- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
Normally the steam awards winners are real stinkers, but the voters had shockingly good taste this year.
Normally the steam awards winners are real stinkers, but the voters had shockingly good taste this year.
Okay listen. I know I haven’t played it myself but… Isn’t Arc Raiders just another fucking extraction shooter? How the fuck does it beat Blue Prince for most innovative gameplay?
Steam Awards is a popularity contest.
Arc is definitely the “yep, steam voters have shit taste” one of the bunch.
Yeah, the rest I can understand, Arc Raiders is anything but innovative.
It’s innovated in that it’s an extraction shooter that has mass appeal and isn’t a total drag to play but it’s not exactly game breaking mechanics-wise.
I think it’s the multiplayer game of the year. Wouldn’t call it the most innovative game of the year
Because people have no idea what innovative means. Nor does Valve, since Arc Raiders was in the category.
Valve doesn’t decide anything, the whole Steam awards are voted by the community. It’s a popularity contest.
No because we can’t add our own picks. You choose from a limited selection.
The top 4 picks are decided by user nomination a ~month before.
Huh I still don’t remember ever getting an open ended choice.
The nomination phase has a few suggestions for you, based on what you played. But if you don’t like them/want something else, there’s a button for that. Now you’ll know for next year.
Nomination is less prominently advertised in Steam compared to the voting itself, but you can nominate any game for an award via its store page. If I hear of it before it is over, it’s usually because the devs of some game I’m playing are asking for nominations, I don’t remember it being advertised on the store frontpage.
I got a prompt when I started steam, in the same popup window carousel they use for advertising. You probably did too but are conditioned to ignore and close it.
Probably yes. But the final voting is advertised on the store front page and usually during the winter sale, sometimes with things like getting cards or such stuff for voting, in addition to the pop-up. At least for me it seems more prominent in the interface than the nominations
Isn’t Blue Prince just Betrayal at House on the Hill the video game?
Well… kinda but not really. The room-placement is only a small part of Blue Prince though and I think turning it into a roguelite was pretty innovative.
Funny story, Tonda Ros actually hadn’t heard of Betrayal until Blue Prince was well into beta testing. These things happen. The true inspiration for it was a choose-your-own-adventure/puzzle book by Christopher Manson called “The Maze”. Manson actually contributed with the art for the paintings in the Gallery in Blue Prince.
This is the first time anyone has described Blue Prince in a way that made me want to play it lol. Not knocking the game, I just figured it would never be up my alley. But I’m a big fan of Betrayal.
While I don’t think it deserves the win over Blue Prince, it does have some interesting gameplay innovations compared to others in the genre, as well as some interesting tech.
In particular, the included PvE element, as well as the sorter session and decreased death penalty makes the game much more accessible. It also helps offer an incentive to not shoot-on-sight, as the bots serve as a common enemy and shared threat. Its a difference between games like PUBG where games are tense, hour-long affair, and something like Fortnite where its colourful, easy to get into, and despite still being competitve, filled with other diversions for those who won’t win.
It also sold way better than Blue Prince did. The Steam awards are always going to be weighed heavily in favour of the better selling games.
Steam awards are pretty much always like this. Popularity over the actual category itself.
“Innovative” means “hey, I think I’ve heard of this title!”.