The GWJ 2007 GOTY Awards!

The votes are in and the goodjers have spoken. Here are the results for the 2007 Gamers With Jobs Community Game of the Year Awards!

Overall Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/Portal_Logo.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Bioshock
3. Team Fortress 2

------

PC Exclusive Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/WoWBC.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
3. The Witcher

------

Xbox 360 Exclusive Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/masseffect.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Crackdown
3. Halo 3

-----

Playstation 3 Exclusive Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/uncharted.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
3. Heavenly Sword

-----

Wii Exclusive Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/SuperMarioGalaxy.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Metroid Prime III
3. Mario Strikers Charged

-----

DS Exclusive Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/LOZPH.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Hotel Dusk
3. Picross

-----

PSP Exclusive Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/jeannedarc.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness

-----

Downloadable Game of the Year

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/peggle.jpg)

Runners Up:
2. Puzzle Quest
3. Settlers of Catan

-----

Most Insane Value in the History of Ever

IMAGE(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/Sinatar/Box%20Art/OrangeBox.jpg)

*Deserved special mention for holding 3 of the top 10 spots.

-----

There you have it. Great turnout this year, over twice as many responses as 2006. Here's the raw voting data for those who want it.

1. Portal 942
2. Bioshock 773
3. Team Fortress II 647
4. Mass Effect 393
5. Rock Band 362
6. Call of Duty IV 348
7. WoW: Burning Crusade 247
8. Super Mario Galaxy 235
9. Half Life 2: Episode II 232
10. Civ 4: Beyond the Sword 168

Crackdown 167
Halo III 165
The Witcher 142
Guitar Hero II 125
Peggle 123
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 113
Forza Motorsport II 112
Puzzle Quest 96
Assassin's Creed 91
World in Conflict 91
Lord of the Rings Online 82
Crysis 74
CoH: Opposing Fronts 62
Guitar Hero III 53
God of War II 51
Settlers of Catan 47
LoZ: The Phantom Hourglass 41
Dwarf Fortress 30
Command & Conquer III 29
Overlord 27
Hellgate London 27
Mount & Blade 25
Europa Universalis III 25
Jeanne d'Arc 24
Shadowrun 23
Persona III 23
NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer 23
Project Gotham Racing IV 22
Carcassonne 22
The Darkness 22
Sam & Max S1 21
Metroid Prime III 21
ET: Quake Wars 18
All Pro Football 2K8 17
TW: Medieval 2 Kingdoms 16
Supreme Commander 16
DiRT 15
Uncharted Drake's Fortune 15
Tomb Raider Anniversary 13
NHL '08 11
Ghost Recon: AW II 10
Metal Slug Anthology 10
Odin Sphere 10
Resident Evil 4 Waggle 10
BF2: Forgotten Hope II 9
Hotel Dusk 8
Pac-Man CE 8
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne 8
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves 7
Ratchet & Clank Future: TOD 7
Mario Strikers Charged 7
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 7
Unreal Tournament III 7
Tetris:No blood left in this stone 7
Lego Star Wars Complete 6
Picross 6
Aquaria 6
Jewel Quest 6
Ace Combat VI 6
Lost Planet 6
GW: Eye of the North 6
Blue Dragon 6
Disgaea PSP 6
Super Paper Mario 5
Brain Age II 5
Trackmania United 5
Armageddon Empires 5
College Hoops 2K8 5
Echalon Book 1 5
Conan 4
Depth of Peril 4
Heavenly Sword 4
Switchball 4
Desktop Tower Defense 4
Pokemon Whatever 4
Guitar Hero II 80's Boogaloo 4
Super Stardust HD 3
Etrian Odyssey 3
Battlestations Midway 3
Democracy II 3
Eternal Sonata 3
GC2: Dark Avatar 2
Call of Juarez 2
Rayman Raving Rabbits 2
Ageod's Napoleon's"… what? 2
Madden '08 1
Zack & Wiki 1
Fire Pro Wrestling 1

No real surprises, but no complaints on my end either. (Well, maybe a few, but they have more to do with what people have had the time to play vs. what I preferred). Good fun, it's cool to see what the goodjer consensus is, and I'm glad the Orange Box took the glory. We did this at another forum I frequent and almost none of the games I liked won.

Awesome work putting this together, Sinatar. I'll make sure some industry folks get the link

No big deal since they're runner ups but how did Halo3 beat out CoD4 in the 360 dept?

Not "exclusive"

Glad Bioshock got recognition (if not a top category slot), as it's become de rigueur to trash it in retrospect.

I gotta hand it to Valve. They beat the crap out of 2007...with value.

Hee hee. Crackdown beat HALO 3. Pwnt.

But I do cry foul on naming an expansion pack as GOTY.

ranalin wrote:

No big deal since they're runner ups but how did Halo3 beat out CoD4 in the 360 dept?

Key word: exclusive.

Civ 4 beat by WoW?

I'm suing for a recount!

You can expect papers from my lawer, J. Noble Daggett, any day now.

What I meant to say, was thanks for all the hard work in putting this together, its nifty to see the results

Deadron wrote:

Glad Bioshock got recognition (if not a top category slot), as it's become de rigueur to trash it in retrospect.

Isn't that the case for every highly praised game? Hell, I'm already hearing some people talk about how boring Portal was.

absurddoctor wrote:

Civ 4 beat my WoW?

Look a little closer.

7 of the top 10 came out on the PC. A shame PC gaming is dead.

This is nitpicky to the nth degree, but the 360 version of the Settlers of Catan board game is simply called Catan.

Also,

Sinatar wrote:
absurddoctor wrote:

Civ 4 beat my WoW?

Look a little closer.

