mZuzek said:
I'm not in favor of this, personally. Somehow there's still a stigma around indie games, that they're inherently lesser than big-budget productions. I think adding in a dedicated indie category only amplifies that notion, because it could lead to the implication that they can't win the proper awards. That said, I think one way to give more room to indies would be to add a Debut Game category. It's rare that a developer's first game is going to be good enough to be running for most awards, but most new developers are indies. |
I'm in favor of separate awards categories for indie games. Yeah, I'd say there is indeed stigma surrounding indie games that mostly stems from their smaller budgets and people's biases in favor of "bigger" games. You know what reinforces that stigma more than a separate category though? Never winning anything. Total de-legitimization goes a lot further in the way of reinforcing people's prejudices against smaller developers, whereas drawing attention to outstanding independently-developed games, by contrast, might cause more people to play those games and, in the process, change opinions.
As things stand, as Machina has pointed out, it's game journalists and critics who are the most likely to play indie games in general because, well, it's part of their job, and therefore those same people who reward them the most often. Regular gamers, by contrast, may have smaller budgets and purchase games based on things like commercials and other ads they spot and recommendations from friends and family members or receive many of their games from oblivious non-gamers as birthday or Christmas gifts and that in turn goes back to what sort of companies have the budgets to market their games widely. And this reality, in turn, results in games being developed for the primary purpose of selling large numbers of copies at a high rate of return on investment, which is a philosophy that can run to the contrary of the artistic advancement of the medium. You might say that, at least in theory, the games critic exists to serve as a kind of corrective to the more injudicious ways of the market.
We can see just by looking at the Game of the Year award breakdowns that indie games fare significantly better among the staffers of media outlets than they do in the reader's choice awards. For this year, for example, only one indie title won reader-based GOTY awards: Hades, which only won 3 such awards; good enough for the fourth-highest total overall. Among media outlets, by contrast, a number of indie titles won GOTY awards including not just Ori and the Will of the Wisps, but also the likes of Spiritfarer, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, and Kentucky Route Zero, and Hades won 49 (good enough for second place). That's a reflection of the reality I've just highlighted. Including categories specifically for smaller developers would serve as a needed additional corrective to this general pattern. It could help smaller developers who make great games get the publicity they need to succeed and simply can't get on the natural terms of the market.
Likewise, female-centered games rarely get many awards because the vast majority of the game consumers are male. Scrolling down the list of overall Game of the Year winners across the media landscape from 2003 to the present, you'll notice that most of the titles that won specifically used male lead characters and that The Last of Us Part II will be literally the first overall winner ever to specifically use female leads instead. Putting these realities I've just highlighted together in combination for a second, what chance would you say that oh say an indie game with a female main character (like say Spiritfarer or Sakuna) ever has of winning overall across the media landscape for any given year? Yeah, basically none. There is no chance. Quality and creativity hardly matters when you combine those two things because very few people ever play such titles in the first place. It's to this end that those few outlets daring enough to give such titles the ultimate award deserve acknowledgment for bravery and to have their arguments highlighted at least. The Blade was the lone outlet to name Spiritfarer their Game of the Year and you can find their rationale here. Digitally Downloaded was the sole outlet to name Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin their Game of the Year and you can find their explanation of why here. I don't actually agree with either of those selections for this particular year myself, but both of those titles were among my personal favorites among new titles this year (in addition to Hades and Streets of Rage 4...and Kentucky Route Zero if we count it as a 2020 game since the last chapter was released in 2020 anyway, speaking of which here's the only outlet to name Kentucky Route Zero their Game of the Year on their choice) and I think the arguments behind these selections are worth giving a look to because these really are games worth playing.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 17 January 2021
