N4G Contest Result: The Winner Is...

So, we had an outstanding response and you have all decided on the game of the year for 2019.

And that winner is God of War (2018).

So, congratulations to Santa Monica Studio and congratulations to the gamers who have gotten to play great games in 2018 and beyond.

So, that's it.

Nothing else to announce here.

I don't know why you're still reading.

What's that?

User winner?

Someone won a what?

You certain about that?

But that's not what my notes say here.

No, seriously, look.

I know, right, not a single winner.

Not. A. Single. Winner.

Because we have two winners.

Two people won the choice of an Xbox One X or a PS4 Pro.

That's pretty neat.

Yeah, we figured handing out another game would be boring.

So, yeah, congrats to those people as well.

What?

Oh, right, I should probably let people know who won, right?

Okay, those two people are MasterofMagnetism and cl1983.

Congrats to both winners. Congrats to God of War. Congrats to us having quality games and more to come.

[TiredandRetired]

I never win anything, but it was worth a shot, lol Congrats to the winners. :)

I admittedly still haven't finished God of War. Just got back in town from a month long trip for the holidays, so it's on my priority list. What I've played is incredible, so I look forward to finishing it off.

[starchild]

It's a really great game. Congratulations to the game and the winners.

[IamTylerDurden1]

God of War gets better and better. You will be blown away by the end of the game. It's nice to see God of War as the rightful GotY. It has the most awards, The Game Awards, and here. The funny thing is, i believe the second game will be better. This game was essentially a setup for the next game or two. PS5, God of War: Ragnarok, can't wait.

[Christopher]

Sorry for the delay on this and some other things. It's been a rough two weeks, but things are back on track. Check your tickets, folks.

[xHeavYx]

Another mod won. I see you guys are keeping the prizes in house wink wink*

[ChrisW]

You'd think there'd be rules against this stuff... But what do you expect from a bunch of people who write their own rules?

Lameness... That's what's to be expected!

[Yi-Long]

I figured there was some stuff going on behind the scenes (cause I haven't heard from you anymore after winning the Day 2 contest). Hope you're doing okay and all is well.

Congrats to all the (other) winners, and to God of War for winning GOTY. Hope to check it out this year.

Looking forward to what's coming in 2019 and beyond.

[cl1983]

Oh no I don't know which one to get....... No really I have no Idea right now.

[Christopher]

Take your time.

[Geobros]

Take a Switch, you will not regret it :P

[xHeavYx]

Don't you have both? I'd get the more expensive one and sell it

[IamTylerDurden1]

Get a PSVR.

[anonymousfan]

Thanks for all the contests and prizes! Happy new year!

[BioDead]

Supposed there be something?

[Purrfection]

Great game but is anyone really surprised to see the results, here?

[IamTylerDurden1]

Great contest, i look forward to the next one.

[Geobros]

I never win but i have to admit it was an interesting contest! Congrats to the winners and all those who shared their gaming experience. Have a nice 2019 gaming year!

[UltraNova]

Geo,

Are moderators allowed to enter these contests?
_____
Congrats to the winners and GOW.

[Geobros]

Yes!!! Why not? We were users before and we are almost users now. We participate to N4G like you guys, we submit stories, we approve stories, we make reports, comments etc. same as you. The only difference is that we know a little better the rules and we are trying to apply them.

[coolbeans]

Yes. This is the first thing posted in legal portion of the N4G Contest announcements:

"1. Contest is open to all N4G users, except for employees of HAVAmedia and immediate relatives. Contests are not limited to the US/NA. Note: Moderators do not receive remuneration, are not employees of HAVAmedia, and are eligible for N4G monthly contests."

[milohighclub]

The real question is: did a regular user win any or was everyday won by mods. I'm on here daily and have been for about 8yr, i don't think i even recognised any of the names that won.

[gangsta_red]

Congrats to GoW!

I was robbed!

[Christopher]

You were #6 in the overflow, does that count?

[gangsta_red]

As long as I'm #1 on the People's Sexiest Man Alive poll, I'm good with #6 on n4g.

[Fist4achin]

Was i anywhere in there?!

Gangsta_red is a sexy SOB!

[neutralgamer1992]

😂

[cl1983]

You're number 3 on mine, sorry.

[bangoskank]

Congrats to the winners!

[Legatus]

Congrats to lucky winners and GOTY of War of course.

