Yeah, thats the one.Hope they keep to one name, its really confusing the constant name changes(Yeah, I know its because it got off Spike hands to Geoff, but still)

But no, there are no votes from publishers, but only from major publication sites, like IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, etc.This is why I personally consider it the "Oscars" of the Videogame industry.Its the one award that gets closer to what we can call a concenssus.Its like the metacritic discussion.Metacritic is a conglomerate of opinions that gives a score to a game.Wether  you will like the game or not its up to you, because after all tastes are unique to each one, but we need a point of comparison in discussions to have some ground for arguments, and picking metacritic as a general concenssus for which game is considered a better game or at least one that does thing better is the closest thing we will get to it, otherwise we will be stuck eternally on the "I dont agree with you and you are wrong because thats just your opinion" argument and discussion will never go foward.

The same can be applied to TGA and GOTY in general.TGA is the only one that gives awards based on the concenssus of several critics from several media outlets, and the major ones at that, so I think its the more "objective" of all awards, as objective as opinions can be.Wether you agree with the decisions they make or not its up to you(and wether you enjoy the games they choose its also up to you.After all, a review or wether a game is worthy of a award is basedon opinions), but when we discuss with others about those kind of subjects, a point of comparison needs to be estabilished.And TGA as the best GOTY giver is a reasonable pick.

The big publishers decide who votes on the awards, which is more influence than I'm comfortable with.

I also don't see how how you can qualify the best opinion.  And why do we need a point of comparison for this?  Why give a small handful of people more authority than anyone else?  No, I consider it just one of many "Game of the Year" awards.  It holds no special place.

Source?

And I didnt say that their opinion needs to be your opinion.I just meant that, in a discussion, if there is not one GOTY award giver that we consider to be the "judge"(Adding all the GOTY to see who gets more could also be a good choice), otherwise there will be no discussion.People will just name the website that fits either their agenda or simply list the one they like and we will never reach conclusions, or a concenssus.There are gotta be rules, so that discussions can be made.

Having said that, it dosent need to become your opinion.GTA is an excellent franchise, I can admit that, but I hate it.Actually, I dont like Rockstar.They dont develop games I like.But I can agree that they are an excellent developer because they make exceptional games, just not ones to my taste.Thats basically the same idea with the awards.You may not agree with whoever wins, but there is surely a reason they get such a award.

"The Game Awards has an advisory committee which includes representatives from hardware manufactures Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and AMD, and software publishers Electronic Arts, Activision, Rockstar Games, Telltale Games, Ubisoft, Valve, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. This committee selects around thirty influential video game news organizations that will be able to nominate and subsequently vote on the video games in several categories."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_Awards

Of course there can be discussion, the OP just has to be specific.  "Who will win TGA GotY," for example, or using the link Boutros provided, "who will win the most GotY awards."

The problem is that its hard to everyone really agree on one game when there is no clear "winner", a game that has outdone every other game.And therein comes alot of those opinions that are not agreeing with the awards.That is good and bad on its own.Bad because its been awhile that we dont get a game on the level of, lets say OOT, so that everyone can agree upon that is the best game and whatnot.On the other hand, that just means that we are getting too many excellent games and people are torn betwenn those games to really choose just one.

But thats how awards goes.I bet that not everyone agrees with the Oscars awards too.In the end, its all just good fun!

Well said! That's definitely a thought I like to contemplate with. Though sometimes some feel there are more obvious tidbits like what is unique of the two? What has the better execution and many other factors. For example I felt like Overwatch won based on popularity, not quality. It's a high quality game don't get me wrong, but is it Uncharted 4 level of quality and polish?

SegataSanshiro said:

. Bioware has been trash since ME3 so I doubt they are winning awards anytime soon.