Community MetaCouncil's PC Games of the Year Awards 2020 | Results

[Wok]

Out of curiosity, I have re-computed the rankings of the previous years (GotY 2018, GotY 2019, Game of the Decade) with the tie-breaker.

For the GotY 2018, PoE2 would have beaten Hitman 2, instead of tieing at rank 1:

1 | Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (appID: 26951, released on May 08, 2018)
2 | HITMAN 2 (appID: 103210, released on Nov 13, 2018)

For the Game of the Decade, DOS2 would have beaten Hollow Knight, instead of tieing at rank 5:

5 | Divinity: Original Sin II (appID: 11800, released on Sep 14, 2017)
6 | Hollow Knight (appID: 14593, released on Feb 24, 2017)

Except for these changes, we would have had the same rankings, i.e. other potential ties in the top 10 would have been left unchanged.

---

Here is a little recap of the MetaCouncil's GotY so far:

in 2018 (with a tie breaker)

in 2019

in 2020

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Thanks for the hard work, Wok !

I'm pleasantly surprised that Cyberpunk 2077 didn't get Turd of the Year! I guess it confirms that we are mainly a PC community as i'm sure places that are more console orientated would have it at #1 with no other game close to it's number of votes.

 

[Nabs]

I gotta get back to playing vidya games this year. Here's what I picked:

 

[Arulan]

The right game won!

Half-Life: Alyx was a very easy GOTY pick for me this year. You can really feel Valve's mastery of VR design and their iterative process coming from just about any other VR title. The little things like how interacting with a door should feel like to game-encompassing fundamentals like not having to bend down or walk towards every item you want to pick up -- the Grabbity Gloves. Even something as well-trodden as teleport movement has been given great attention to detail -- sounds effects for context, good visual indicators showing what you'll be performing, and sensible limitations. All of this rolls up into a package that feels effortless to interact with and cohesive.

This is also a proper Half-Life entry that lives up to its predecessors, which is a saying a lot.

Wok Thanks for putting this all together!

 

[Alextended]

Are you counting goty votes in the other categories, like if I voted something for goty then my ongoing game of the year something else and someone did it vice versa then I think they should get points in both categories, somehow... Ie whoever voted deep rock galactic as his goty clearly would like it to at least win in another category but since it was his goty he chose another for ongoing game (even though he could the same, but couldn't get runner ups elsewhere).

If I'm explaining myself. Ah well, it's okay.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

 

[Wok]

Are you counting goty votes in the other categories

No, there should not be much overlap between GotY and optional categories, except for VR (and for weird cases like Halo Collection).

For instance, when it comes to Deep Rock Galactic, the game should not be an ongoing game from the look of it, unless I am missing something. If it appears there, that is because I try not to enforce the rules too strictly, especially for the optional categories.

With GotY, the order of the choices matters. With optional categories, it is a simple sum of points, so, on average, errors should be ironed out by themselves. Edit: Assuming votes are independently cast.

It is a bit difficult to disqualify a game. For instance, I thought MCC would only appear as an ongoing game, so I disqualified it from GotY at first. With Deep Rock Galactic, the game was eligible for GotY, and I did not think about disqualifying it from Ongoing category. It might be eligible for Ongoing given that there are 2 votes, so people who know the game better than I do must have had a reasoning about their vote in this category.

 

[Alextended]

Why wouldn't it, it's gotten big updates past the out of early access launch, a dlc even, and is awaiting more stuff to come this year too. Or is ongoing game just for pure gaas like destiny 2 or crazy cases like NMS? I'm just saying. since I voted it for it for ongoing but see it's also got votes in the main goty category there.

