The Game Awards Players' Voice Vote Is Causing Absolute Chaos
The Game Awards is one of the biggest gaming events of the year. Players can vote on categories that include most genres, innovative games, indie games, and even esports awards. There's also a Players' Voice category where gamers can vote on their favorite game of the year. 2022's Game Awards lists "Elden Ring," "Genshin Impact," "God of War Ragnarok," "Sonic Frontiers," and "Stray" as the five games to choose from. Unfortunately, the "Genshin" and "Sonic" communities have gone after each other over the award.
"Sonic" fans have been up in arms over the idea that "Genshin Impact" could win the Players' Voice award in 2022. What started as banter online about which game was better – a conversation that isn't bad on its own – quickly turned to abuse from players centered around the two fanbases.
A select few "Sonic" fans took things too far with racist remarks. There were also images shared of Sonic beating up the Traveler from "Genshin Impact," with some drawings including characters from the other games in the Players' Voice category. Some fans even appeared to share messages telling "Genshin" fans to harm themselves.
Things progressed so far that The Game Awards had to take action.
No more live updates
Before the chaos that broke out between the two communities, The Game Awards had shared the percentages of votes on its site for the Players' Voice category, letting voters follow along with what was in the lead. Now, as spotted by Twitter user @SonicPrincess15, the voting results have been taken off of the site completely. Other actions have been taken by community leaders to stop the abuse, including the r/SonicTheHedgehog mods, who stopped the conversation about The Game Awards on the subreddit completely.
While the conversation centered around the two games was littered with toxicity, it's important to remember that it's nowhere near the majority of either fandom acting out. "Sonic" fans have apologized over and over again for some of the off-the-wall comments. Other fans in the community are calling out the abuse and telling people to stop.
Either game could win the Players' Voice award for good reason. While "Sonic Frontiers" had mixed reviews from critics, most fans enjoyed the game and the direction it took for the "Sonic" series. "Genshin Impact," while a live-service game that's been out since 2020, released a massive update this year that introduced a games-worth of content all on its own.