The Gamers' Choice Awards, "the first and only network televised awards show celebrating the booming worlds of gaming and esports," has announced its nominees for 2018 and opened the doors to the voting booth. Put together by the creators of the Teen Choice Awards, the GCAs feature a big range of conventional categories like favorite shooter and most anticipated game, but puts a much greater focus on the people who play and share them.
GCA winners are chosen strictly via vote, which is reflected in the category names, which generally eschew "best" for "favorite"—so instead of "Best Indie Game," for instance, the category is "Fan Favorite Indie Game." Not that it has much impact on the actual nominees: The GCA indie game category includes Dead Cells (which won the "best indie" title at the recent Golden Joysticks), Celeste, Subnautica, Into the Breach, Iconoclasts, Donut County, and Moonlighter.
(Not that it's an across-the-board replication: Skyrim VR, which won the Golden Joystick for Best VR Game, isn't even nominated in the GCA's Fan Favorite VR Game category.)
Voting in the Esports section includes fan picks for individual players in nine different games, plus favorite host, caster and caster duo, favorite collegiate team, and favorite "esports moment." The Pop Culture section lets people vote for things like their favorite celebrity gamers in the Actor, Athlete, and Musician category, their favorite voice actors, and their favorite in-game character.
One category that's of particular importance to us is "Fan Favorite Gaming Device," with options being Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, mobile, and PC. Not that I'm hung up on the results of a silly popularity contest or anything, but just as a matter of principle we don't want to let this one slip away, right?
Voting for the 2018 Gamers' Choice Awards is live now at gamerschoice.tv and will be open until November 27. The winners will be announced during the Gamers' Choice Awards broadcast on CBS, scheduled to run from 5-6 pm ET on December 9, right after the football game.