Deep Rock Galactic - Biome change for Update 33 - Steam News

The previously announced Caustic Mire biome has been changed to the Hollow Bough biome. Read our reasoning in this post.

store.steampowered.com

Deep Rock Galactic - ROADMAP UPDATE - Steam News

Hello, Miners! Now that we're hopefully done hot-fixing Update 32, it is time to brief you on the upcoming updates for Deep Rock Galactic. In other words: a new revision of our Living Roadmap. When we launched into 1.0 back in May, we made a promise that we would keep supporting and developing...

store.steampowered.com

Deep Rock Galactic - Halloween Event - Steam News

Halloween is here! Jump in to claim the Horned Horror mask!

store.steampowered.com

Deep Rock Galactic - UPDATE 32: ROUGHNECKS AT WORK - Steam News

Our first major Post-Launch Update is now live! It smells of oil and heavy machinery! Skim the patch notes and try it out!

store.steampowered.com

Deep Rock Galactic - UPDATE 31: What Was Left Behind - Steam News

Hello Miners! It’s time for our first Post-Launch Update! And speaking of the launch - a hearty welcome to all the new miners! We hope you enjoy the game, and we want to give a big thank you to all the veteran miners who have been helping you learn the ins and outs of deep space mining since launch.

store.steampowered.com

Deep Rock Galactic - ROADMAP UPDATE - Steam News

Hello, Miners! ...What a launch! We were excited to the point of hysteria to see the game finally hit 1.0 - and seeing that big Steam Front Page banner in place was just amazing. Milestone Get! The launch has seen a lot of new players joining the Company Ranks, a ton of Regulars to help them get...

store.steampowered.com

 

[Wok]

I voted it for it for ongoing but see it's also got votes in the main goty category there.

In theory, there should be no overlap between goty and ongoing, because:

• goty: Any game fully released on PC in 2020 is eligible.
• ongoing: Any game fully released prior to 2020 which received content updates in 2020 is eligible.

However, as you have shown with deep rock (ex-EA released in version 1 in 2020), or as it is the case for Halo Collection, the frontier between the two categories can be blurrier than I thought.

It could be interesting, and doable to check for each game in the optional category how many times it appears in goty ballots cast by people who have not voted for it in the optional categories.

 

[Arulan]

I'm a little surprised to see little support for Phasmophobia. It was the surprise of the year for me. A very unique co-op horror game.

 

[Alextended]

Like a Dragon was robbed, where all these VR users here anyway >_>

 

[Wok]

I voted it for it for ongoing but see it's also got votes in the main goty category there.

After a quick Ctrl+F check, this would not change the results much: some of the people who voted for it in the optional category also voted for it in the main category.

Plus, it would boost potential mistakes or debatable votes.

In Best Ongoing:

• Cyberpunk would get many more votes,
• Control: Ultimate Edition would get +6 votes
• Factorio would get +5 votes
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection would get +1 vote
• Deep Rock Galactic would get +1 vote
• Monster Hunter: World - Iceborne would get +1 vote
• Gears 5 - Hivebusters would get +1 vote

In Best Early Access,

• Cyberpunk would get many more votes
• Risk of Rain 2 would get +2 votes
• Prodeus would get +1 vote
• Satisfactory would get +1 vote
• Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! would get +1 vote

So, I would have to manually remove Cyberpunk from best ongoing and best EA, because the aggregation of votes would have boosted the 1-person joke.

Then, there is the question of former exclusive games like Control. Most people treat it as a new release, but 1 person considered that it is an ongoing game. And maybe it can be both, with its "ultimate edition" tag. By aggregating votes, I would significantly boost the 1-person opinion, instead of averaging it out.

Similarly for Factorio and Deep Rock, both have been actually released in 2020, so their place would rather be in the Goty section (because full release would be version 1.0 released in 2020).

Overall:

• in every optional category, the first place would be awarded to the same game, at least this year,
• this would force me to perform more drastic checks, e.g. to avoid counting twice votes by people who cast the same ballot in goty and ongoing,
• this would force me to remove some entries, e.g. boosted jokes,

The more I have to edit votes, the more personal and debatable bias I add to the results. I am more in favor of errors/opinions being averaged out in optional categories. Otherwise, it would only require 1-2 people (the 1-person voter plus myself, and I could be both) to artificially boost Cyberpunk, Control or Factorio near the top of an optional category. Too much risk (error, bias, vote manipulation), with potential for drama, for zero reward. I would rather go with transparency and minimal intervention to correct/remove the very few and most obvious issues.

 

[Alextended]

What if next time you give the runner up choices to the lower than goty categories too, that should make everyone at least give a nod to some of the game games on both goty and whatever sub category they also fit in. But then that might make it so the same games win more awards, I dunno.

