The Players' Voice award nominees have finally been narrowed down to 5 games, and one of them could be called a regular at this point.
The Game Awards never fail to impress with how much drama they produce every year! We already got a small appetizer with Dave the Diver being nominated for Best Independent Game, despite not being an indie game by any stretch of the definition. And now the Players' Voice award is fueling the fire even more: Its list of nominees has been narrowed down to just 5 choices, and you might recognize one of them from last year:
The final 5 nominees for Players' Voice at #TheGameAwards on Thursday:- Baldur's Gate 3- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty- Genshin Impact- Marvel's Spider-Man 2- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Vote now to pick the winner (fans 100% decide): https://t.co/nxnogzsAdO pic.twitter.com/c6U3Ex9dJF
— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 4, 2023
In case you're not familiar with the Players' Voice award, think of it as a pure popularity contest. In the first voting phase, people can nominate any game they like on the Game Awards website, then in the second phase the five most frequently named games are officially nominated. Whichever one of them receives the most community votes before the show starts gets the award!
The Great Genshin Debacle: Act 2
You probably don't need me to tell you how this kind of popularity contest can lead to a lot of people getting very mad on the internet very quickly. Last year's Players' Choice voting period was plagued by community infighting, vote manipulation and rampant botting. The overall award winner, Genshin Impact, was even accused of swaying votes with implied in-game currency rewards! Basically, it was a giant mess.
So seeing Genshin here is giving me some déjà vu. Even the community reactions are similar this year:
"fans 100% decide" genshin players we're so getting that primogems https://t.co/ay4oNcQhM6 pic.twitter.com/9XheaUHawV
— ciri (@cirillatwt) December 4, 2023
miHoYo could become the one true world power and control entire countries on a global scale if Genshin Impact players thought they would get 10 primogems out of it. https://t.co/Ovi3dJUmX4
— Ultima (@UltimaShadowX) December 4, 2023
I don't care who wins, I just need Genshin to lose
— Heart of Existence(WELCOME TO THE NEW ERA) (@RealitiesCore) December 4, 2023
You could look at this from two angles. One is that Genshin already won the award last year and shouldn't be allowed to be nominated twice, and that the promise of in-game currency in exchange for votes destroys any legitimacy the award may have had. The other is that the award was meaningless in the first place and if Genshin wins, at least its players get some kind of benefit from it.
My take on it? Oh, I'm not invested in the whole thing either way, but it will be hilarious watching a corner of the internet burn down over it! Better remember to buy some extra popcorn before the show on December 7.