[coolbeans]

Hackz!!1!!

Congrats to Master...not cl. [o_o]~

[cl1983]

:p

[-Foxtrot]

Really hope in the future the way these contests are done are overhauled.

They need to start taking into account the actual comments rather then just being random so people can get creative and answer with the best comments they can knowing there's a chance working hard on their comment will pay off. I think most I spoke to just decide to put a single comment because they were like "Meh...it's random, who cares about the content of the comment, just say anything".

Not to mention I think considering we don't get many competitions now you guys need to take into account how active people are within the site or you are just going to get people who suddenly become active to take part. Half of the previous winners in December I've hardly seen active on here until then...and no this isn't about me as a user but the many people I see active on here from my time on here. From commenting or creating articles.

rainslacker, Abriael, FallenAngel1984, gangsta_red, UCForce, Relientk77, darthv72, Neonridr, Kribwalker, IamTylerDurden1, XiNatsuDragnel, AnubisG, King_Noctis, Godmars290, Why o Why, MasterCornholio, Razzer, bluefox755, PhoenixUp, EddieNX, Imalwaysright, porkChop, ziggurcat, 3-4-5, Pozzle, Geobros...and so on.

Don't care about who you like or what you've said or who you agree/disagree with...everyone puts in the time here, that's dedication. I'm on HiDefNinja for example and when they have group buys or contests they always think about site loyalty and the like.

Like I said if the contents were as frequent as they once were then fair enough, you'd just wait for one month until you get lucky but since things are different now, I think it should be a little bit more rewarding for all people who keep this site going with dedication and passion.

Just thought I'd put some constructive criticism on here for the future. This isn't an attack by any means, it's just harder to get something across with text.

[Christopher]

Complaint noted. Not sure I'd call it constructive, but noted nonetheless.

[Purrfection]

Hard really to take notes when the majority of his comments are complaints. Hope you have lots of time...and a mechanical keyboard.

[Neonridr]

XD

[gangsta_red]

Lol, I actually did write out some paragraphs when I first decided to enter the contest. But once I found out it was random and wasn't decided on length or content, I just started leaving two or three word answers.

As person who is constantly "active" on this site, your idea would be nice to see for maybe future contests.

[-Foxtrot]

I started to do that near the end since everyone else was

If people are on here a lot, then they should be rewarded more over those who just see a competition and quickly log in to leave a comment.

Like I said I think last month in the 20 days contest I recognised 4-5 people out of 20, two being the same people since the random generator picked the same person again...could have redrawn again but they didn’t. I mean if you are here all the time you should recognise more users then just 4 out of 20 but most of them if you check their profiles only logged in for that contest...it shouldn’t be allowed.

It’s not about me, it’s about a lot of us who like this site enough to keep it active

We’ve all seen Newsboilers other sites like Filmwatch and TechSpy...ghost towns

[monkey602]

Most of the winners are active members though. There were only a couple of winners who hadn't used their accounts in years but to say only 4 familiar names were drawn is unfair

[The 10th Rider]

To be fair, I think for giving out 20 prizes, random is the way to do it. That would be a ton of work for any one person to read through and judge each comment section every day.

[monkey602]

I'd say more than a handful of users (myself included) did that anyway though ha

[Fist4achin]

I dont create any articles, but i like to think that i find some interesting articles.

Your criticisms are fair.

[bigmalky]

Yeah, I'm here just about every day, and only knew a handful of the winners by username. But fair is fair and that's the way the draw went.

[monkey602]

If you think about it really though how many users do you think you'd recognise if they simply changed their profile pic? Usernames can be so similar I think most resort to image familiarity. Could be the case with a few of the winners too

[bigmalky]

I do it by name. Got used to watching people change avatars over the years, that it's easier to learn names. I can see why some would use a pic as reference though.

[rainslacker]

being the first person in your list, I really don't care how they conduct the contests....although cl is a moderator, and didn't realize they were eligible to win anything.

In all my years here, I think I've won an Amazon gift card once a long time ago. I didn't even know they had those contests, so was happy just to get an extra $50. But my reasons for coming here aren't because of the contests, and if I won this one, I probably would have said donate it to some games for sick kids charity or something.

For this contest, I think I participated in two of the discussions because I was in the mood to answer the question. Wasn't trying to win anything myself, and you know me....I don't need a reason to write a long winded comment.

