THOUGHTS: The Game Awards appears to have bent the rules this year (site updated Nov 15 according to Wayback Machine) to include Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree in the Game of the Year category nominees, when last year, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was snubbed, despite being superior in every way, and transformative to the main game🚀 I’m genuinely tired of From Software exceptionalism. They create the exact same game every few years, an a dated engine, clunky animations and inferior visuals (save for art direction) and they are given their annual token and praise. Meanwhile, other studios grovel to create something unique and original and superior in every aspect from gameplay to visuals to performance, and yet they are snubbed because they haven’t been deemed “cool” enough to earn that exceptionalism. This isn’t hatred on the games. I played and platinumed Elden Ring, and I liked it, but as a GOTY winner, an expansion has no place being considered a “game” when it cannot even be accessed as a standalone experience, or even from the start of the game. Players are also not excused from this hypocrisy when every time a remake is talked about, it gets discredited as “just another remake” or “just the same game” when it’s actually a meticulously crafted ground-up creation or a classic, that can very much be considered a new game, instead of an expansion, or even a new game that basically copies the same formula of its predecessors 🎤