 

[Amzin]

I really don't understand the love for HL:A. It is a massive step backwards from HL2 and it has very shallow interactions compared to other existing VR games, certainly less than I'd expect from Valve. The only positives I had from it was the narrative (still love me some HL characters / world) and... that's about it. The graphics were fine but nothing beyond the pale.

I was hugely disappointed in DOOM: Eternal as well for their genre change to whatever DMC is, but that vote for turd of the year for Alyx is mine and I remain confident that it is not, in fact, exceptional. Alyx tries to capture the kind of "resident evil horror" element but doesn't really, it doesn't fit into actual FPS action at all with the way it plays out, and the puzzles are occasionally interesting but often just back-track fests from one room to another. Basically what should have been 2 world-class FPS sequels were made as not true FPS games.

 

[Wok]

What if next time you give the runner up choices to the lower than goty categories too, that should make everyone at least give a nod to some of the game games on both goty and whatever sub category they also fit in.

This would be possible.

Maybe for Best Ongoing game, as it is the optional category with the best poll turnout: 3 people out of 4 filled this entry, exactly the same percentage as for GOTY Choice n°4.

Poll turnout for Early Access, VR and Turd has been lower than for GOTY Choice n°5. People can have a hard time finding one candidate for these optional categories. So it would not make much sense to ask for several candidates if asking for one is already too much for most people.

There is also the possibility of giving more choices for the GotY category, as prudis suggested in the voting thread.
The tool which I use is tailored for the current format, but it can be adapted, as it was for the Game of the Decade last year with 10 choices.

So, maybe I could give 10 choices for GOTY, and 5 choices per optional category, and see a posteriori what the poll turnout for each choice is.
Edit: That being said, this should not change the top of the GOTY ranking. This should mostly help solve some ties which appear further in the GOTY ranking. So, maybe I should just give 5 choice to every category (goty and optional) and check a posteriori if people use their new optional choices. This would be the most simple and most minimal change to the current format.

 

[Durante]

I'm a little surprised to see little support for Phasmophobia. It was the surprise of the year for me. A very unique co-op horror game.

I can't speak for others of course, but for me it's simply that I didn't get to it yet. It's a co-op VR game, and the combination of those two requires some long-term planning

 

[Nzyme]

Forgot to check the results.
What a good list. Pretty much agree with everything. Got a few games I need to pick up and try for sure!

 

[Wok]

I had hoped we could compare the results with another forum's, but the results have not yet been released there. :emo:

 

[Swenhir]

I had hoped we could compare the results with another forum's, but the results have not yet been released there. :emo:

Which one?

I mean don't take it the wrong way, but I'm not sure what the goal of comparing tastes is .

 

[Wok]

I mean don't take it the wrong way, but I'm not sure what the goal of comparing tastes is .

Just out of curiosity.

Plus, it is a different electoral system: Schulze method is used here, and Borda count is used there.

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[EdwardTivrusky]

I was going to say but it's Console AAA land but yeah, there is a PC community over there still of course.

 

[Wok]

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[Wok]

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Edit:

Main category, matching games in the top 10 in the other forum to compare ranks

Optional categories, matching categories except for the T*rd and Surprise categories

 

[Mivey]

The only ranking that counts for me is the one at the Steam Thread, not any other.

Spoiler

 

[Wok]

To summarize:

• we have 7 common choices among the top 10, albeit ranked in a slightly different order, with important differences for:
  • our GOTY itself (Alyx) was #1 here and #6 there,
  • CKIII was #9 here and #2 there.
• for the top 10, they miss:
  • Persona 4 (which was #6 for us),
  • Death Stranding (which was #8 for us),
  • Monster Train (which was #10 for us),
• for the top 10, we miss:
  • Spiritfarer (which was #17 for us vs. #8 for them),
  • Spelunky 2 (which was #15 for us vs. #9 for them),
  • Streets of Rage 4 (which was #11 for us vs. #10 for them, so almost the same rank),
• we have the same choices for Ongoing Game and Virtual Reality,
• for Early Access, we have Teardown, and they have Grounded (which was #6 for us).

 

[Lashley]

Nice to see YLAD high on both lists