Video game

Geoff Keighley is the nicest power player in video games – Inverse


Keighley’s critics still point out that he has enormous influence over which games are showcased before an audience of millions, and consternation about the objectivity of The Game Awards also touches on the fan vote, which counts for only 10 percent of the overall result.

“A pure fan vote introduces some challenges,” Keighley tells me when I ask if he’s thought of raising the percentage. A popular vote could overlook indie games. And aggressive social media campaigns can create a tidal wave of votes for a particular title. “We think it’s a good balance between the global jury of 80 media outlets voting but also giving fans an opportunity to shape that. Especially in a year like this, where it’s kind of anyone’s game in terms of what’s going to win, the fan vote can actually be really, really important.”

Since speaking with Inverse, Keighley has added a new category for The Game Awards that’s exclusively determined by fan voting. He rolled out the Player’s Voice vote on Twitter on December 9. Over three days, members of the public can vote online via Facebook or Twitter for their picks among 24 of the year’s most popular games.

How The Game Awards winners are chosen

Here’s how the voting works for the other 29 categories: Several weeks ahead of the ceremony, the lengthy Game Awards ballot goes out via email to those 80 global media outlets. Each outlet names up to five choices per category (the ranking doesn’t matter) and the top vote-getter takes the honors.

Seventeen of those judges are based in the United States — Keighley said that figure will “probably decrease a little bit” in the next year or so “just because there are fewer outlets.” It’s an eclectic mix of legacy publications, like the The Los Angeles Times and Newsweek, and geek-niche news sources. Leading games outlets like IGN and Polygon are among the US judges, yet Kotaku, widely recognized as a leading voice in the space, is conspicuously absent.

According to Keighley, Kotaku has been asked to participate and chose not to. “They had some challenges with getting access to games. For one, publishers wouldn’t send them content. As such, they weren’t able to play things in time for the ballot. That’s why they sort of bowed out.”

(Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo confirmed to Inverse that this was accurate.)





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