Death Stranding Nominations at The Game Awards Raise Conflict of Interest Concerns

Geoff Keighley's involvement in Death Stranding has left many fans somewhat uneasy after the title received so many nominations at this year's show.

[MasterCornholio]

"If you’re unaware of the voting process at The Game Awards, the nominees and eventual winners are selected by a panel comprised of 80 media outlets from around the globe. The general public can then also contribute and vote for each category as well, but their collective votes only make up 10% of the final count. No outside influences, such as Keighley, have any role in the voting, otherwise. You can read more about this on The Game Awards website if you’re interested."

Hmm that's interesting. I thought the general public would have a much larger impact with the votes.

[Redrex7000]

so... its useless then?

[MasterCornholio]

I wouldn't say useless because if the votes are pretty close between the games the public can still make a difference.

But I do agree that 10% is pretty small and it should be much bigger than that.

[TK-66]

At best, the influence that viewers can have is as a tie-breaker.

"If you’re unaware of the voting process at The Game Awards, the nominees and eventual winners are selected by a panel comprised of 80 media outlets from around the globe."

I love how this in no way actually explains the process. It just makes me have more questions.

[rainslacker]

What's confusing about it? 80 media outlets vote on who they think should win, and the one with the most votes wins. If two games are close in number of votes, the public votes act as a tie breaker. It's how most major respected award shows do their awards, although the voting committee is sometimes made of different groups of people as opposed to media, and many dont have public voting at all.

[TGGJustin]

It's no more a conflict of interest than any other nominated game any year. Geoff doesn't vote so he has no say in the matter. I've also seen some people bringing up the fact that Kojima is on the board or something but then so are people from Sony, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft etc. So Kojima is no more a conflict than any of those other people. Death Stranding haters just want to have anything to point towards that they can if the game does win.

[Obscure_Observer]

Death Stranding is surround in so much controversy that I really don´t know whats goin to be of the VGA if somehow this game win the GOTY prize!

Most reviewers who gave this game a perfect score, points out flaws and yet, gave it a perfect score anyway. I mean, WTF?
Hirokazu Hamamura which describes himself as a "Famitsu Group Representative", says in-game to Sam: “You’ll surely get in the Hall of Fame”. Hall of Fame is a category for an elite of games that got a perfect score from Famitsu. Next, the game got a perfect score from Famitsu.
Games that score better on Metacritic were left out!
Too many nominations.

I don´t know if choose influential people from gaming world to make cameos in his game, was Kojima´s brightest idea.

Time will tell.

[DigitalRaptor]

The controversy is artificial. It doesn't exist outside of desperate haters.

It's ridiculous how far some folks will go to undermine this game's remarkable achievements. Its "flaws" are subjective. Objectively it's a super innovative, super polished game that tries to subvert what to expect from the "videogame". That counts for more than just the standpoint of "its gameplay is not for everyone".

Just because people point out flaws doesn't mean that the game doesn't transcend the sum of its parts. I'm not even sure why you're still at the point where you're acting like a perfect score ever meant a game is perfect, because no game is. Why even bother act confused about that.... unless you're salty.
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"Games that score better on Metacritic were left out!"

That is not how this all works at all.

[Hungryalpaca]

A perfect score doesn’t mean a flawless game dude. Nothing can be flawless.

[leoms]

The game became popular thanks to you haters. Every youtube channel was looking for the clicks thanks to this game.

[Hardiman]

Yeah there's a load of manufacturerd hate or just hating to hate. Not all obviously but I've been doing an exercise on here. It started innocent enough though. There's been many debates on here about DS. Some respectful, most not.

I had a few heated exchanges and with my son being bullied and having to be hospitalized for suicide watch I'm trying to be better at not stirring shit up. So I apologized and never got a response. Now as long as we were arguing a reply would instantly come. This happened with four different people on here and they all played out the same!

These same people who hide behind freedom of speech and try to come off like they are impartial are really just trolling. Probably never played it. When an olive branch is extended (because at the end of the day we love gaming or we wouldn't be on here)they wanted nothing to do with it. They always say blind fanboys never admit any fault. Well when the opportunity presented itself they wanted no part!

[Imalwaysright]

Hardiman

No wonder that no one cared about your "olive branch". It was as fake as fake can be as evidenced by the comment you made on this thread so as far as I'm concerned you can shove it where the sun don't shine and if you want to do better then don't take jabs at people just because they disagree with your troll comments. You're doing a lousy job at doing better for your son.

[Atom666]

The perception of a conflict is what will hurt the VGAs. It doesn't seem like there is a direct conflict, but a "perceived conflict of interest" should often be avoided in many businesses.

Many outlets wouldn't care, but I don't think it's good for what Geoff has been trying to build. Plus, with RE2 and Smash recieving the critical acclaim that they did, the conversation should rightfully be about why some of the other games deserve it more than those two, in my opinion.

People complain about "biased media" and the low review scores of their preferred games every day.

Oddly, many of those people don't seem to use that same energy to take a critical look at the praise given to the same. Instead, it just gets assumed that those praising the thing they like are unbiased, and those criticizing it are "haters."

[rainslacker]

I think death stranding has every right to be nominated. People are already assuming it's going to win, but I think other games have a fighting chance. Death stranding came out just a couple weeks before the cut off, so it's going to be fresh on peoples minds, and if people in the media were thinking it a 10, then why wouldnt they vote for it to be nominated? They may choose a different winner in the end.

