- Pronouns
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Hello everyone, and welcome to this year’s Game of the Year celebration. This will be an opportunity to look back on what has been, to remember a year gone by, and to reflect upon fond memories, and to do it all together!
2022 was wild, weird and in many ways brilliant when it came to games. We all did so much, in so many games, across so many adventures, vistas, and storytelling experiences. We had fun, we were challenged, and maybe we shed a tear.
11 days ago, we kicked off our prelude, focused on a single category - Most Anticipated 2023 game. Now, then, it’s time for the main event, the Game of the Year celebration that will have us nominate, talk about, and vote on games in a variety of categories.
The event will have a total of 16 categories, with 2 of them being categories touching on things outside the games themselves. The nomination process will work so that we nominate games in two categories at the same time. Today, we will immediately start the event by nominating both “Best Action or Best Action-Adventure”, and “Best Art Direction”.
There will be 3 days of nominations for each pair of categories. The nomination period will run until January 26th, where we end the final bundle of categories. The nomination process will take place in this very thread, where you fine folks will nominate your favourite games of 2022, and the things about them.
Starting January 27th, voting will run for 5 days, and close on January 31st, with the winners being announced on February 1st. Voting will be made via a Google Forms ballot, just like in the case of the prelude event. You are going to nominate your top 3 games in each category. It will be a lot to vote on, but we encourage everyone who wants to participate!
To nominate, there will be a specific template that needs to be followed in order for the nomination to count.
First, type ”Fami Your Consideration”, and then on the next row, present the category. On the next row, present the game. And then, follow up with a motivation of at least one paragraph detailing why this game is the one you nominate. If you want to nominate in both categories, repeat the process, but you don’t have to write “Fami Your Consideration” again. It's encouraged that you nominate in both categories! (But it's completely okay to just pick one)
Example:
Fami Your Consideration
Best Action or Action/Adventure game
God of War Ragnarök
This game blew me away, from when I first booted it up, all the way to that epic final battle that I won’t spoil. The visuals are stunning, and I didn’t mind the long runtime. This is everything I loved about the first God of War reboot game, turned up to 11. More intense combat, more impressive locations, and more emotional moments. Definitely my favourite action-adventure game in 2022 by far.
Best Art Direction
Tunic
I just love how this game looks. It’s cute as heck! It’s a gorgeous world to get lost in, and it has this pleasant muted colour palette that is really appealing to look at. Love the enemy and boss designs, and the lighting in some of the environments really stand out. Definitely a stunning-looking game!
Best Action or Best Action-Adventure
Best Art Direction
Best RPG
Best Soundtrack
Best Platformer
Best Level, Area or World
Best RTS/Strategy Game
Best Multiplayer Experience
Best Puzzle Game
Best Rerelease
Best Indie Game
Best Gaming Moment
Best Sports/Party Game
Cutest Character
Community Award: Most Impactful Gaming Thread
Game of the Year
Best Art Direction
Best RPG
Best Soundtrack
Best Platformer
Best Level, Area or World
Best RTS/Strategy Game
Best Multiplayer Experience
Best Puzzle Game
Best Rerelease
Best Indie Game
Best Gaming Moment
Best Sports/Party Game
Cutest Character
Community Award: Most Impactful Gaming Thread
Game of the Year
Best Action or Best Action-Adventure
An award recognizing the feeling of being on an outstanding journey, whether it be through an intriguing world, through excellently crafted levels, or just through extraordinairy places. Games where you get to meet engaging characters, and where you meet tons of enemies and bosses that gets to taste your weapon of choice.
Best Art Direction
An award recognizing excellent visuals. Stylistic and minimalist or hyper-realistic and bombastic, or something that aims for striking a balance. Games that offers pure eye-candy in the form of an appealing and excellently crafted style.
Best RPG
An award recognizing the very best that this year’s role-playing experiences had to offer. Intricate customization options where you can spend hours tinkering with party members that will take you on an epic adventure across fascinating worlds. Games that let you experience an unforgettable plot with characters to die for.
Best Soundtrack
An award recognizing excellent music to accompany what’s happening on the screen. For a soundtrack that fits its game like the hand in the glove.
