You've been there. It’s December, the lights are flashy, Geoff Keighley is on stage, and suddenly your favorite indie gem—the one you spent 80 hours on—loses to a massive AAA sequel that felt like more of the same. You head to social media. Everyone is screaming. The phrase "rigged" starts trending. But honestly, game awards nominees voting isn't some smoky backroom conspiracy involving briefcases full of cash. It is, however, a deeply weird, bureaucratic, and often frustrating process that most players don't actually understand.
People think it's a simple popular vote. It isn't. Not even close. If it were a pure popularity contest, Minecraft or Fortnite would win Game of the Year every single time until the sun burns out. Instead, we have this friction between "the critics" and "the fans." It’s a gap that seems to get wider every year.
The Jury System: Who Is Actually Casting the Ballots?
Most people assume the big shows like The Game Awards or the BAFTAs just have a few guys in a room picking winners. Actually, for The Game Awards, the game awards nominees voting starts with a massive jury of over 100 global media and influencer outlets. We're talking about publications like IGN, GameSpot, Eurogamer, and even non-gaming giants like the Los Angeles Times.
Each outlet submits a ballot. They list their top choices in each category. The organizers then tally these up to see who gets the most mentions. Those top five or six become the nominees. It’s basically a massive aggregation of professional opinions.
📖 Related: Game On Play On: Why This Mobile Gaming Philosophy is Changing How We Relax
Is it fair? Well, sort of. But think about the logistics. Most reviewers are drowning in games. They might have played 50 titles that year, but did they finish the 100-hour JRPG that came out in November? Probably not. This creates a natural bias toward games that are "buzzy" or easy to pick up and play. If a game doesn't get a review code sent to every major outlet, its chances of even showing up in the game awards nominees voting phase are basically zero.
Then you have the "weighted" voting. At The Game Awards, the jury's vote counts for 90% of the final result. The fan vote? That’s the remaining 10%. It’s a bitter pill for many, but the organizers argue this prevents "botting." If it were 100% fan-led, a dedicated Discord server for a specific fandom could easily tilt the scales. We saw this with the "Players' Voice" category where Genshin Impact and Sonic Frontiers fans went to war. It was chaos. Total madness.
Why Some Years Feel "Wrong"
Take 2020. The Last of Us Part II swept almost everything. For a huge chunk of the internet, this was a disaster. For critics, it was a technical and narrative masterpiece. The game awards nominees voting reflected that divide perfectly. Critics look at things like motion capture quality, pacing, and industry "bravery." Players often care more about "fun factor" or whether the story went the way they wanted.
Then there's the "Release Window Curse." Games released in February or March often get forgotten by the time November rolls around. Elden Ring managed to break that curse, but many others don't. Recency bias is a massive factor in how these ballots are filled out. If a jury member played a game ten months ago, they might have a fuzzy, positive memory of it, but the game they finished last week is the one they'll actually write down.
The Indie Struggle and Category Fraud
Wait, why is that $40 game in the "Indie" category? This is the biggest debate in game awards nominees voting right now. Look at Dave the Diver. It was nominated for Best Independent Game despite being developed by Mintrocket, a sub-brand of Nexon—a multi-billion dollar corporation.
The industry doesn't have a strict definition of "indie." Is it about the budget? The team size? The spirit of the game? This ambiguity makes the voting process feel inconsistent. When a "faux-indie" with a massive marketing budget competes against a three-person team working out of a garage, the outcome is usually predictable. It sucks. It really does.
Breaking Down the Ballot Tallying
- Phase One: Nominations. Outlets list their top picks. No guidance is given other than the category definitions.
- Phase Two: The Finalists. The most-voted games are announced.
- Phase Three: Final Voting. The jury and the public vote on the specific list.
- Phase Four: Tallying. The 90/10 split is applied.
It’s a rigid structure. You can’t just write in a game at the last second. If a game comes out in mid-December, it usually misses the cutoff entirely and has to wait until the next year, by which point everyone has moved on to the next big thing.
The Golden Joysticks and the BAFTAs: Different Flavors of Voting
If you hate the 90/10 split at The Game Awards, you might prefer the Golden Joystick Awards. They are primarily driven by public voting. It’s a completely different vibe. You’ll see more "mainstream" hits winning there because that’s what people are actually playing.
Then there’s the BAFTA Games Awards. These are the "fancy" ones. The voting is done by members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. It’s a peer-based system, similar to the Oscars. Developers voting for other developers. This usually results in more "artistic" choices winning big. A game like Before Your Eyes, which uses your actual eye-blinking as a mechanic, might win a BAFTA but struggle to get a look-in at a more commercial show.
How to Make Your Vote Actually Count
You might feel like your 10% contribution to the fan vote is pointless. It's not. While it might not flip the "Game of the Year" winner if the critics are unanimous, it heavily influences the smaller categories. Best Community Support, Best Debut Indie, and the specialized "impact" awards are often much closer than you'd think.
Also, the "Players' Voice" at The Game Awards is 100% fan-voted. That is the one place where the "people" have total control. If you want to send a message to the industry, that’s where you do it.
Actionable Steps for the Next Awards Season
- Check the Cutoff Date: Don't get mad when a December release isn't nominated. It literally isn't eligible yet. Check the official site for the eligibility window—usually, it’s mid-November of the previous year to mid-November of the current year.
- Diversify Your Following: If you only follow one or two big gaming sites, you're only seeing one "vote." Look at what the smaller, niche juries are saying to get a feel for the "hidden" contenders.
- Vote Early: Most fan voting windows are short. Sometimes only a week or two. Set a calendar alert for mid-November.
- Look Beyond GOTY: The most interesting game awards nominees voting usually happens in categories like "Games for Impact" or "Best Narrative." These are often where the real innovation is recognized.
- Support the Devs Directly: If your favorite game loses, don't just rage. Go buy a copy for a friend or write a positive Steam review. That actually helps the studio more than a trophy ever will.
The reality of game awards nominees voting is that it's an imperfect system trying to quantify art. It’s messy, it’s biased, and it’s heavily influenced by marketing budgets and release dates. But it’s also the one night a year where the whole industry stops to look at how far the medium has come. Even if the "wrong" game wins, the fact that we're arguing about it means we actually care. And in a world of endless, disposable content, caring about the "best" version of something is actually kind of cool.
Next time the nominees are announced, look at the jury list. See who's representing your region. If you don't like the results, engage with those outlets. Ask them why they voted the way they did. The more transparency we demand from the voting outlets, the better the process becomes for everyone involved.