That's great. It's unsurprising really, and I think it is very well deserved. The story-telling and impact of the story and boldness in its characters are just completely aspirational, not to mention the attention to detail: I can't tell you how many times I would hold onto those ropes or run under trickling water just to see the effects change. This being said, my personal GOTY was and still is Animal Crossing. I'm sure others have put it more succinctly, but yes, the perfect game for the perfect year. In non-pandemic years, AC wouldn't have been in serious contention for my GOTY. TLOU2 would've easily won. But I guess it's how much you want to look at games in a vacuum.
I'm a healthcare worker. I had to abruptly leave my wife, son and baby on a Sunday in late March, and basically had to hole up in an unfurnished box for 2 1/2 months, with an air mattress, a wooden chair and foldaway desk and a TV I bought from Target on my way there. This was obviously a time when we didn't know much about COVID, but I was scared shitless and going on the "front lines" of the pandemic just was a horrible feeling. I mean, I wrote letters to my family for my kids to read when they were older in the case that I contracted it and died. When AC came out... it was the therapeutic release I needed. Normalcy, routine, objectives and goals to build to... all of it was just familiar and at least took the bite off of what I was doing in my real life. When shrubs came to be a thing, it was like one of the best days ever because it was exactly the aesthetic I was looking for my village.
When I played TLOU 2, it captured me immediately and told an incredible story, definitely one of the best in the medium. It asked a lot of hard questions with and without answers, some of which I think Era loses sight of (things like nuance and firm, snap emotional judgments, but I digress) and will almost certainly have an impact on the discourse of the medium for years to come. Again, I'm not surprised it won, and this isn't IAmtheFMan's GOTY awards, but for me the sheer impact that AC made on my year just can't compare. Of course, without a pandemic there's no way it would've made anywhere near the same mark, but I won't ever be able to uncouple this year with AC.