The controversy of its nomination, and premature assumption that it's going to win, and attaching controversy because if keighleys relationship with kojima is stupid, because not many offered up any alternative game, and I think DS took chances all those named alternatives didnt bother with

[Atom666]

Well, DMC5 and Fire Emblem were snubbed imo. Nothing against the nominees, but those two deserved more love. Without getting too deep into the indie space, I think it's easy to also see many other games that "took chances."

But I don't think DS doesn't deserve to be nominated, though. I haven't played it yet, but it seems as though many positive things are being said about it.

There's just no getting around the perception of a conflict. The fact that fans like you and OP are having to go on the defensive demonstrates that. The best way to have handled it would have been to get in front of it from the get go. Now it's lost in speculation and assumption.

I personally predicted it would at least be nominated if not outright win the VGA months before it released. Why? Because I am to the point where I see media bias in the 10/10's just as much as the 3/10 scores. Some only seem to find bias and conflict when it goes against their personal opinions, though.

With such little faith in games media, reviewers, and influencers, no one should be surprised that a win will be heavily debated and criticized. By most accounts, Geoff is a good dude, so I feel for him. But I'm already seeing some pretty funny memes and comments to him directly on this one, and it's only going to get worse.

[rainslacker]

So, because people perceive things as a conflict, it should be perpetuated by the media, or those who say that the conflict isn't real are just being defensive?

I'm not trying to defend the game without cause. I'm saying the game has every right to be there. Fire Emblem and DMC are both great games, but neither of them does anything special beyond that. DS is an new kind of experience. It tries hard to be different. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it falls flat, but overall, I think it's more substantial than what those two games offer. Not that I think the other nominated games are really on the same level as DS in terms of what it tried to achieve, but I don't see lots of people going around saying those games shouldn't be there.

So, my perception is, that people want to hate on DS, and will take every oppurtunity to do so. I mean, why not ask why Control deserves to be there? Why not Outer Worlds...what exactly is so special about that? SSB....really?

So, answer me this. Why is DS the only one that is being questioned about it's right to be there? Because Keighley is known to be friendly with Kojima? Keighley is friendly with a lot of people in the industry, including people from Nintendo, and certainly from people from Remedy.

For years now people have called out VGA and keighley on being a shill. Many gamers consider the VGA a joke anyways. What possible perception problem could really hurt the reputation of the event which isn't already thought of the event by those who talk about it? The mainstream doesn't care or know. The media just wants something to talk about. We don't take it seriously anyways. By this time next year, we won't remember this, and will find some new thing to dislike about it.

[Atom666]

Keighley's VGA call out of Konami is probably the biggest moment in the show's history. People will forget most of these awards, but that moment still gets remembered. I'm sure the irony in that isn't lost on you.

Then there's the fact that Kojima put him in the damn game.

People will attack him and the show for it; but do you honestly not expect it?

Should we really expect that gamers will just say, "oh, wow, I guess it deserves the award over more critically acclaimed games that Keighley doesn't have a cameo in?

If you have to go out and repeatedly explain why something is not a conflict, then there's a damn good chance that there is a perception of a conflict.

You don't have to defend DS to me. I trust that many people will agree that it deserves its spot.

But in an industry that has seen unethical BS from the media day in and day out, maybe it's not just "haters" that have an eyebrow raised at this. I'm loving the whole "it has no credibility anyway" angle, though.

I'd gladly tell you why I don't think Control or Sekiro deserve the nominations, or why Smash, RE2, Fire Emblem, Outer Wilds, and DMC do. I'm on the fence about Outer Worlds being up there, despite really enjoying it.

But DS is the only topic we've been seeing every day because of clicks. I'm not writing the articles. I'm just pointing out that there is an obvious perception of a conflict here, it's a problem for the show, and getting defensive about it is a waste of energy.

[leoms]

Strange they gave Zelda a pass for 2017 or Overwatch. I wonder if these articles would pop up if Gears 5 was there instead?

[IRetrouk]

The hate train for this game just keeps on rolling, now we can include conspiracies to the pile lmao

[Miacosa]

The Game Awards staff does not nominate the games the Video Games Press does and votes on them.

[mkis007]

Bullshit. No conflict other than kojima haters not liking his game getting goty nods

[KillBill]

"Still, there’s no denying that Death Stranding is likely very deserving of many of the nominations that it has and as such is a worthy contender." - point being that the biggest reason of conflict is that many simply don't believe it to be deserving regardless of his involvement in it. They point to his involvement as being a catalyst to its nomination as well a potential conflict over-all in the voting process.

[Chocoburger]

"Geoff Keighley's involvement in Death Stranding has left many fans somewhat uneasy after the title received so many nominations at this year's show."

Fans of what exactly? Fans of Death Stranding? If they are a fan of Death Stranding, they've already been playing the game, they can come to their own decisions regarding its quality. Nominations and awards are ultimately irrelevant, however, if they are fans of the game, I'm assuming that they'd agree with nominations anyway. So that can't be an issue.

Or is this about fans of the terrible crap The Game Awards show that is completely irrelevant to everyone? A show that features an unnecessary cut-off date of mid-November instead of a full calendar year, and not even letting people fully play or complete a game before having to vote on it, just 1 or 2 weeks after release. Anyone who is a fan of TGA has no right to complain because you're supporting an idiot that has no clue how to create an awards show.

There is no conflict of interest because there is nothing interesting about TGA. Ignore that over-hyped fluff piece mainly designed as an extended commercial, and move on!

[teaj]

it's not that serious guys. the least interesting part of the game awards are the actual awards.