[chazjamie]

Pretty sure ads keeps this site active. This is disgusting with how it handles ads.

[MasterCornholio]

Thank you for the mention and your idea.

:)

[RabbitFly]

I really don't care as I never participate in contests, but it seems such an aproach would be working against one of the primary reasons to hold contests in the first place.

That being to drum up interest and entice people to register and/or be active.

You also have to consider that just as people actively posting here is the vocal minority of the gaming community as a whole, they are also the vocal minority of users on this site.

The Staff can of course think about inplementing such measures, but it seems the end result would only be negative. I. E. Enticing people that are already active to be active, and alienating the less active people even more.

[-Foxtrot]

It’s never worked though

People just come on for contest then hibernate until the next one while most long term active users who continue to use the site miss out

If it’s not working, what’s the point , at this stage people are going to join because they want to, not the contests.

[RabbitFly]

Citation needed.

If anything. Your original post proves that does work. You say that there were a lot of comments from people that you don't usually see post comments on every story.

One can potentially question retention rates, but it doesn't change the fact that your aproach would have zero effect on that and therefore no matter how low of a percentage we are talking about, it is still more than what you suggest would be able to produce.

Contests are basically a marketing investment, you want it to be something exclusively for some elitist club.

Which would eliminate any New traffic such a contests potentially creates.

N4G, like any free to use website, needs revenue from marketing to stay alive. I don't see your suggestion as anything but a cost sink with very little to no benefit.

[rainslacker]

@Fox

In general, once someone breaks through that initial post, they can start to become more comfortable with posting. I didn't post for almost two years when I first started coming here. I had a different account that I never once made a comment on. I eventually started slow, then made more comments, and now I have the most comments on this site. I recognize quite a few people who started slow, and then worked their way up, including some that we consider trolls, or at least the console fan boy warriors that make a lot of comments.

If someone can feel comfortable posting, then you get more users posting. That is the primary incentive for contests like this. The one's they used to do(or maybe still do....I dunno), would just be a drawing where making a comment puts you in the running. So that keeps people posting. Two different things.

Overall though, this particular contest seemed more about sharing experiences than trying to gain users. More a community building exercise, and while I wish it didn't have to have the contest attached to get people to participate, that's just kind of how the community has been.

I'm not really keen on there being a system where more prolific members have weight on winning contests. That can lead to too much bias I think. And if Chris is wondering, this isn't related to a conversation we had a while back....just about the contests being done in the way that Fox suggests....even in part.

There's always room for improvement in contests, but from what I've seen, the general train of thought seems to be, make a comment, get an entry. That's about as simple as it gets, and I don't really see a problem with that mentality. Some people may be the lucky lottery winner, despite never playing, but that's just the way these kinds of contests go.

To me, the incentive to post here shouldn't be about winning stuff, but about the community and interaction with those who share similar interests. Even if we don't always agree with each other, and sometimes seem to be at each others throats, we still all like video games, and sometimes, even with our proverbial mortal enemies on here, we can sometimes still have good discussions, or have fun with topics that aren't contentious. Wish there could be more of that, but that's a whole other issue.

[DuckOnQuack35]

Ok and forget about the people that don't just sit on here and bicker about pointless stuff? Or the people that don't have the time to write 1000 words on why my opinion is better than another.

[rainslacker]

Very true. I can easily write up to 10 comments, with 1000-4000 characters in a single thread. I have a lot of free time at work sometimes, and I tend to fiddle around on here when the wife wants to watch TV and spend time together, so I'm not doing other things. While I don't mind winning free stuff, I don't really feel that because of my situation, and ability to type extremely fast, and what appears to be an incessant need to get my two cents in(although it's more boredom than need), that what I have to say is any more valuable than what someone else might have to say, even if they only make a single comment on a topic or two here or there. It's a collective community, and while there are more prolific members, I don't see any reason to discount the contributions of those that also have things to say, sometimes even when what they say doesn't get any extra discussion.

it's easy enough to spend a bunch of comment bubbles on a hot topic when it comes to the fan boy wars, but most of the good comments around here actually don't get many replies to the initial comment, much less the rare responses that come from them. Sometimes, a comment just doesn't need such things. More what I see is that those that comment a lot, including myself, tend to talk a lot about stupid stuff. We may feel strongly about it, but at least half the time, it's still console war banter, and really kind of a waste of time if one were to really analyze the amount of effort that gets put into such conversations.