That was a horrendous typo, "my" should be "by" and will be fixed shortly ;p

Thank God UT3 ended up with a few more votes than Call of Juarez.

kuddles wrote:
Deadron wrote:

Glad Bioshock got recognition (if not a top category slot), as it's become de rigueur to trash it in retrospect.

Isn't that the case for every highly praised game? Hell, I'm already hearing some people talk about how boring Portal was.

I think it's a combination of two social/internet phenomena:

1) People saying bad things are always more vocal than people saying good things
2) People think it's cool to hang on things that other people like

pneuman wrote:
kuddles wrote:
Deadron wrote:

Glad Bioshock got recognition (if not a top category slot), as it's become de rigueur to trash it in retrospect.

Isn't that the case for every highly praised game? Hell, I'm already hearing some people talk about how boring Portal was.

I think it's a combination of two social/internet phenomena:

1) People saying bad things are always more vocal than people saying good things
2) People think it's cool to hang on things that other people like

It's my impression that the backlash is more serious for BioShock than most games. As I've mentioned before, I've never heard a criticism of BioShock that I couldn't understand (well, except the person who found the game too hard), but I feel in trotting out the legitimate criticisms, people forgot the things that were really compelling about the game. In particular, while trashing the game for making the System Shock 2 mechanics too mainstream, people tend to gloss over how incredibly non-mainstream the background story was (and let's not minimize the incredible accomplishment of creating a million-plus seller using SS2 as the inspiration!).

It also seems like people forget in retrospect the ground-breaking nature of the Big Daddy/Little Sister relationship, and the concept of roaming boss battles.

As one reviewer mentioned at the time, the game had at least three great (and I'd say, unique) moments. How many games can claim that?

What's especially crazy to me is just how much disparity there is between the top 3 and the rest - there is a HUGE dropoff, after which things go down in a much more linear fashion. Just goes to show how much consensus there is on these top 3 picks.

Nice list, I noticed Halo 3 not winning anything too.

Zack & Wiki 1

Wasn't this supposed to be a great game and so on?

Anyway, I hope the developers appreciate the gold-plated Ferraris that the winners get.

Mex wrote:
Zack & Wiki 1

Wasn't this supposed to be a great game and so on?

Supposed to be. Probably would have fared better if there were more Wii owners. It's a game that's on my to-get list when I get a Wii.

Deadron wrote:

It's my impression that the backlash is more serious for BioShock than most games. As I've mentioned before, I've never heard a criticism of BioShock that I couldn't understand (well, except the person who found the game too hard), but I feel in trotting out the legitimate criticisms, people forgot the things that were really compelling about the game. In particular, while trashing the game for making the System Shock 2 mechanics too mainstream, people tend to gloss over how incredibly non-mainstream the background story was (and let's not minimize the incredible accomplishment of creating a million-plus seller using SS2 as the inspiration!).

I'd definitely agree with that -- there are a few legitimate gameplay issues that I can understand and even agree with myself, but none of them went anywhere near breaking the game for me. I was just talking to a mate of mine the other day though who basically said that he wanted back the hours of his life he wasted playing BioShock. He wasn't at all interested in the unique and brilliant setting, story or characters, so to him it was just another FPS with different textures on the walls and a few different weapons and some annoying niggles. For me, the game was all about learning more about Rapture, slowly piecing together its history, but he clearly had no interest in that, so apart from telling him "you're doing it wrong!" I really couldn't counter his arguments.

pneuman wrote:

...apart from telling him "you're doing it wrong!" I really couldn't counter his arguments.

But...but...that's an automatic win!

Just think what would have happened if Bioshock had subbed in for Episode 2 within The Orange Box. The Universe itself might have imploded.

Noooo.... Crackdown fell out of the top 10. Dang. At least it beat Halo 3, the inferior experience on the original Crackdown disc.

Also, kind of warms my heart that All Pro Football 2k8 beat out Uncharted. I don't think that will happen on any other list. So we APF2k8 fans will take our victories where we can get them. Although this says more about the AAA Blitz the 360 received than the quality of Uncharted vs. APF, I'm sure.

Great job, Sinitar. Thanks.

Not only did Crackdown get knocked out of the top 10, it got knocked out by 1 freaking point. This leads me to believe that it was a vast conspiracy of the goodjers to make me sad.

Great Work Sinatar, you did a great job as usual

I am surprised that HL2 Episode 2 was so high not that it was a bad game or anything but because it's basically an expansion though so is Civ IV BYS so it's all good great list everyone

DSGamer wrote:

Noooo.... Crackdown fell out of the top 10. Dang. At least it beat Halo 3, the inferior experience on the original Crackdown disc. :)

I was really happy to see it placed so highly. It's such a great game in so many ways, and I always felt that it was under appreciated. I assumed it wouldn't even make the list, and never thought it would beat Halo 3.

Sinatar wrote:

Not only did Crackdown get knocked out of the top 10, it got knocked out by 1 freaking point. This leads me to believe that it was a vast conspiracy of the goodjers to make me sad.

We did it, guys! We did it! I'll bring cake to the next meeting.

Lothar wrote:

I am surprised that HL2 Episode 2 was so high not that it was a bad game or anything but because it's basically an expansion though so is Civ IV BYS so it's all good great list everyone :D

I'm a bit surprised by the Episode 2 love as well. It was good but at six hours and with pretty established gameplay I can't say it was a major highlight for me this year.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Sinatar wrote:

Not only did Crackdown get knocked out of the top 10, it got knocked out by 1 freaking point. This leads me to believe that it was a vast conspiracy of the goodjers to make me sad.

We did it, guys! We did it! I'll bring cake to the next meeting.

Please assume the meeting submission position...

Quintin_Stone wrote:

We did it, guys! We did it! I'll bring cake to the next meeting.

...Cake?!

Oh, no... Cake is a LIE! He means to murder us all. Run while you can!