I never understood the concept of GOTY awards. To me it is kind of a pointless accolade since so many games can get it from so many different publications. Yes, certain games tend to grab a lot of them, but there is still the fact that there currently is no video game equivalent of the Oscar's. There is only one "best picture," but there are many GOTY games each year.
Typically when someone mentions a GOTY I assume they are referring to their own personal GOTY since someone could just as easily call another game GOTY ... when so many games receive the same award it looses its value and becomes almost like the participation ribbon they gave you for sports and ect. no matter how good or bad your performance was. I would much rather have a single recognized high profile event like the Oscar's where a single game is seen as the pinnacle of gaming achievment each year, and people can argue and debate over it just like with best picture winners.
Without a single award what is to stop someone from just starting up a game review website and awarding GOTY to whatever arbitrary title they can find? You could even have Sesame Street's Once Upon a Monster as GOTY lol.
