When people discuss/try and predict Game of the Year contenders, which venue are they actually talking about as the giver of this award?  Between IGN and Gamespot (and the other big websites), Spike and G4, and the various Award ceremonies around the world, no one could be called the real GOTY.   That said, I've always heard that the Game Developers Conference (GDC) winner of Game of the year is really the most respected among people within the industry, but it could be argued from that the awards from the bigger media outlets are more important because they reach and affect consumer opinion more.  Which one do you guys consider the most important, or even, which one do you just like the most?

 On a side note, I think the real contenders for GOTY at the GDC this year are Mass Effect, Galaxy, and Bioshock.  I think Call of Duty 4 could be nominated on the strength of its technical acheivment alone (running at 60fps with graphics that really are that pretty), but it won't really stand a chance to win, if only because it isnt fresh enough.  It seems Assasin's Creed has the opposite problem: the game is original enough, but apparently its playability isn't too strong and/or is repetitive, so I dont think it will be nominated.

 Really I'm more interested in the question of venue for Game of the Year though.  Thoughts?

I typically prefer IGN, as they're big and cover everything, and they do it well.

If I had to pick whose GOTY was best, it'd be IGNs. However, when we vote for what the GOTY will be, we're basically voting for which game we think will get the most GOTY awards.

We all know Mario Galaxy will win GOTY on SOME site, and I bet Halo 3 will too...it just matters how many sites, and how important they are.

I generally like to go with the Game Developers Choice Awards. Everyone has crazy theories why one review site is biased and the other isn't but nobody really has any of those crazy theories about the GDCA because there isn't biased. :-p

@ Benkenobi

That's fair, but its hard to really collect all of the GOTY's because of the different times they fall. The Joystick awards, for example, just happened recently but were too early to include games like Galaxy and Mass Effect in competition. The GDC is in Febuary, so it could include Brawl, GTA IV and Metal Gear IV in its pool of games to choose from (though the latter too are far less likely). Hence since the nominees are going to be different, its somewhat like comparing apples to oranges.

I do agree that IGN's GOTY is pretty good. I like their overall coverage, and it falls in appropriate time of the year (in December/January, I think, after all the big holiday releases).

 The Game Developers Choice Awards me be later in 08 butI'm fairly sure that doesn't mean they will include 08 games.