It’s that time of the year again where The Game Awards – an annual gaming awards show hosted by Geoff Keighley – sparks up some sort of controversy with their nominations. The big talking point this time are the nominations for the ‘game of the year’ award – more specifically the fact that the Elden Ring DLC received a nomination for game of the year.
Is this even allowed?
Well, technically yes. The ruleset for nominations was updated shortly before the official announcements this year, stating that DLCs can be nominated for any category as long as the judges believe it is substantial enough to be considered a separate body of work. The only problem with this is that Elden Ring’s DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, doesn’t really stand alone as its own entity. You cannot purchase the DLC without purchasing Elden Ring first, and you have to sink dozens of hours into the main game to be even able to begin tackling the expansion. Sure, the DLC is massive – even longer than most games that release nowadays, usually taking people 40-60 hours to complete, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is still an additive at the end of the day. Elden Ring already sweeped the 2022 award show with numerous awards and won the esteemed game of the year accolade, it’s already received its due praise, which makes the decision to nominate its expansion a bit baffling to some.
Should there be a separate category for these oddball nominations?
Many fans of the show have gotten increasingly frustrated with the awards show’s decision to nominate remakes for multiple categories every year, and now a DLC being nominated has further fueled that debate. The top comments under the official nominee announcement video argue that DLCs and remakes should be placed into separate categories, making the point that they steal the spotlight from new games with fresh ideas that are more deserving of attention. Other games this year like Tekken 8, Space Marine 2 and Animal Well could’ve done with having a little more deserved recognition placed on their work. These games bring forth new ideas and many argue that is what makes something deserving of an award – pushing the needling forward in the gaming landscape in some sort of way. Elden Ring’s DLC is fantastic, that is not to be mistaken, but at the end of the day, it’s still just more Elden Ring.
Is it that significant?
At the end of the day, The Game Awards is just like any other award show like the Grammies or Oscars, there will always be snubs and strange decisions regarding nominations. The Game Awards is sure to have some bizarre ads and awkward celebrity appearances this year, but that’s part of the charm. The purpose of the event is to reflect back on the year so far and spark some conversations about all the releases along with having some cool new announcements for the coming year of games. I’m sure this year will be no different, and whether a DLC ends up winning game of the year or not, it’s bound to be a fun time watching as it unfolds.
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