travo said:

All this talk makes me want to play it, but I don't wanna she'll out the money

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I want to play Journey. I'm sure it has merit. But picking it over some of the other games that came out this year is clearly just a way to get attention for IGN.

I listen to IGN's Playstation podcast weekly and those guys were way more passionate about other games this year.  This seems like a contrieved move.

Pissing of Robio and Vader to such a high degree is worthy of GOTY IMO.

gamingeek said:

No love for Xenoblade? At least TIME had it at 2 or something

Too bloated.

Journey --DOES-- deserve GOTY mentions, if not THE GOTY awards.

What other games this year offered such unique and never before seen concepts?

IF you get behind the idea, it offers the kind of connection to another or other players not seen anywhere else. You are dropped into a lonely world with no clues as to what to do. You can wander for a while and not even come across another player, so you kinda fumble in the dark. When you meet another person, either they will help you proceed --or-- you will learn together. It goes from a lonely experience to a shared experience. There's no fighting, there's not competing, there's no losing. It's just you and another person sharing a walk together, unraveling minor mysteries of the world into which you are dropped. If you work together (you can help each other climb faster and quicker) you will progress that much faster. You can be separated and go back to your lonely existence. You can find each other again and the typical response is singing a short happy tune, or running around each other happily. In this game, you just appreciate someone else JUST being there. You don't want to kill them. You don't try to beat them. You are just happy they are there. NO other game offers that intimate connection.

If you play the game and then return, you'll often come across someone playing it for the first time, then YOU become their guide. You experience their Journey through their eyes as if it were your fist time again too. It's like teaching your child how to play a Mario game and feeling that feeling of pride when they succeed, or having them remind you of the first time YOU played by their curious actions.

• Everyone has moments in their life when they feel alone. This game reminds you of that.
• Everyone has monents in their life when they feel that exhilartion of a new friend or new wonders. This game reminds you of that.
• Everyone has moments in their life when they find themselves alone again, missing their friends and past experiences. This game reminds you of those.
• That smile that comes across your face involuntarily when you see an old friend again. Yup. In there.
• When you sit back and reminisce about your life, you inevitably think of the people you shared it WITH. This game does that.

Yes, it's a metaphor for life. Yes, if you aren't expecting that or accepting of that, you can find it cheesy, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do and does it unlike any other game this year, and that's why it deserves to be recognized.

It's not the Shooter of the Year.

It's not the Platformer of the Year.

It's not the Action Game of the Year.

It's not a specific ANYTHING of the Year. If, by it's simplest definition, a Game is something you just PLAY with someone else and Journey is a game in which you just PLAY... then it is the Game of the Year. It may not be better than anything else by THEIR definitions, but on it's own, there's NOTHING else like it. Everything else nominated has been done before. It's not MY GOTY, but I do agree with it being a whole heck of a lot of other people's.

Dvader said:

Ohh I had some nerd rage over Journey winning IGN GOTY. You can read most of it at GS. I wish we had a podcast coming up soon cause I can go on a big rant.

I would join that podcast. I'd even stay up late for it.

Updated. Waiting for Vader...