This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
UPDATE: We're extending the deadline to 12:00 P.M. PST, Friday, February 18, 2011. We have some very close races, and a few extra days voting should resolve them! Good luck!
Welcome to the Bitmob Community Awards!
Last year we saw some truly amazing stories — articles that, we believe, couldn’t have appeared or been seen by so many on any other site on the Internet. Thank you so much for some of the funniest, thought-provoking, intelligent, and considerate articles we have ever had the pleasure to read. Some earned thousands of hits, some were published in GamePro, and all were loved.
How to vote:
- You can vote publicly by posting in the comments.
- You can vote privately by emailing me directly: andrew.hiscock@bitmob.com. All emails are confidential.
- Please vote only once for each category.
- You may vote for your own article.
- Write-ins are accepted! Don’t think we nominated the best article for a category? Vote for any Bitmob article that adheres to the nomination criteria by providing its title and author.
- Only articles written by community members are eligible.
- Please vote by 12:00 P.M. PST, Friday, February 11, 2011.
Best non-traditional article
(Nomination criteria: Any article that defies description or provided content in a new way.)
- What is this? — Explaining Bayonetta to a skeptical girlfriend by Adam Dorsey
- Bayonetta: The interactive fiction by Pete Davison
- Four Red Dead Redemption hunting stories: The ones that didn't get away by Chase Koeneke
(Nomination criteria: Any article with little to no reading required.)
- Box art: Controllers by Brian Taylor
- Sketching game characters by Cody Winn
- Full motion video by Brian Petro-Roy
(Nomination criteria: Any article that relates a connection to games through a personal history.)
- Object lessons by Brendon Mroz
- Gaming on the frontier: The ups and downs of living in Alaska by Louis Garcia
- My unique MLB: The Show review method by Rachel Jagielski
- Cultural victory: A personal history of the Civilization series by Richard Moss
(Nomination criteria: Any article that deals with games released at least two generations ago.)
- Remembering Out of This World: One button to rule them all by David Banahan
- Japan loves old games, not Older Gamers by Daniel Feit
- Celebrating 25 Years of 8-Bit: The Significance of the NES by Jeremy Signor
(Nomination criteria: Any article that deals with a singular element — mechanical, narrative, or otherwise — in one game, franchise, or genre.)
- The audacity of choice: Making "wrong" decisions in open-world games by Evan Killham
- Resident Evil 4 shows how "dangerous" is more terrifying than "scary" by David King
- Caught in a loop: The sound of falling tetrominoes by Richard Moss
- Unappealing character: God of War's Kratos dilemma by Evan Killham
(Nomination criteria: Any article that discusses video-game journalism or writing about games.)
- Defying journalism: A profile of the divisive HipHopGamer by Dennis Scimeca
- Will wikis kill off the FAQ? by Alex Martin
- Why the games industry needs a good documentary by Michael Gray
- Fear not the pen by Brian Shirk
(Nomination criteria: Any article that tried to be funny — and succeeded.)
- The final episode of Lost will invariably be better than Lost: Via Domus by Travis McReynolds
- RPG heroes are lonely people by Chris Davidson
- More God of War 3 hate: In defense of Hera by Evan Killham
(Nomination criteria: Any article that gives context to video games in the world at large.)
- PETA just don’t understand by Alex Martin
- Finding fulfillment in farming: Real life vs. Farmville by Meghan Ventura
- Understanding video game characters in a heartbeat: Japan's blood type theory and video games by Meghan Ventura
- More Pixar, Less Uwe: How Hollywood can make a "good" video game movie by Suriel Vazquez
- What can motion controls do for disabled gamers? by Isaiah Taylor
(Nomination criteria: Any article concerning the physical elements of video games.)
- The control pad: An extension of our hands by Ben Ingber
- 5 crazy controllers that never should have seen the light of day by Mark T. Whitney
- The not-so-secret history of video game peripherals by Jeff Grubb
(Nomination criteria: Any article that has three or more installments in 2010.)
- Forgotten ruins by Reggie Carolipio
- (30) days of RPGs by Jeremy Signor
- Splitscreen by Evan Killham et al.
(Nomination criteria: Any article that was selected for print in GamePro and not nominated for article of the year. All eligible articles are nominated.)
- Musings of a gamer: Are religion and gaming mortal enemies? by Mike Gringas
- Dudebro II: The birth of a meme and how NeoGAF began its first video game by Andrew Hiscock
- Day-one DLC: The problem with perishable content by Michael Rousseau
- Teaching game rules naturally by Joe Donato
- The saving grace of Bit.Trip Runner by Jon Irwin
- The joy of pressing start by Matthew Polen
- The final frontiers of Mass Effect, BioShock, and Red Dead Redemption by Christian Higley
(Nomination criteria: Any article that appeared on Bitmob in 2010.)
- Check her stance: Finally a female Pokemon trainer stands on her own two feet by Meghan Ventura
- My four-year-old son plays Grand Theft Auto by Matthew Orona
- What happened to high-concept games? by Daniel Feit
- IPhone games based on current events have untapped potential by Chris Winters
- Game stories: Pulling them apart, putting them back together again by Brian Taylor