Alt Games Of The Year - The Actual True Game Of The Year

Game of the Year awards are so… stupid. We try and box the entire year into pre-determined categories, pit them against one another, then arbitrarily decide which one is “best”. It’s a useless metric at best, actively harmful at worst.

Game of the Year awards are so… fun. They celebrate a collection of wonderful experiences people have had, recognize the hard work that was put in to creating them, and maybe help any readers/viewers find a cool game or two they might not have known about otherwise.

“The Game Awards” were once, I think, a spark of hope for the maturation of the medium. Post Spike TV and pre-current day, there was a glimmer of something that could be it’s own thing, celebrating the breadth of this passion we all share. Alas, the need for it to grow and hit wider and larger audiences, caused the commercialization to outweigh the awards themselves more and more. All you need for evidence of this is to try and catch who won best art direction in the quick five second announcement between WORLD EXCLUSIVES.

“A celebration of games”. I keep coming back to this notion my mind. It’s what The Game Awards preport to be. Yet a massive, celebrity filled event chock full of ads doesn’t feel like a celebration of all games. a celebration of so much of what is currently wrong with this industry, maybe - games full of cross promotional ads, microtransaction led nickle and diming, and systems that are machine-honed and focus-tested to drip feed you dopamine just enough to keep you on that never ending treadmill.

Then there’s the harassment. The bullying. The extreme inequality in power, prestige and pay. Any chance to forget about Activision Blizzard’s Cosby Suite, it’s union busting law firm hire, or it’s juxtaposition of underpaid/overworked workers with it’s billionaire CEO.

The fact that Ubisoft is doing NFTs, but don’t worry guys, it’s the “environmentally sound” option. It’s all good, we’re doing the not as bad as it could be version of the terrible, planet destroying tech.

Riot. Sony. Ubisoft. Activision Blizzard. Many more we know, and many more we don’t. Remember crunch? Glad that got solved. Structures crushing those a part of it in order to keep the cash rolling in. Squeeze as much as you can, until there’s nothing left. Then squeeze some more.

“A celebration of games”.

This year’s traditional The Game Awards nominations are so… boring. In 2021, more starkly than ever before, the categories and games nominated represent such a tiny slice of the absolutely incredible breadth of interactive experiences on offer.

The nebulous term that is “Indie” isn’t necessarily free of any of the horror plaguing games however. Fullbright hit the news this year for the same issues. As have multiple other companies. Indie devs quite often fall into just as unhealthy work cycles, just trying to compete.

But the absolute wealth of experiences coming from so many small, extremely talented individuals and teams is mind blowing. I’ve mentioned 182 games in this here Alt Game Of The Year Awards. All of them worth your time.

I say this with 100% certainty. 2021, more than any other year previous, is the year that “Indie” games fully surpassed “AAA”.

The titans that this industry leans on for the same derivative experiences every year - the same titans that lead the charge in sexual harassment, misconduct and massive inequality - like a bulging cyst ready to burst, could all explode tomorrow. It just might, the way it treats it’s people. But “the industry” would still be just fine, thanks to the incredible indie creators making wonderful experiences, all across the globe.

But, you came here to find out what the game of the year is. Kept you waiting huh?

Ok, well here it is.

Drumroll.

…

The Actual True Game Of The Year is…

…

All of them.

Every one of the 182 games in this ridiculously long and wild GOTY experiment.

How disappointing!

The thing is, comparing apples to orange Xbox controllers is that there is no such thing as The One Game To Rule Them All. It’s totally subjective. You probably already know what was your favourite game this year.

These ten pages of awards are just the same. I didn’t even want to choose “winners”, but there’s no way I was going to have enough time to write a spiel about every single one, and lets be honest, the strong likelihood that you wouldn’t even read them otherwise.

To add to your disappointment, I’ll let you in on a little secret: I didn’t even play most of these games. Would be lucky to have touched about 10% of them, honestly. I didn’t even play all the ones I gave awards to!

But how could you do this, I hear you scream. It’s so unethical. Well, for one, this is my blog, and I do what want. For the other, this is simply all just in good fun! Who cares!

What’s important is that you checked out these awards, hopefully stumbled across something that tickles your fancy, and now you have a cool game that you can play over the holidays that you wouldn’t have heard of otherwise. Despite my positively corrupt behaviour, all of these games are on this list for a reason. I had your best interests at heart, dear reader.

The games industry isn’t just limited to the games that get the biggest marketing budgets, with a few standout indie games as a side dish. There are hundreds, thousands of games put out there, every year - ones that will blow your mind if you let them.

A celebration of games.