Should Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Win Game of the Year?
- Narukoopa
- Dec 11, 2024
- 10 min read
Introduction
Well folks, we have reached that time of the year. It is officially the season. The time we all come together, rejoice, and reconnect, while reflecting back on the year that has passed. A time to be merry and perhaps stir up some drama whilst we’re at it. No, I’m not talking about Christmas; I’m talking about The Game Awards, obviously.
A show that has been broadcast since 2014, this year marks the 10-year anniversary of reigning controversy throughout the internet, turning fans of various games to Twitter and other social media to proclaim why their favourite game deserves to win, all the while feeding us with advertisements on things we don’t want or need while depriving the actual winners of those awards any time to savour their special, once-in-a-lifetime moment.
That last part was especially problematic last year, with pictures being posted online of TV screens telling whoever was there to essentially shut up and get off the stage. While these complaints were addressed by the show’s host, whether or not this year will be any different remains to be seen.
But alas, we’ve already got some drama, and the show hasn’t even begun yet. In fact, this started even before the nominations for each award were announced. The Game Awards’ website included a statement in their FAQ section that provides less of an update but more of a clarification on the rules. It’s something that has managed to split the gaming community, and it’s all thanks to Elden Ring.
Setting the Stage
On the 20th of June, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree released to massive critical acclaim. Review publications praised it for expanding on what was already an incredible formula while adding a boatload of new content capable of keeping players hooked for hours on end. Many called this DLC more than a DLC and that it should stand as a game in its own right simply because of its scale.
It received a 94 overall Metacritic score, making it tied with Astrobot and Metaphor: ReFantazio as the highest-rated release of 2024. Within a week of its release, it had sold five million copies worldwide. To put it simply, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was, and still is, a knockout success, both from a critical and financial perspective.
It is still, however, a DLC. Not a game. This is where the controversy begins to arise. A few days before the nominations were announced, The Game Awards' FAQ section on their website went live. It states that DLCs are eligible for nomination in any of the award categories, including Game of the Year.
“The Game Awards aims to recognize the best creative and technical work each year, irrespective of the format of that content’s release. Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury deems the new creative and technical work to be worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the newness of the content and its price/value should be taken into consideration.”
This isn’t anything new. In fact, we’ve seen it before, and it happened last year. In 2023, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was nominated for Best Narrative. In 2016, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine won Best RPG. A nomination for Game of the Year, however, hasn’t occurred yet, until now.
Alas, the nominations have been announced, and to the surprise of nobody, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is in the running for Game of the Year. It’s in the running for a lot of things, actually, but the main focal point of this conversation seems to revolve around the big award.
Of course, I have my own opinions on this topic. No, I don’t think DLCs should be eligible for Game of the Year. In fact, I think DLCs shouldn’t be eligible for a lot of categories, but there are measures you can implement that could still allow these expansions to be recognised and awarded.
So let's break it all down. Let's look into the reasons why Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree should be nominated, and also look into what could be done to rectify the situation instead.
How To Get Nominated
Before we begin, I’ll just briefly talk about the process of how games get nominated in The Game Awards. Each year, a jury of over a hundred publications and media influencers with expert insight into the games industry votes for their top five games in each category. All these votes are counted, and the games that receive the highest amount of votes in each category are considered nominations. In the event of a tie being made, that category will receive an additional nomination.
Despite popular myth, nominations aren’t purely determined by which games have the highest review scores. Obviously it is related—if a game has dozens of high scores, it is very likely a good game—but it’s not the deciding factor. Likewise, game companies don’t pay to get their games nominated. This would result in massive legal fallout that would likely destroy the show completely.
In regards to how games win these nominations, there is a 90/10 split vote between juries and the public. The reason why the public doesn’t have more say is to prevent online campaigns and unfair voting. We’d likely get some awful Game of the Year winners otherwise.
This year our nominations for Game of the Year are Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Metaphor: Refantazio. All of these were all picked using the same system I have just discussed.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s go over the arguments that are in favour of Shadow of the Erdtree’s Game of the Year nomination.
Universal Acclaim
We’ll start off with the obvious one that I’ve already somewhat disproved. Most people loved it. The critics absolutely adored it, lavishing it with perfect 10/10s, describing it as a pure work of art.
Like I said before, it’s tied with two other games as the highest-rated release of the year, and that is not something that can be easily ignored. It did wonders for FromSoftware, a company whose skilful game design is becoming more and more influential in the industry as time goes on. Each game they release is an evolution of their formula that nobody else has been able to keep up with as of yet.
Elden Ring won Game of the Year back in 2022, and it made sense. Shadow of the Erdtree had a lot to live up to, not to mention the hype train leading up to its release that was just as intense as the base game’s buildup. It delivered on everything it set out to be.
When you have a wide selection of critics who say that this DLC is more than a DLC and that it manages to break that threshold to become something more than itself, then maybe it makes sense to ignore the fact that it’s a DLC in the first place. In short, it’s so good and worth more than a lot of other AAA games that it might as well be a game itself.
Its Sheer Size
According to HowLongToBeat, Shadow of the Erdtree takes 25 and a half hours to complete its main story. If you wish to do all of the side content on top of that, it’ll take a total of 38 and a half hours. That’s more than a lot of big releases coming out today.
