the "Best Use of a Farm Animal" Award and the "Cry Havoc and Let Loose the Dogs of War" Award (Which, incidentally, I parsed as "Most Empowering Game", pretty similarly to the emotion categories discussed in this video). They sanded off all the corners over time and now it plays out like most any award show.

[@PaperBenni]

I'm sceptical of the idea of categorizing games by emotion. Just as with genres, defying tropes and expectations is often half the fun. It Takes Two and Getting out as well as the life is strange games for example fit very rigidly into conventional genre definitions but go for very different emotions at different times with moments that play off each other very well.

[@OrangeDog20]

It mostly works for the Steam Awards.

[@aricwood869]

We can all agree we love Yahtzee’s Semi

[@crimsonharvest]

After seeing how the game awards went, and then seeing (fillian's) vtuber awards, i think im starting to get 'awards'. The industry, pretty much no matter what industry it is, has to hype itself up, both for internal and external customers.

[@TheFezHat]

Amusingly, much of the "industry" was uninvolved or outright unaware of the vtuber awards. The big corps had nothing to do with them and many of the winners had to be informed by fans that they won, lol. It was still ultimately hype-driven, though, just in a more populist fashion since the awards were audience-voted. Winners were mostly dictated by which nominee had the largest (English-speaking) audience. TGA is more interesting to me because you can at least have some conversation about the bias of the award voters, like this video does.

[@crimsonharvest]

@@TheFezHat selection method aside, calling the thing hype driven isn't even a problem because the whole function of the format is to drive attention. I mostly just saying that throwing a party to give your friends pats on the back is exactly what awards have been forever.

[@FaTerokiMenra]

And sometimes the narrative is as simple as "guys Geoff likes" which explains why Kojima always gets ten minutes interrupted and the only explanation for It Takes Two winning Game of the Year because Geoff likes the director. It sure wasn't pushing any narrative or technical agendas so that's all I have as an explanation.

[@appelofdoom8211]

No it does. Remember Kojima is arguably the most well known game auteurs with a large fanbase. It fits in with the "please established figureheads I beg of you think games are art." Narrative to the game awards But he also just really like sucking Kojima off to not denying that

[@themoi1243]

I am happy to see i am not the only one that re-think about Spiritfarer character from time to time

[@MichaelChisholmChizzieRascal]

This idea seems to rest on the fact that the game awards are chosen by the game awards themselves, when its hundreds of journalists and publications. The reason you can pick out the winners so easily is pretty much down to reviews, it’s basically the metacritic awards. Not any of these weird theories, would these hold up to last years awards?

[@K4RN4GE911]

Good to see that Alice from Spiritfarer still plays on everyone's heartstrings like the Eruption solo.

[@Gileseypops]

Hearing Yahtzee talk about game of the year, I can almost see a spectral form of Gabe hovering behind him, rubbing his hands in glee.

[@Riley-nq3tc]

*Licking/smacking his chops on mic with glee*

[@B4rb0ssa]

The explanations for each award and how they push the narrative for the games industry makes so much sense now that you've said it, great video

[@cancerstinks1]

How could Yahtzee forget an award for the best Spunk Gargle Wee-wee game?

[@SidheKnight]

Don't forget the awards for best Jimminy Cockthroat and best Ghost Train Ride.

[@NeovanGoth]

The result would probably always be "whatever Call of Duty has been released", as nowadays those seem to be the only Spunkgargleweewee games whose existence is at least recognized. For the Jiminy Cockthroat award of 2023 I nominate Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. It's bland as hell, but well made and sufficiently fun.

[@appelofdoom8211]

​@@NeovanGothlet's call it "the most adequate trendchaser" award.

[@Tralfazz74]

I appreciate Jack's dedication to being a weirdo. Not a freak, just a weirdo

[@jonathanhill6064]

Second Wind is the greatest thing to happen to video game commentary. Ever.

[@CheesecakeMilitia]

I'm just happy the Game Awards are established enough for everyone to simultaneously care about them and complain about them - they're doing better than the Oscars in that regard. Plus everyone knows the real artsy Cannes Festival-style winners come from the IGF during the Game Developers' Choice Awards. I would like for them to ditch the genre-specific awards as you suggested, but my only other complaint about them is the name. I feel like we should just acquiesce to calling them the Keighleys or something less generic-sounding.

