I’ve had the opportunity to watch The Game Awards every year over the last 10 years. I’ve enjoyed watching it steadily improve over the years and I look forward to it every year. Frankly, I detest the discourse of ‘the video game community’ snobbishly lobbing potshots at one of the best-produced award shows running covering my favorite entertainment medium.
An area I’ve struggled with that hasn’t seemed to improve… or is improving at a slower pace than other aspects of the production is the award categories. The categories are shockingly ill-defined, and I’d consider them to be a bit outdated. Quite a few categories fall into genre labels that are murky at best.
Here’s an example – Best RPG is defined as “For the best game designed with rich player character customization and progression, including massively multiplayer experiences.” Player customization and progression are in nearly every game at this point. Elden Ring and Dragons Dogma are included, which could be argued as RPGs but I’d place it in the action game genre.
Another example is the best action adventure category which contains Astro Bot. Astro bot is largely a kids action platformer. Another category is best action game, action-adventure vs action? Are we saying the action games do not have adventure? Black Myth Wukong is under action, which is a game centered around the adventure of the Monkey King. I do understand the history of genres and how we got to here, but I am saying as it stands today it doesn’t make a ton of sense in 2024.
I feel the individual genre categories should go and categories should be more focused on mechanical features that can be more easily compared on merits. As an example the first person vs third person or top industry achievements such as best art direction or music (these achievements are currently recognized in the Game Awards).
Here’s what I’d propose to recategorize the Game Awards Categories:
- Game of the Year
- Definition:
- Recognizes the best game of the year across all aspects of creative and technical production
- Definition:
- Best First Person Game
- Definition:
- Best game played from first person’s perspective
- Definition:
- Best Third Person Game
- Definition:
- Best game played from the third person’s perspective
- Definition:
- Best Writing – Story
- Definition:
- Recognizing the game that has the greatest achievement in writing for an impactful and moving story
- Definition:
- Best Writing – Dialog
- Definition:
- Recognizing a top game showcasing natural, authentic, purposeful, and concise dialog between characters
- Definition:
- Best Art Direction
- Definition:
- Recognizing outstanding technical or creative achievement in art direction for a game
- Definition:
- Best Technical Graphics Presentation
- Definition:
- Recognizing a game that showcases innovation in visual quality, and technical proficiency
- Definition:
- Best Game Mechanics Innovation
- Definition:
- Recognizing the best game showcasing innovation in game mechanics
- Definition:
- Best Combat
- Definition:
- Best game showcasing innovative, creative, or greatest feeling combat
- Definition:
- Best Performance
- Definition:
- Best game showcasing an industry-leading performance of an actor and performance director
- Definition:
- Best Multiplayer Experience
- Definition:
- Game showcasing the best multiplayer experience
- Definition:
- Best Turn-based Game
- Definition:
- Game showcasing the best turn-based experience
- Definition:
- Best Ongoing Game
- Definition:
- Best ongoing or live service game experience of the year
- Definition:
- Best Mobile Game
- Definition:
- Best mobile game experience of the year
- Definition:
- Best Music
- Definition:
- Best music accompaniment to a video game
- Definition:
- Best Audio Design
- Definition:
- Best example of audio design experiences in a game
- Definition:
- Best Innovation in Accessibility
- Definition:
- Best innovation in accessibility to make games more accessible to more players
- Definition:
- Best Debut Indie Studio
- Definition:
- Best small studio debuting a game this year
- Definition:
- Best Indie Game
- Definition:
- Best video game created by a small team or individual without the financial or logistical support of a large game publisher
- Definition:
- Most Anticipated Game
- Definition:
- Most exciting upcoming video game
- Definition:
Having gone through the experience of proposing these categories, I can empathize with how challenging it is for any awards program to define them. To spare my wife and child from my grousing I wanted to write my thoughts down. Thank you for reading!