To the surprise of many of you, this is not IGN. Thinks of a Thoughter is not one of the biggest gaming websites in the world. I know, criminal. It was when I came to the realization that I wasn’t running IGN (a truly shocking moment) I realized that I needed to approach certain topics from a different angle. Instead of regurgitating the same news articles that every other site talks about every day, I decided to wait until the end of the week when the news stories were confirmed and I was then able to not only report on a factual story but also give a well thought out opinion on something that was happening. So for 2018, when I decided to make reviewing games a priority of the site not only did I try to approach how I reviewed the games differently, but I also changed how I made my top 10 list. For 2018, as games were reviewed they were added to the board.

I thought it would be interesting to see as the year went along when something would challenge a game that I thoroughly enjoyed. Watching something that was once considered the game of the year fall multiple spots as new games released was fun and in an unexpected twist, it helped me become a better writer because as games that I once enjoyed did start to fall, I realized that my reviews of those games could have been better. There were absolutely times when I could have and should have pushed back articles to make sure that I saw every single thing a game had to offer before giving something a review. That being said, I’m very proud of the list that I ended 2018 with. If you’re interested in checking it out, I’ll have a link at the bottom of the article.

What about 2019? Reinventing game of the year? What does that mean? Well, throughout 2018 there were multiple times where I found myself playing a game that was ineligible for Game of The Year. Whether it be an older title like Minecraft or Rocket League that continued to put out content that kept me coming back for more or a game like Fire Pro Wrestling which released at the end of 2017 on PC but was ported to PS4 just a few months later. Why should these games be ignored? With Rocket League about to start its “10th season” and Fire Pro Wrestling preparing to release DLC later this year, I think it would be foolish to ignore the work that these studios are putting into their games.

So What are The Rules Going Forward?

To be eligible for Game of The Year 2019, all you have to do is release content that effects the quality of your game. Sims 4 is a game that throughout all of 2018 continued putting out expansion packs that made the game better and if the studio continues to do that through 2019, they should absolutely be rewarded. Another example is Stardew Valley. Yes, Stardew Valley’s multiplayer mode has been released on PC and Switch for a while now, but it has yet to make its way to Xbox or PS4 (the system in which I’ll be playing it on) and when that update comes, it will drastically change the value of that game, making it eligible for 2019’s Game of The Year list.

So what kind of update could keep a game from being revisited? Dragon Ball Fighter Z, I feel, is a great example for this. More fighters are scheduled to be released for the game, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality of the game will be any different. If the only updates to the game are new characters than I see no reason to re-review the game.

As for newer releases, while I’m always interested in trying to expand the types of games I play, I don’t want to fake excitement for games that I simply don’t care about. With games like Kingdom Hearts 3 or Anthem, I just don’t see the point in reviewing them if I’m already going in with such low expectations. I want to make sure that the games I review for the site are ones that I can speak about with passion and hopefully bring something interesting to the discussion of that game. I don’t even know the name of the main character of Kingdom Hearts so the idea of me playing and reviewing it would a waste of your time and mine.

And yes, the board is changing slightly but the concept of ranking everything as it’s reviewed will be coming back. I personally thought that stuff was a lot of fun. Hopefully, this explains everything that I’ll be doing with Game of The Year 2019. As always, if you’re reading this, thank you and if you have any questions about anything feel free to leave a comment down below.