Despite some major upsets, 2018 has been an awesome year for gaming with fantastic games. But Metarama’s GotY isn’t about popularity or quality, it’s about impacting the Meta.
Honorable Mentions for the Indie Sprites.
Celeste become a popular pick for game critics resulting in a GotY nomination by The Game Awards (TheGameAwards.com). Meanwhile, Dead Cells (Metacritic.com) and Undertale (Metacritic.com) gained popularity with both critics and gamers. These games demonstrated that the industry isn’t just for the AAAs.
Strong Contenders: The PS4 Exclusives.
PlayStation rode a wave of glory with its beautiful and popular exclusives (GameSpot.com). God of War won GotY from The Game Awards (TheGameAwards.com) and Metarama’s impromptu Facebook polls (Metarama.info). Detroit: Become Human hit a cultural nerve, but it’s still so lovable (Polygon.com). Meanwhile, Spider-Man’s photomode flooded the Meta (WashingtonPost.com).
Serious Contenders: Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Red Dead Redemption 2.
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Super Smash Brothers Ultimate was a late 2018 release, but it’s been more than enough time to impact the Meta (USGamer.net). And at this rate, it may be Metarama’s 2019 Game of the Year depending on how well it does in eSports.
Rockstar is known for controversial games, and Red Dead Redemption did not disappoint! While it was praised for its compelling story and historical accuracy (ING.com), it was criticized for enabling virtual hate crimes (TheGuardian.com) and a greedy online economy (ScreenRant.com). Plus, Rockstar was criticized for overworking developers while trying to reach the release deadline (Polygon.com).
Metarama’s “Game of the Year” is NOT an award!
Before continuing, please remember that the Metarama’s GotY is not necessary an award or an honor. This GotY is about which game had the most impact on the overall gaming industry. While we all hope that every game will have a positive influence, some games cause serious disruptions in the industry.
Unfortunate Contenders: Destiny 2 and Fallout 76.
Destiny 2 failed to live up to player expectations with its first two expansions (USGamer.net). And while its third expansion received great reviews, it just wasn’t enough to bring back the scorned players (GameSpot.com). Then, for those who still stood by Destiny 2, the game developers once again scorned their player base with the frustrating Black Armory non-expansion expansion that was too challenging for even the best players (Forbes.com).
But for all of Bungie’s mistakes, nothing compares to Bethesda’s Fallout 76 disaster (Forbes.com).
What’s that game that all the kids are playing?
“My nephew has been playing this game online… I forgot the name…”
“Fortnite.”
“Yeah! That’s it! How did you know?”
It’s Fortnite. The answer is almost always Fortnite. 2018 was just totally dominated by Fortnite (NBCnews.com). Beyond its incredible popularity, Fortnite broke the PlayStation cross-play wall (Forbes.com) and is now impacting our copyright laws as various lawsuits go to court over the paid in-game dances (Billboard.com).
Let’s not forget about Ninja! For the first time, ESPN featured a gamer on its front cover (Fortune.com). Because of Fortnite, Tyler “Ninja” Belvins introduced the world to a new kind of celebrity – the streamer (PCGamer.com).