Best Platformer
An award recognizing escapades often upbeat and uplifting, where quick footing is key, and where you jump across hazards and enemies with your tongue between your teeth. Games with tight controls that makes for satisfying gameplay, and levels that are a joy to go through.
Best Level, Area or World
An award recognizing places you simply love to be in. It can be for any reason - for a sense of place and immersion, for a place offering excellent gameplay challenges, or just a zone to chill in.
Best RTS/Strategy Game
An award recognizing games that allow you to take part in complex, tactical decisions. Games that encourages careful consideration and planning, and has you immerse yourself in a world where victory is key.
Best Multiplayer Experience
An award recognizing the fun that can be had with friends and close ones - or rivals, for that matter. Whether it be in purely multiplayer-focused games, or games with multiplayer elements, this award is for spotlighting times where the most fun comes from, and with, other people.
Best Puzzle Game
An award recognizing true brain-twisters. Games where you have to utilize logical thinking, rationalize solutions, or just guess your way through. Games that offers gameplay and solutions that are incredibly satisfying to solve and take part in.
Best Rerelease
An award recognizing the chance for newcomers to experience a classic game anew. Whether they be remasters, rereleases or remakes released in 2022, this is an award for those games that gets a second, sometimes better, chance on new or old hardware.
Best Indie Game
An award recognizing games that are made by smaller teams and publishers. Games that are just as outstanding as bigger productions, in spite of their sometimes shorter length and smaller scope.
Best Gaming Moment
An award recognizing what’s happening outside of games themselves, in the wider worlds of games and the gaming industry. Events, viral clips, jolly or heartwarming moments - anything in the gaming space outside the actual games.
Best Sports/Party Game
An award recognizing the times where it was just fun to let loose and have a fun time, whether it be with vehicles, tennis or just something random and cool.
Cutest Character
An award recognizing that cute character that you can’t help but adore. For an easygoing and heartwarming character that it’s hard to not like.
Community Award: Most Impactful Gaming Thread
For this community award, we recognize game-related threads here on Famiboards during the year that have been impactful: important discussions that have taken place, discussions that has been touching on crucial parts of the world of video games and that has led to productive and insightful conversation.
Game of the Year
An award recognizing the best of the best that 2022 had to offer.
1. You can only nominate one game per category to be added to the voting ballot. You are free to mention and talk about other games, but your top choice(s) is the only ones that will be added. We are encouraging everyone to nominate as many games as possible!
2. The game must be released in 2022, and it must be a new game. Remasters/Remakes/Rereleases are reserved for the “Best rerelease” category only.
3. Any games that are nominated in this thread will be included on the ballot, assuming that they are eligible games of course.
Additionally, two more things:
First of all, genres can sometimes be tricky to pin down today, with how much that can blend together. (Especially in Action/Adventure/RPG genres) We won’t have a rule where we will follow a strict genre definition down to the bone to determine what games are or aren’t eligible for a category. When in doubt though, we will defer to how The Game Awards handled genres for their categories.
Second of all, we can admit that choosing categories wasn’t easy. There was a lot of discussion, and some categories had to be discarded since we wanted an even blend of genre categories and some more loose, general ones. We understand if people are dissatisfied by the categories presented here. Nevertheless, we would like to discourage any discussion regarding what genres are and aren’t part of the celebration.
Jan 1st to Jan 3rd - Introduction and nominating Best Action/Action Adventure and Best Art Direction
Jan 4th to Jan 6th - Nominating Best RPG and Best Soundtrack
Jan 7th to Jan 9th - Nominating Best Platformer and Best Level/Area/World
Jan 10th to Jan 12th - Nominating Best RTS/Strategy game and best Multiplayer Experience
Jan 13th to Jan 15th - Nominating Best Puzzle Game and Best Rerelease
Jan 16th to Jan 18th - Nominating Best Indie Game and Best Gaming Moment
Jan 19th to Jan 21st - Nominating Best Sports/Party game and Cutest Character
Jan 22nd to Jan 26th - Nominating Most Impactful Gaming Thread and Game of the Year
Jan 27th to Jan 31st - Voting period
February 1st - Winners presented
Primary organizers: @Josh5890 @Irene
Graphic design: @Irene
Input: @PixelKnight @Aurc
And a special shoutout to @Lozjam for hosting last year's GOTY event
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Now, let's nominate!
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