It’s a very generalised number, and it’s certainly not going to reflect everybody’s experience, but it’s a reliable metric to go off. It’s a DLC that asks for a lot of commitment, and that’s something that many reviews have noted, with comments praising it for its grand scale.
This is something that was also experienced with The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine expansion, which, as I mentioned before, won best RPG at The Game Awards in 2016. Many people praised the DLC for its scale and magnitude while once again repeating the mantra of “this is more than just a DLC.”.
Due to how common this praise is, it’s worth adding this to the reasons why Shadow of the Erdtree deserves its nominations.
DLCs Are Just as Good as Full Games
Again, tying into what I’ve just mentioned, there are those who believe that a DLC can be of such high quality and have an incredibly satiable amount of content that it puts itself on the same playing field as a standard game.
In a way, these people seem to have a mentality that calling it a DLC is degrading it in some way. It comes across to them as derogatory, and it doesn’t fully consider what it has to offer that is not only great in its own right but improves the base game.
There is some credence to this. For example, it’s difficult to compare The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s horse armour DLC to Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep from Borderlands 2. DLCs have categories of their own: ones that provide cosmetics or gameplay-related upgrades such as abilities and others that provide story content.
The genres that define these games will also determine what kinds of DLC they can have. The Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 doubled the number of race tracks the game has, dramatically increasing how much it has to offer.
Even when taking the base game out of the equation, if a DLC is so good on its own, with everything executed to near perfection, and is just an absolute blast to play, maybe that is enough.
So What?
And so what? That may be blunt, but that’s what it comes down to. None of this changes anything. In order for these DLCs to be played, people have to play through the base game, meaning they are not as accessible as other games released in the same year. This obviously differs between certain DLCs, but most of them have that restriction.
Calling Shadow of the Erdtree a DLC is not a disservice. It’s not degrading it in any way, nor is it ignoring any of the aspects that make it as excellent as it is. It’s just a plain fact. Call it a DLC, or an expansion, or whatever else you want to call it; it’s not its own game. It needs Elden Ring for it to exist, and it cannot exist without it.
In regards to its Game of the Year nomination, there are dozens of other games that could’ve had its slot instead. But unfortunately, none of them can receive that spotlight, as that opportunity has now been taken away from them.
What Could Be Done Instead?
This issue has caused quite the commotion online, with a lot of discourse surrounding it. In truth, is it really that big of a deal? Probably not. There is, however, a simple solution. It might not be the smoothest to implement, but it could make a big difference, and it would stop something like this from happening again.
My solution is pretty straightforward, and it comes in two stages. Firstly, there should be a best DLC category. It is ridiculous that this isn’t a thing already. Best Adaptation is an award category, yet there are more DLCs released each year than there are adaptations. Having something like this gives DLCs their own spotlight and recognition for what they are.
The second stage is something that is technically already allowed, and that is to give special considerations for DLCs in specific categories instead of making them considered for all. An example of this is the Best Soundtrack award. DLCs are known to sometimes have their own music made for them, such as Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. An updated clarification on the rules of which awards DLCs are applicable should be in order.
If it’s new and released in the year leading up to the show, then it should be a potential nominee for categories that are defined in a certain way: DLCs can have their own self-contained stories, so Best Narrative should be available for them. The same goes for Best Performance, Best Art Direction, Best Audio Design, and, as previously mentioned, Best Soundtrack. All the content that is covered here isn’t defined by being the best of a genre but of something more particular: It exists purely in its DLC.
What they shouldn’t be applicable for are the categories that are meant for the best of their genres, such as Best Fighting Game, Best Action Game, Best Independent Game, Debut Indie Game, etc. These DLCs are made up mostly of mechanics and systems that were created years before. A DLC may introduce new mechanics, sure, but the vast majority of it exists because of what came before it. Awarding it for that is unfair to the other selected and potential nominees.
Making these changes would align the award processes of DLCs with that of games, giving them both equal room to shine. A DLC shouldn’t be applicable for Game of the Year, just as an RPG shouldn’t be applicable for best strategy game (unless it’s a game that blends the two genres).
I wish I could make this sound more exciting than it is, but ultimately it really is a simple solution. It isn’t a perfect one by any means, however. Deciding which award categories DLCs should be applicable for is certain to bring about disagreement and debate, and you’re never going to get a complete unanimous approval, but it’s a start.
In Conclusion
The Game Awards has a transparency problem. Boundaries are vague, which results in situations like this from occurring. As I’ve mentioned already, however, at the end of the day this is far from a big deal. Still, it's important to understand that this show has been struggling with its reputation in recent years. Controversies such as these add up, so it is important that they are addressed instead of being pushed under the rug.
Needless to say, I think there’s a high chance Shadow of the Erdtree will win Game of the Year, and while I would be disappointed by that, it is just an awards show. There are plenty of others that give awards based on their own metrics, and while The Game Awards is arguably the biggest award show for games, it’s not all there is.
At the same time, I strongly believe that making those changes I described would make a positive difference, mainly to the games that narrowly missed out on getting nominated. I’m less concerned with a DLC winning awards than I am with games that have had an immense amount of work and passion put towards them missing out on their ticket.
We could have had another indie game, such as Animal Well, on the Game of the Year nominees list, since indie game recognition at The Game Awards is another big issue the show has. But alas, we did not. That, in my opinion, is the biggest disappointment of them all.
Tune in to The Game Awards on Thursday 12th December (7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT/12:30am GMT)
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