MANILA, Philippines – Ah, yes. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
Erdtree is one of the more controversial choices for this year’s The Game Awards 2024 Game of the Year (GOTY) awardees, not because of the quality of the game, but because of its nature as an expansion downloadable content (DLC) for the 2022 GOTY Elden Ring.
The argument for and against the game as a contender was resurrected when another prestigious award-giving body, the BAFTAs, announced on Tuesday, December 10, that “DLC is eligible as part of the consideration for Evolving Game, and in certain craft categories only,” which means it’s not eligible to be GOTY.
This is in contrast to The Game Awards, which, days before the nominee announcement, said that DLCs for games would be eligible for GOTY. Gamers, at that point, wondered whether that accommodation was being made for Shadow of the Erdtree. Soon, the nominees were announced, and Erdtree was indeed among them. Gaming outlets were divided.
Those who are for Erdtree’s nomination noted that it’s not just your usual DLC that adds maybe 5 to 10 hours of content. They argued that Erdtree adds a substantial amount of content ranging from 30 to 40 hours to complete — the length of a standalone game like a role-playing game.
The new content doesn’t merely add things that were already found in the original game. Instead, it adds new gameplay mechanics, and new story and lore that many outlets say justify its nomination.
Simply put, like Elden Ring before it, Shadow of the Erdtree is an inspired piece of creative work that was executed well. And for that, they say, it deserves the nomination.
“I embraced every new character, every fresh line of dialogue, and every mysterious location and how they factor into the greater whole. FromSoftware is renowned for being surreal and esoteric in its storytelling, but Shadow of the Erdtree benefits from being concrete in its thematic ideas. It’s undeniably moving, propelled forth by an open world bigger than most full-priced games, coming in at around 25 hours — longer than Balatro or Astro Bot,” The Gamer wrote.
On the opposite end, outlets argue that because the DLC content can only be accessed after beating the main game (which can take from 20 to 80 hours depending on skill level), that Erdtree shouldn’t be nominated.
Forbes wrote, “The key factor here is that this expansion is not remotely standalone, but an offshoot of the main game where you have to play anywhere from 20 to 80 hours to even be strong enough to take on the boss you are required to beat to even access the expansion.”
There is also the argument that while Erdtree offers a substantial amount of content, creating a game from scratch is a different undertaking than building upon an already existing universe — and therefore a new game from scratch is more deserving of the GOTY.
Forbes called for having a DLC category in The Game Awards. “There should be a DLC/Expansion category and even if that might have been an easy win for Shadow of the Erdtree, it should not be taking up space in all these other categories, however good it might be,” it said.
But here’s one way of simplifying the question, for the millennial gamers at least. If the expansion pack (that’s what DLCs were practically called in the past) Brood War for the game StarCraft were nominated as GOTY, would you agree?
Brood War is one of the best examples of how to do a great expansion pack, and like Erdtree, adds a ton of content that significantly changes the core game. Does Erdtree do the same to the Elden Ring experience?
Based on Metacritic scores, Erdtree is wholly deserving. With a score of 94, it is tied with Astro Bot and Metaphor ReFantazio — which are fellow GOTY nominees, by the way — with the highest aggregate score this year.
But the score only tells half the story. Our concern seemingly lies in whether Erdtree is only just an “episode” — a big one at that, though still an “episode” — as opposed to all its other competitors that stand on their own. Is the amount of newly created content in Erdtree substantial enough to be a worthy competitor against the other titles? Many say yes, and we’re bound to agree.
But that’s the dilemma here in this situation that’s obviously not cut and dry. If it wins, it’s certainly going to be a statement on how we view standalone games, and how we view DLC “expansion packs.” – Rappler.com
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