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The Linux GOTY award is now open for submissions

By -
Update: Added a few notes to make it clearer.

How it will work
Another year goes by and another GOL GOTY award begins. We start off with game submissions so get going!

We will have one week of game submissions, then a good few days to make sure we clean up any duplicates that slip by and so on. Then one week of voting!

So, you have until Monday 9th January to submit your games to the GOTY page.

Submissions
To be clear: Don't comment your submissions here, submit them to the linked page. Some people somehow got confused on this multiple times.

Please check the spelling first, you make our job harder if you don't spell it properly.

Games won't appear right away, as we have to approve them. Otherwise we may end up with some really weird and wonderful spellings and games that are flat-out wrong.

Please Note: All categories are for games released in 2016, apart from "Favourite open source game", "Favourite FOSS project" and "Most anticipated game for 2017". Please stop adding in random commercial games from 2014 ;)

Let me know of any bugs or issues ASAP, as it's only used once a year it could have lurking issues I haven't spotted.

This year is slightly different, as I have put in a feature to allow you to reset your vote in each category to re-vote if you suddenly change your mind or you misclick, as that was the main requested feature. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: GOTY
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About the author -
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24 comments
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Shmerl Jan 2, 2017
Should the game appear in the list after adding? I don't see it.
Liam Dawe Jan 2, 2017
Should the game appear in the list after adding? I don't see it.
No, they have to be approved.
Eike Jan 2, 2017
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As always, this is Linux release year, not general release year, right?
Liam Dawe Jan 2, 2017
As always, this is Linux release year, not general release year, right?
Edit: Errr no, 2016.

All 2016 apart from "Favourite open source game", "Favourite FOSS project" and "Most anticipated game for 2017".


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 2 January 2017 at 9:18 pm UTC
Citiroller Jan 2, 2017
Is best graphics intended for best visuals/visual style or most realistic/advanced graphics?

Edit: does released in 2016 includes games which exited early access in 2016?


Last edited by Citiroller on 2 January 2017 at 11:18 pm UTC
Keyrock Jan 3, 2017
Is best graphics intended for best visuals/visual style or most realistic/advanced graphics?
Given that there aren't 2 separate categories, one for aesthetic and one for graphical fidelity, I imagine the category is intended to encompass either or both, whatever you found most visually appealing, whether that's high fidelity realistic graphics or something stylized.
Ehvis Jan 3, 2017
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As always, this is Linux release year, not general release year, right?
Edit: Errr no, 2016.

All 2016 apart from "Favourite open source game", "Favourite FOSS project" and "Most anticipated game for 2017".

That didn't really answer the question. So Mad Max counts as 2016, since the Linux version released in 2016. Right?
mindplague Jan 3, 2017
Life is Strange.
tmtvl Jan 3, 2017
Are you gonna go over the list and remove any doubles that snuck in before opening the vote? I've seen Blades of the Shogun appearing twice in the overall best category.

EDIT:
Life is Strange.

Bahaha! No.


Last edited by tmtvl on 3 January 2017 at 1:13 am UTC
I would love to see separate "AAA" and "non-AAA" categories for best game. Games like Deus Ex, Mad Max and Xcom will be hard for smaller devs to muscle out just from sheer voting numbers...

I know it is a little hard deciding where to draw the line between them, though.
Shmerl Jan 3, 2017
I would love to see separate "AAA" and "non-AAA" categories for best game. Games like Deus Ex, Mad Max and Xcom will be hard for smaller devs to muscle out just from sheer voting numbers...

I know it is a little hard deciding where to draw the line between them, though.

I don't think it's a good idea to make such separation. AAA is a bad term to begin with. Do you mean big budget games? Publisher funded games? Or something else? Its ambiguity makes its usage pointless.

For instance I wouldn't vote for most of publisher funded games because they aren't available DRM-free, so I can't even evaluate them and they can't be in my list of GOTY games. And in my understanding, they more frequently end up being mass market driven and as such less original and interesting than games developed by independent studios. And that topic is really orthogonal to budget, since there are big budget independent games as well.

So categories are fine as they are.


Last edited by Shmerl on 3 January 2017 at 6:27 am UTC
Beamboom Jan 3, 2017
As always, this is Linux release year, not general release year, right?
Edit: Errr no, 2016.

All 2016 apart from "Favourite open source game", "Favourite FOSS project" and "Most anticipated game for 2017".

That didn't really answer the question. So Mad Max counts as 2016, since the Linux version released in 2016. Right?

Yeah it was a good question, it's released for LINUX during 2016.


Last edited by Beamboom on 3 January 2017 at 6:37 am UTC
tuubi Jan 3, 2017
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So Mad Max counts as 2016, since the Linux version released in 2016. Right?

Yeah it was a good question, it's released for LINUX during 2016.
Mad Max nominations have already been accepted into several categories. Consider your question answered.
Sgt.Romeo9 Jan 3, 2017
I just wish people would read the categories, descriptions before posting. Just to keep the results clean in the end. Especially with the following two categories: Favourite FOSS Project and Favourite Open Source Game.

The description for Favourite FOSS Project reads: Vote for your favourite game engine, open source emulator etc created for games that DON'T support Linux. So, you obviously look at projects that make open source engine clones where you just have to dump the original game files such as OpenRCT2, OpenMW, CorsixTH etc... Or Emulators of entire console systems such as: PCSX2 for PS2 and Dolphin for Nintendo GC and Wii.

Favourite Open Source Game is pretty self-explanatory, open source games that can be download as a fully working title meaning both the game logic and assets are open source and included such as 0 A.D., Super Tux Kart, Open TDD, Flight Gear, etc...

Problem is now there are games in the FOSS projects category and FOSS projects in the games category and in some cases the game or project are in both.
Liam Dawe Jan 3, 2017
As always, this is Linux release year, not general release year, right?
Edit: Errr no, 2016.

All 2016 apart from "Favourite open source game", "Favourite FOSS project" and "Most anticipated game for 2017".

That didn't really answer the question. So Mad Max counts as 2016, since the Linux version released in 2016. Right?
My bad i misread. Yes, Linux releases in 2016. This is a Linux GOTY.

Are you gonna go over the list and remove any doubles that snuck in before opening the vote? I've seen Blades of the Shogun appearing twice in the overall best category.
As stated, yes we will be going over the list first. It should not have been possible for the same game to appear twice, will look into that.

Edit: Seems Blades of the Shogun appeared twice as someone spelt it differently.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 3 January 2017 at 10:00 am UTC
Eike Jan 3, 2017
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AFAIR we had (or at least considered) a sorting out phase. One or two days where people can state reasons why some entries are in the wrong list or such.
lvlark Jan 3, 2017
After browsing the submissions up until now, I feel almost as inadequate to vote as last year - I simply haven't come round to playing most of these. I'll probably vote for a few categories though.
wintermute Jan 3, 2017
For episodic games (e.g. Dreamfall Chapters) are we counting the release date of the first episode or the final episode?
Eike Jan 3, 2017
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For episodic games (e.g. Dreamfall Chapters) are we counting the release date of the first episode or the final episode?

Did I overlook the category "Most boring point and click ever"?

;)
tmtvl Jan 3, 2017
Is most anticipated only for games with a definitive release date? 'Cause I submitted Bloodstained but they haven't promised a definitive release date yet.
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