[@MatthewCSnow]

I thought I was going crazy in saying that a well-established creator making a new studio shouldn’t count as “debut”, it’s like calling a new band comprising of known rockstars as a newcomer band

[@PitterPatter20]

I didn't really know how I felt about the new theme song at first, but it's really growing on me.

[@SidheKnight]

Ditto. I still miss the yellow background though.

[@chairmanmeow9110]

On a side note, I love how much work Jack puts into the merch ads, it's great!!

[@harrisonhillyer3922]

You should 100% make a 'year-in-review' game award video based on those categories I'd say call it the Windies, but that's taken, so 'Second Wins' for games that the awards shows overlooked

[@brianchervenak4006]

Its a silly thing but I want to compliment you lot on the different intros for full vs semi ramblomatics. The semi is such a cut down chill version of ;full', smooth but still modern, with Yahtzee sipping a beverage from a cocktail glass. A+ appreciated every time. The attention to detail is not unwasted.

[@Unknown-jt1jo]

The dog in the intro is cute!

[@marsw002]

Love the Spiritfarer reference in this video.

[@Surkai25]

brilliant as always yahtz!

[@BlackReaper0]

That part about pizza tower made a lot of sense.

[@HUMGER]

That ad at the end i love it!

[@ToddBlackToddTalk]

Yahtzee's spitting FACTS up in here! "The Game Awards would need to WANT to change" was the basis for an opinion article I wrote about how bad it was last year.

[@alexhirsch5738]

This is my favorite episode of critique in a LONG time

[@wholehorse331]

I think I can easily sum up all the unique issues the Steam Awards has, but it might be interesting to contrast that popularity contest to the Game Awards. Especially as I believe they have (and previously had more of) awards that describe the kind of categories Yahtzee would want to see.

[@AggrivatedMonk]

That promo bit at the end was quite entertaining. 👍

[@roboknobthesnob]

Stray was for me the perfect example of how the indie awards are absolutely bonkers

[@SimuLord]

It's a stock-standard walking simulator...but wookit da kitty! (I mean, as a cat owner myself, I can totally understand this, but that doesn't make Stray a great game.)

[@Volvagia1927]

@@SimuLord And also, from a visible production scale perspective of Indie (the ONLY metric that really matters), Stray is just...completely, obviously, a AA game?

[@roboknobthesnob]

@@SimuLord yeah, as I said in a video, replace the damn cat with a scrawny dog and boom, nobody would care anymore. And although presentation is important, in the case of Stray you can clearly see how 90% of that game is “cat”, and the remaining 10% is a bland walking sim with a plot that pretends to be anything more than an excuse for the levels to exist.

[@hazukichanx408]

@@roboknobthesnob So, in a nutshell... 'needs more cat.' Gotcha!

[@roboknobthesnob]

@@hazukichanx408 you have a future in the gaming industry

[@alyxgraff9121]

Can I just point out how much I love the Shark Robot merch ads? The narrators for them always seem to have great jokes & delivery while advertising. It kind of reminds me of the "A Word From Our Sponsors" segment from Welcome to Night Vale.

[@Lrbearclaw]

4:50 - Yathzee, one thing you may not realize that Soken (the man who did the music for FF16) also does nearly all the music for FF14. The man is second to none in the music side of the game's industry. To downplay the award as "well Final Fantasy is so old they needed something" completely ignores just how good the soundtrack was. Soken has a talent to be able to tell a story via only music, but can also take the theme song for an expansion (in FF14), use the same notes and progression, but make totally different songs by just changing the pace and the instruments playing the song, creating a leitmotif out of the theme song. Not to mention, the man did the music for the game at the same time he was fighting for his life (in secret) against cancer.

[@XT91]

I mean it still doesn't mean it wasn't true, the man could be fighting cancer making music and the VGA's award coulda still been obligatory. The VGA's knew they couldn't give any other rewards for it so it is what it is. Final Fantasy is one of the old series that will unless it completely becomes tarnish will always be obligated in some way just like Nintendo. Thinking the highly commercialized VGAs gives a damn bout individual people or video game is art, and like Yahtzee said over a narrative is naïve.

