SAN FRANCISCO — IGN faced controversy this week, as they were unable to determine a unanimous decision for Game of the Year, choosing instead to release a list of every major title that received a positive review.
“At first we just figured we’d pick the game that earned the highest rating this year,” said Jared Reese, an associate editor at the site. “But when we took a closer look at the numbers, we realized that we’ve given nearly every game released this year an 8/10. That’s when the arguing started.”
Once the editors realized their dilemma, several debates broke out over which game truly was the standout release of 2017.
“There have been so many great games that have really changed the way we play,” said Amy Durewitz, a member of the site’s social media team. “I mean, ‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ has intense gunfights and fast-paced action, but ‘Middle-earth: Shadow of War’ has fast-paced action too, except with swords. Guns or swords. Damn. What an impossible decision.”
“Plus, we’re such good friends with all the companies who made these games. We can’t let those guys down!”
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The entire IGN staff faced similar dilemmas, weighing “Wolfenstein II’s” brutal Nazi-killing action against “Call of Duty: WW2’s” brutal Nazi-killing action, or debating whether a game about cups deserves Game of the Year over one about a white girl with dreadlocks hunting robot dinosaurs.
“I don’t think readers understand just how difficult it is to pick the best game of the year,” Durewitz said. “It’s a task we at IGN take very seriously, which is why every game that’s pretty good is rated exactly the same as every other game that’s pretty good.”
Reese pointed out to several employees in their first year at IGN that this is an annual holiday tradition around the office, and that most employees find the arguments to have enough entertaining qualities to cancel out any unpleasantness.
“I think there’s one thing that we can all agree upon,” Reese said. “That most games are pretty fun, and we enjoyed playing all of them to about an equal degree this year.”