Now that 2009 has rolled in, most sites have announced their Game of the Year pick. Most sites and general game communities picked Grand Theft Auto IV. I don’t see the appeal in it, some people might, that’s fine, I just found it to be an incredibly boring game that was a little too realistic for it’s own good. I miss San Andreas and GTA III.

That’s not what I’m writing about, GTA IV could be a pile of gold for all I care, what really gets me is this whole Game of the Year business. Frankly, I find it absurd to say that there is one game that was the best out of a year’s lineup of games. Soley because each game has something that makes it good and makes it bad. Common picks for GOTY consist of: Metal Gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet, Fable 2, Fallout 3. Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, and Gears of War 2 with the occasional mix of other games. If you look at these games you’ll notice they’re all big budget games, all of them were made by multimillion dollar companies.

Now that I’ve pointed that out, it’s time for the obvious connection that marketing = game selling, and from that you could conclude that sites get paid off to put x game as GOTY. Although this also applies to reviews, because what some dick who gets paid to play games says makes or breaks a game nowadays.

My quarrel is not with the sites themselves, it’s will the general business of this common idea that there is a game that is the best of the year, and how people always seem to care so much about which game is a site’s GOTY. I remember seeing the GameSpot GOTY video, and they picked MGS4 (which I thought they would based on the numerous amounts of bullshit awards given to that game), and though I agree MGS4 is a good game, it’s not what I see to be GOTY if there was an absolutely need for a GOTY.

The Game of the Year award shouldn’t exist. Awards can be given for different genres because you can compare games from different genres but an overall game that beats all other games? Ridiculous. Some might argue “Oh but Game of the Year could mean the most fun game because you can compare fun from game to game” but fun is a biased judgement based on your likes and dislikes, and of site staff likes and dislikes. The only level I could see Game of the Year working would be on a personal level because then it’s judged as an opinion and not as a matter of fact. Personally, World of Goo is my GOTY.