[@essneyallen6777]

To sum up, the fact he really incredibly indubitably deserved it had nothing to do with the fact that it was FFXVI Designated We Can't Give You Anything Else Award anyway.

[@Rebar77_real]

They're going to end up a flea markets and county fairs setting up booths to win plushies by playing their game for five minutes and posing for a picture while they scan your phone.

[@observer54321]

Spiritfarer mentioned, so awesome..

[@MaxxJagX]

Award ceremonies are basically the same, from the Golden Globes, to the Emmys to the Game Awards. Mostly just the industries giving themselves a pat on the back while doing a whole thing. Oh, and there's one or two "indies" thrown into the mix.

[@fanticidevids-kt5xg]

I have never felt more warranted not knowing or caring anything about the video games awards.

[@Evanz111]

100% would love giving awards based on feel rather than arbitrary groupings. Steam did something close to this in their awards with “games that challenged you most”, so I’d like to see more categories like that.

[@djeka415]

Thank you for your work 👍

[@ThatFanBoyGuy]

Game Theory also did a good job showing how to predict VGA winners - RIP Game Theory (yeah, I know MatPat/Game Theory is not dead, but it almost feels like it is). It's sad that there is such as "VGA Gold" like there is "Oscar Gold"

[@Moulinoski]

I too have a bone to pick with “video game genres”. The current ones are unhelpful because, as you said, even two “strategy” games will end up playing completely differently given enough differentiation. I don’t understand why we can’t classify *interactive media* into several layers of classifications as we do with print media. Tears of the Kingdom is a piece of interactive media that is a game in the high fantasy genre with exploration and combat action. Doki Doki Literature Club is a piece of interactive media that is a narrative in the horror genre with branching story bits. Something like that. It’s not perfect but I find it better than equating fantasy and horror with shooter and platforming. Like they’re not even the same kind of classification yet it’s used everywhere where interactive media are concerned.

[@TheDoctorwhovian2]

This year marks 10 years since I first visited Mana Bar, Yahtzee!

[@scoticvsgossage9378]

Didn’t he give up his side of ownership?

[@TheDoctorwhovian2]

​@@scoticvsgossage9378 the bar no longer exists. But at the time I visited, he certainly worked there because he served me.

[@MyerithRae]

I didn't play FF16 but in Soken's defense he had big shoes to fill from Nobuo and I think he is doing a damn good job of it.

[@inuclearpickle8628]

Man is really good I’m just happy his music was acknowledged. My favorite song he did was To the Edge and that was before I learned he did it while dealing with cancer just makes the song hit harder. The bahamut fight in 16 was great too as my friend put it “Beethoven bath salts”

[@bigallru]

Guys, love your merch commercial! Hilarious 😀

[@daikansanchez7674]

I just wanna point out that Jack's ad reading is really refreshing.

[@Toksyuryel]

I am in full support of the Second Wind Game Awards. Make it happen!

[@TheMoviesCult]

Categorize based on emotion is what films are doing, for the most part - with the exceptions of scifi, western etc. that are not an effing genre, but a setting; at least they work better than game genres. I've constructed a huge analysis over this, with settings and themes playing a part as sub-genres, and I'm glad you are talking about it

[@jeremielacroix8207]

I love the merch ad so much hahahaha

[@greendalf123]

Great video.

[@thomasvarney5758]

I feel that image of Geoff Keighley sitting expressionless next to heaps of Mountain Dew and Doritos represents everything that the Geoff Keighley Game Awards could ever aspire to be.

[@lenapawlek7295]

Would love to see second wind do a little game awards of their own

[@weirdunclebob]

Jack's ads are great! :)

[@firockfinion3326]

I'd love to see Yahtzee doing his own awards based on those emotional categories!

[@lowcarbongamer6104]

I think we need the Second Wind game awards.

[@SolaScientia]

I was hoping AC6 would have had more nominations, but I also just love the game. The audio design was brilliant for me. It wasn't just satisfying to play, but also satisfying to listen to. All the sounds combined with the music just added to how good it feels to play. Overall most awards ceremonies, whether for games, film, tv, whatever, all seem more like popularity contests to me anyway.