[Neonridr]

Hey I appreciate that you included me friend :)

I know I am not the most well liked person on here, but I try to be active and engaging. Take it for what it's worth I guess.

[Razzer]

Congrats to the winners!

[Hardiman]

Congrats to the winners and to Santa Monica Studio!

[The 10th Rider]

Congrats to the winners! I thought for sure everyone would pick Fallout 76 as GOTY. Guess I was wrong there!

[optimus]

since i know those winners won't be taking the xb-1 X, can you give it to someone who will appreciate it as a consolation prize?...namely me? 😜

[Christopher]

Rewards will be purchased and sent to the winners based on desire, we don't have an X just sitting around, otherwise it might not have made it to the contest... Just saying. I've been playing my Xbox One recently, and my new 4k TV is very nice...

[coolbeans]

"I've been playing my Xbox One recently, and my new 4k TV is very nice..."

Hmmm...you don't say?

[AuraAbjure]

What TV brand are you rocking Christopher?

[Christopher]

@rockwhynot Nothing special, but a solid TV.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/p...

[AuraAbjure]

Oh my God that looks incredible 👍

[DuckOnQuack35]

If they took the Xbox their accounts would be banned

[monkey602]

Wahoo! We have winners! I'm just relieved to see a result haha. I started to think this went wayside and panic that I hadn't correctly followed through myself :P
Fair play Christopher, Thanks for your efforts.

[cell989]

Yay GOW!!

[bigmalky]

Congrats all.

[masterfox]

Easy win for Kratos ;)

[Shani]

Congratulations to the winners

[DafunkyRebel]

Boooo

[oasdada]

Congrats to all the winners and the obvious GOTY!

[BlackDoomAx]

If Masterofmagnetism doesn't say thanks before 15 min, someone else must be chosen.

[BushLitter]

How can a Mod be allowed to win? Just doesn't seem right. Whether it's all above board or not is irrelevant, it just looks wrong. Congrats to God of War.
EDIT: I did not enter the competition, so please don't think I feel hard-done by. I'm simply stating my concern as a matter of principle.

[coolbeans]

This is posted in the legal portion of N4G contest announcements:

"1. Contest is open to all N4G users, except for employees of HAVAmedia and immediate relatives. Contests are not limited to the US/NA. Note: Moderators do not receive remuneration, are not employees of HAVAmedia, and are eligible for N4G monthly contests."

'Looking wrong' or 'not seeming right' aren't very strong arguments.

[BushLitter]

It's all about perception. If mods continually win contests, then it doesn't seem right. It looks wrong. Have a good day

[victorMaje]

Congrats to the winners & SSM!
2018 had some great games for us. Here’s to more & beyond for 2019.
Happy New Year everyone.

[TheGamez100]

Noooo, no wins at all as usual....but congrats to all winners and of course also my GOTY, GOW. Looking forward to what video games has to offer for 2019!!! And my #1 source for most of my gaming news, N4G!

[MrVux000]

No matter if you are a BOI or a BOAH, there is no denying it 2018 was a satisfying year overall as far as games go.

Congratulations to the winners, and kudos for the giveaway!

[BioDead]

I'm just overall annoyed how this whole contest was handled. I also keep giveaways on my site and other sites as well and I always clearly explain the rules, when the prizes is send, etc. I won (day something) and yes thank you for it, but I had to ask after my prize multiple times, I have to reach out other users who had won and ask if they get anything yet. It was frustrating to wait and I started to think they went and drank all the winning money and now they have to wait to get next paycheck to give the prizes.

Whatever happened I would've liked more clear rules and as -Foxtrot said someone made good points and long answers and the winner was chosen still just randomly even though there was a question where to be answer so the question was just to give the contest some fillings than just say "write something, it doesn't matter we chose randomly".

And I still haven't received my winning prize. So, that tells a lot of this contest. I kinda don't even expect it anymore since I'm tired of this whole thing already, but just wanted to say my opinion of the contest itself and how it was handled. Good thing there are contest held, but please make more effort to it next time. Thanks.

[Jurat]

We're all winners this year!

2018 was great for gamers!

[milohighclub]

Was there a day where a mod didn't win?

[coolbeans]

18 out of the 20 days.