@sales

Someone from the Shane Satterfield school of thought, eh? I can't agree with that because it's not "Best effort of the year" which would probably go to some team that made a crappy game but worked day and night trying to get it ready for launch. Basing Game of the Year off development funding would be to me a disgusting move of commercialism over the actual quality of the product. You're right that it sucks for all those big teams that a smaller team made a more critically acclaimed game using a smaller budget, but in the end don't you think there are lots of teams that aren't on that goty list that feel slighted? Picking based off what will disappoint the least people is just ridiculous, and it completely undermines the effort of the people behind a game like Journey.

@Ghetto

What's your cut off out of curiosity? Games are much more variable than movies or songs so if you go down this road of picking something based on the hours of quality gameplay shouldn't an MMO be the winner every time? Isn't Dishonored with it's 6-8 hours of gameplay winning an insult to something like Xenoblade that was great for 40-50 hours? Why does the multiplayer for Halo 4 add value to it, but Journey's multiplayer doesn't for it? I know lots of people who have played through it again and again because of that multiplayer aspect. Basically, you can't arbitrarily decide on a number of hours a game has to be to be able to win GotY, if the reviewers came away loving that game more then anything else that released this year than it's what should win.

OT: Journey has a 94 on meta, one of the highest of the year, so I guess I'd say I'm shocked at the shock some people are showing at it's nomination for GotY. If GotY is supposed to mean anything it should not have arbitrary cutoff points for the length a game has to be to qualify, it shouldn't take things outside the game quality into account like developer effort, it should just look at what the judges loved playing the most this year. If that's Journey then it should win, if it's not something else should win, but I'm glad to see that downloadable games are finally in the running.

Journey is the clear winner here.

No.  I think it's a great game but I don't even think it should be on the GoTY list, but Im not here to say what I think and what I shouldn't think should be nominated.  I just want to know what the people on vgchartz wants to win and why.  Nobody is really justifying why, but the poll has been predictable on here as usual.  

Well, in last VGChartz poll, seems most people also think that Journey is Game of the Year:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=150769

And, it would be really silly if any critic out there would say that certain movie does not deserve even to be nominated for Oscar cause it doesn't have blockbuster budget, but it seems that's fine in video game industry (and yes, Shane was a real tool on this topic in last IW, glad Marcus got him pinned down to the wall for most of debate)

Borderlands 2 .

...wut. Ive been playing this game a lot lately (been playing a no kill run and a kill a lot of stuff run side by side) and in each of these playthroughs, I am likely at about 8 hours each and I'm barely into the game. according to How Long to Beat, it usually takes about 13 hours to beat

Theres a big difference between that and the two hours it takes to beat Journey. I am in the boat that a two hour game doesn't deserve to win GOTY. It can be a good game but there a better games that have more of a lasting effect. Thats why short films are nominated in a separate category than full movies. It just doesn't make sense to give a 5minute movie an award when it is competing with a 2hour movie. This in no way undermines the quality of the game but I just cant see it as the best the video game world has to offer.

Actually Journey has a 92.  And since you are defending it let me ask, do you think if it was a $60 game and exactly the same as it is now, do you think it's scores would have been so high? No, it would not it would be low 80's because the length of the game.  You played 3 hours of joruney I played 50+ in Halo 4 so far, 30+ in Mass Effect 3, 30+ in Borderlans 2 etc and that is because I enjoyed those games.  For you to play as many hours as I did on Halo 4 you would have to play Jouney 17 times.....There is a reason this year has been controversial as it is on VGA.  You wont be seeing these games be nominated as much from other places. And I also want to add if Halo 4 was vice versa and was $15 with all the content it has then it's metacritic would be high 90's

And of course Journey will win on a heavily dominated Sony site but It is highly doubtful that it'll win at VGA.

actually I saw it on Bonus Round, do they at least argue it out on Invisible Walls or do they all just let it slide?  Because that drove me crazy on Bonus Round.  

Crud, knew I shoulda looked it up, that was just a stab in the dark based on how long the game had been taking me so far.  Luckily it's not the main point of my argument so meh.  

@Jay as well,

sure you got a lot of hours of fun out of those games, but others got more fun out of other games.  Why doesn't Disgaea win every goty since it gives people 100's of hours of shit to do?  It's because length hasn't been an issue before now.  God of War got nominated before and noone bats an eye, but if 7-8 hours is ok for 60 bucks why isn't 2 hours ok for 15?  Again, length of the game should not be the bulk of your consideration because that would be a different award like "best value of 2012" instead of best game.  If the reviewers loved Journey more than it should win, simple as that.

@Jay alone,

Journey wouldn't have that high of a meta if it were higher priced, but then again ME3 would be a lower meta if it weren't appropriately priced as well so what's it matter.  If what people pay for a game is the main consideration for goty then why are we even arguing about what should win?  Let's just take the game the most people paid the most for this year: World of Warcraft, and it shall be the winner until something else comes out with a similar pricing scheme.

It's not "best retail" or "best 60 dollar game", it's just best game.  And I'd be willing to bet you're wrong about it not showing up on other sites' goty nomination list.  I'd put down a month of avatar control assuming you can figure out terms that seem reasonable.  

Watch IW, pretty much eveyone was against Shane, specially Marcus.