I narrowed the backlog from 40 to 6 candidates and really just couldn't commit to one. The poll made it easy for me to "make the jump".
The opinions of gamers hold more weight for me than the opinion of journalists. Journalists are paid to say a game is great or garbage. Gamers speak from hundreds of hours of experience. 35+ years of gaming have taught me that if you walk into a game with a predefined expectation, you are almost always let down in some way and the game leaves a sour taste in your mouth because its not exactly what you wanted. The hype RARELY lives up - however its seems in the case of The Witcher 3...it holds, and holds damn well, even compared to current titles.
I honestly cant tell you how I got the Witcher 3, I started up my GOG launcher for the first time in a LONG time and it was in my library along with Ghostrunner, and Witcher 1: Directors Cut... no recollection of ever buying any of these games, let alone from GOG store, I just don't really shop there... However over the last few years I've basically stocked up on free games wherever I can find them, and added around 2-3 games to my backlog every time I can grab a game for around 15$, any my wife often slips a game into my Steam library as a gift.
I have been firmly stuck in the world of live service games for about 4 years now... looking forward to a change of pace and grinding through the whole backlog someday... if it ever stops growing