The Sport Awards (opens in new tab) was such a weird fever dream this yr. The present alone housed an eight-minute acceptance speech (opens in new tab) straight off the bat. Then there was the stage-crasher who appeared throughout Elden Ring’s GOTY speech (opens in new tab) and someway wasn’t instantly booted off. Maybe the weirdest factor all through all this, although, has been the bitter combat between the Genshin Influence and Sonic fandoms over the ceremony’s most pointless award: the Gamers’ Voice.
Regardless of the class whittling down to 5 video games by its closing spherical, it did not matter. Elden Ring? Irrelevant. By no means heard of it. God of Warfare Ragnarok? Who’s she? Stray, Minecraft, Sifu, MultiVersus, Cult of the Lamb… nothing however collateral injury within the conflict between waifus and speedy hedgehogs. Reddit posts have been made, web fingers have been pointed and lifelong digital rivalries have been fashioned.
The entire thing began as a shocking illustration of two communities’ adoration for the video games they spent a lot time with. Sonic Frontiers followers wished the sport to get the popularity they felt it deserved, having earned zero juror nominations throughout any class. In Genshin Influence’s case, it is unsurprising {that a} group boasting round 60 million energetic gamers was inflicting the vote to weigh fairly closely of their favour. Regardless, Sonic Frontiers got here out on prime for the primary two rounds, with Genshin following carefully behind.
Eggman questioning how the hell his 20 story destroyer mech is getting trashed by a 3 foot hedgehog pic.twitter.com/4IxAykakRRDecember 5, 2022
The third spherical is when issues began to take a flip and the conflict between followers (opens in new tab) started. The 2 communities started to level fingers at one another, accusing each other of utilizing bots (opens in new tab) to skew the votes. Regardless of each side wanting to indicate enthusiasm for his or her respective video games, issues turned a tad bitter and insults have been flung round. Sonic followers accused Genshin followers of being bribed to vote (opens in new tab), whereas Genshin followers identified that artwork (opens in new tab) of Sonic characters beating the shit out of Genshin characters had begun circulating throughout a Chinese language day of mourning, which spurred the nation’s followers into mass voting. There have additionally been accusations of the Sonic fandom expressing racist or xenophobic remarks in the direction of Genshin gamers.
Nicely, issues are lastly over, and it appears not even Sonic’s ultra-passionate group may cease the Genshin Influence prepare. Throughout The Sport Awards, Geoff Keighley awkwardly laughed via the “100% fan-voted class” nominees, including “you guys have been very busy voting the previous few days.” He even threw in a sly jab on the bot accusations, all however confirming some foul play had taken place. “As soon as we took out all of the bot votes, the sport award goes to Genshin Influence.”
I say issues are over, however taunts from each side are nonetheless incoming. The Sonic subreddit is wanting fairly hunkered down now, with mods shortly cleansing up poisonous posts and feedback and lots of of its prime posts are at the moment locked. I additionally spied a couple of tweets of Genshin followers teasing the Sonic group for allegedly beginning the entire beef, claiming the blue blur would’ve taken the crown if followers had stayed quiet.
Now pay attention, I am apathetic to all this. I’ve performed and loved Genshin and I’ve performed and loved Sonic video games. I am a fence-sitter—I can barely choose a pair of socks within the morning not to mention aspect with considered one of two equally scary fan bases. But it surely’s a disgrace to see two clearly passionate units of followers going towards each other in more and more imply methods. The Sport Awards—and particularly the Gamers’ Voice vote—are a little bit of enjoyable on the finish of the day, and I am positive many followers cross over into each communities and will not recognize the continued beef. It is locked now, however I hope this good little bit of art work (opens in new tab) of Sonic and Lumine hanging out will remind folks why we love these video games within the first place.
