At first glance, the nominations for the Game Developer Choice (GDC) Awards looked reasonable. BioShock and Portal, two of the best games of 2007, topped the list with five nominations each, including game of the year. The GDC Awards were handed out February 20 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Portal won game of the year, but that doesn't change the fact that when I look more closely at the other three games short listed for the award, I notice one glaring omission and one questionable inclusion.

The annual GDC Awards are highly valued because the winners are decided by the peerage of video game developers. All professional game developers who belong to Gamasutra, an industry association, are able to submit nominations. Those long lists are narrowed down to five finalists in each category by an advisory committee chosen by Gamasutra and made up of industry veterans. There are 13 individuals listed as members of this committee (www.gamechoiceawards.com/advisory.htm) and together they encompass a range of experience and expertise.

The category of game of the year “recognizes the choice of game developers for the overall best game release during 2007.” Lots of room for interpretation in those guidelines, so I expect that among the criteria used by the advisory committee are things like popularity, technical innovation, even sales figures. Game of the year, though, should also be greater than the sum of its parts.

This year, the five games nominated for game of the year at the Game Developers Choice Awards are: BioShock, Call of Duty 4, Portal, Rock Band, and Super Mario Galaxy. The first four games on the list added to the video game oeuvre. Even though BioShock and Call of Duty 4 were first-person shooters, they both tackled that genre differently than any other developer had before. Portal was, hands down, the most original and compelling game of the year. Rock Band took the music-rhythm category and raised it to new heights.

The game that does not belong is Super Mario Galaxy. It's a fun game to play, sure, but it's not any different than six other Super Mario games we've played. It’s a three-dimensional rehash of a franchise that is more than 20 years old. There is no way that Super Mario Galaxy deserves to be considered for game of the year.

The game that was shockingly left off the list of finalists for game of the year was BioWare Corp.’s Mass Effect. By blending elements of role-playing, action and open-world games, Mass Effect gave us something we haven’t seen before. With an intricate storyline and incredible technological innovations, the overall Mass Effect package is a rich, epic tale that gamers get to participate in, and truly impact. We have not seen this game before.

Mass Effect got screwed out of a major nomination. The groundbreaking game received deserved nominations in other categories — best game design, best writing, best audio and innovation — but that can’t make up for the fact that it was an easy choice as a finalist for game of the year and was left off the list to make room for the mustachioed plumber in outer space.

Despite the continued publicity about how well Nintendo’s Wii game system is selling, there was only one Wii game nominated for the GDC Awards. Super Mario Galaxy, published by Nintendo, was also nominated for best game design. Fifty nominations over 10 categories. The Wii platform received two. The game of the year nomination for Super Mario Galaxy smacks of quota-filling. It’s too bad that BioWare and Mass Effect are victim to such industry machinations.