Honestly y’all, the short answer for why Shadow of the Erdtree is part of the GOTY list is that enough of the 100+ publications and websites who decide the nominees wanted it there. All other debates aside, this is the reason. Do I hope future entries have a separate category for this? Sure. But there is enough of an argument to be made for larger-scale DLC to be included in the running… at least for now. I’m sure half the internet will hate whatever the future solution ends up being anyway 😂