Kotaku Awards 2014: Online Experience Of The Year

Time to unveil our reader voted Online Experience of the Year as well as our Editor’s Choice. Click on to find out the winners.

This was ridiculously tight. One of the closest awards we’ve run. But, in the end, there can only be one winner and that winner is…

Reader’s Choice



Destiny

Well there you go. That’s quite the turnaround. Yesterday Destiny was voted in as 2014’s biggest disappointment. Today it’s been voted the online experience of the year. Honestly, I see no problem with this. Considering how borked so many of this year’s big online games have been, it’s almost a small miracle that a game like Destiny managed to run smoothly without a hitch.

Runner-up

Twitch Plays Pokemon

Seriously, how good was Twitch plays Pokemon. Pure genius.

Editor’s Choice

I find Destiny fascinating. Here is a game that, in my opinion, has such a solid, rewarding core that almost nothing else matters. Despite this it’s pretty clear that, for most gamers, Destiny did not deliver on its promise. Destiny doesn’t just split the gaming community in two, it presents very real internal conflict among those who play it on a daily basis. I have a friend who claims to hate Destiny. He’s put almost 200 hours into the game.

What the hell does that mean?

But I think that, in the current climate, Destiny’s online component was as good as any. It worked for one thing. That’s important. But it also felt polished. I loved the way in which Crucible felt like part of the overall Destiny experience as opposed to a segmented, fragmented piece of the game that live over there. I loved that it felt part of Destiny as a cohesive whole.

Runner-up

Dark Souls II

I’m too scared to seriously play PvP, but I continue to love the way From Software messes with the player via the online experience.