[@GhostOfSparta305]

Award based on emotions felt by the player is actually a really cool idea...yet this industry would STILL find a way to butcher that. "Best game to make you cry" would inevitably go to games like TLOU/God of War, which only get emotional via cutscenes, but have gameplay fully focused on combat / aggression / stuff that DOESN'T make you cry.

[@DrJigglebones]

y'know, it took a couple episodes of getting used to, but I really like the new style for FR and SR. even if you do get the ip rights to ZP and EP back I hope you keep this style!

[@pinkbiohazardmercurialcoll7133]

It's good to see Yahtzee relaxed...

[@DocTIM-VoidLogic]

You know how many volumes it screams that you dont even like pizza tower but have some balls of brass to praise its merits inspite of how stressed it makes you Yahtz. This is why I love and respect your reviews.

[@ObadiahtheSlim]

As for the emotion based award, I have one for you: "Best Build a Thing game." Lots of ways to approach that. From your full on immersive city building sim like City Skylines to your base management sims like Rimworld, to a more sandbox title like Minecraft. Heck you could even include games where building stuff is featured element, but more on the optional side like Fallout 4's settlement building if it were actually kinda good and rewarding.

[@Thanatos2k]

"Best crafting system" I could see being an actual thing, but no triple A game would ever win it.

[@ObadiahtheSlim]

​@@Thanatos2k Yeah, a crafting system award could also work. I just wanted to make it broad enough for any type of game that can scratch that "build a thing" itch. I didn't want to pigeon hole it to strictly crafting systems. Because let's face it, not all "crafting" systems are building things. Some are basically just collect X things to get Y modifier.

[@really1337]

Man, whenever I hear you comment on game award shows it makes me wish you guys ran your own awards show. It's a pipe dream but a dream that's a lot more interesting than the Video Game Awards.

[@KingOfDoma]

I predict this will be funny

[@gamers2999]

I predict the comment above will be the top comment.

[@bennettcarlson3974]

For me I think that the easiest way to fix it is to change the way voting works for TGA, currently public voting only counts for 10% which means at best, they serve as tie breakers in a close matchup, it should be at LEAST half, which would strike a balance between the kinds of games that usually get awards and the kinds that people actually want rewarded

[@Pixelflame5826]

Well look at the Steam Awards to see how that goes sometimes, though yes, a 50-50 might offset that a little bit.

[@ErisianThreeFourteen]

Best merch ad I've ever seen. "Want your voice to sound more like Frost's?" I lost it!

[@Pratanjali64]

Serious question for Yahtzee/Second Wind: Would you consider replacing best/worst/blandest with the best X emotion categories for the 2024 roundup? It's a *really* good idea.

[@appelofdoom8211]

I feel like worst and blandest have some merits but maybe rather than making the best a strict top 5 give each nominee a title like that. Several of the top 5 have had yahtzee say stuff like "I didn't want two put these two similair games here so I picked one" so it has a lot of merit.

[@bottasheimfe5750]

man Yahtzee, I gotta say I agree with that idea of giving awards based on the target emotions a game is supposed to bring out in its audience. that is a REALLY good idea.

[@vegladex]

"Best game whose publisher gave me $1k to say this" with a tacky oversized trophy sounds absolutely amazing. You get a load of funding from them, it attracts all the publishers with money to spare and no sense or taste, keeping them away from the other awards, you STILL get to pick the best among those, and yet the whole setup is absolutely crystal clear for the rest of us!

[@AnimeForeLife]

Yahtzee never fails to give me a semi

[@yuumeko]

I would absolutely support you guys doing your own Game Awards. I'm not against the idea of a yearly summary of what people thought about games as I honestly think it's fun to go back and reflect. But, everyone knows by now that these shows turn into giant ads and popularity contests and got sick of the weird performance samey-ness. Frankly I am not sure how to avoid that, but it means a lot that Yahtzee didn't just criticize but actually gave his own input and ideas especially as a gaming journalist/creator veteran.

[@zikarisg9025]

I like these categories, Second Wind awards at the end of 2024 should be a go!