Honestly, I always feel that for many publications GOTY often goes to the biggest 'mature' production and not necesarilly the best game. These games tend to be generally widely accepted and publications avoid a plethora of responses like 'Mario iS 4 KiDsz and st00pid' (exaggerating a bit). A lot of it has to do with initial cultural impact and widespread acceptance.

Although they are all good games, I think we'll find that some who apparantly didn't win as many GOTYs eventually wind up as long lasting classics high up on all-time lists. Super Mario Galaxy is for example often named game of the generation despite not wining most GOTY awards.

Metascore, GOTYs.. Personally I tend to judge the true quality of a game in the end by how well it ages, whether that's 2 years later or 10 years later. For me it all depends on how good the underlying core or 'mechanisms' still are (this includes things like level design, controls and story) not so much how impressive the graphics were or how cool this new gimmick was.

If it had a low meta/userscore it wouldn't be overrated. Besides, metacritic is pointless. I've always found that Naughty Dog makes Hollywood rip-offs, they haven't done an original thing in years (narrative and gameplay wise). Aren't PS fans always bitching about how useless userscores are anyway? And I fail to see how my opinion about something as subjective as taste can be wrong, but eh, whatever rows your boat. The Last of Us has some of the worst immersion breaking enemy/ally AI I've ever witnessed in a modern game (not counting shovelware/trash). And that's bad in a game that tries to be realistic. It takes you out of the experience. For the same reason I can't take Uncharted serious, Nathan Drake would be the biggest serial killer/mass murderer in the world if any of it was true. I don't have that problem with, for example, Mario taking out harmless looking enemies like koopas because Mario is supposed to make no sense and be silly.

My game of the year this year is Super Mario Maker (especially after the free updates), but we all know a kiddy 2D platformer can't win such awards.

LIFE IS STRANGE getting 5th position after the 4 AAA games, well deserved! Although in my opinion it's was the GOTY for me, what an experience.

Exactly what I meant.  Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, while a great game was not better than Fire Emblem, but more people played it and it won Gamespot game of the year.    Metacritic has an average score and likewise has more than 1 reviewer's input.  So your point on 1 person at a publication is refuted (sorry if I sound condescending).

Speak for yourself, I think A Link Between Worlds is a lot better than Awakening. Fates looks like it will be better too, but I have to play that first.

Discussions like this always end up entertaining. There are always justifications people make up about why their own favorite didn't win as many GOTY awards or they call those that won more awards "overrated". It's like a Butthurt Festival.

All because a relatively tiny group of people collectively liked one game a bit more than any other game.

Ah, the classic "I'm above everyone else, look how cool I am post". You're pretty much saying nothing can ever be over- or underrated. And I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to call members of this site butthurt.

"Overrated" is often a justification for people who are pouting over the fact that something they like got overshadowed.  This is especially true when that "overrated" game is acclaimed both critically and commercially.  Calling it overrated is like saying, "well, they didn't really enjoy it all that much, they just thought they did."  That's generally nonsense.  When someone really pounds on the "overrated" button, there is often some sense of insecurity involved.

There are a lot of games I don't like.  Do I mount a soapbox and proclaim them overrated?  No, I just consider them "games I don't like very much."  For instance, there are people who like jumping simulators, which bore me to sleep, especially when the characters are cardboard cutouts that generate the emotional attachment of a wet twinkie.  However, it doesn't bother me in the slightest that other people like these games.  People are different, therefore what they like is often different.

But, hey, feel free to tell us about how these different games that you don't like are overrated and how the games you do like should win more GOTY awards.  I'm sure there are many people who find that to be a mature response.

The real GOTY of 2013 (the masterpiece Zelda A Link between worlds) got robbed

Do you even know what simple terms like under- and overrated mean? If TLOU wasn't critically acclaimed or commercially succesful I couldn't call it overated. A game can be good and still be overrated, take Ocarina of Time for example. It seems you're the only one who's insecure here if you can't accept the opinion of someone who thinks a game you like is overrated (which ironically proves, imo, that TLOU is overrated). I've seen plenty of ND fans call games like Tomb Raider shit on the internet even though they'd praise the exact same game if it was made by their lord and saviour. No wonder I think ND is overrated.

All I'm saying is that TLOU belongs in the "I am Legends quality category" and not the "nobel prize for literature quality category" as some people on the internet would have you believe. The fact that every GOTY winner on that list is a serious "mature" game is quite telling. No, it's not very mature to only like "mature" stuff and being ashamed of liking "childish" things. These GOTY awards pretend to speak for the entire gaming community while they only speak for a small group of people who probably take themselves too seriously.