For the nominations users at least had the option to skip sections if they couldn't think of anything to nominate. For the voting, in order to get the participation reward players had to vote for something in each category.

This led to a lot of users who don't care about the actual voting and just wanting the participation to vote for the one game they recognized in the category.

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 10 months ago

Popularity based on trolling. Every year Labor of Love goes to Terraria or CSGO or something earnest like that.

[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Guessing short sighted algorithms. Because you can see on Valves side of things, packages have been updated/added/etc this year which probably allows it to be picked up.

https://steamdb.info/app/1174180/depots/

You can see here, the DLC was updated in 2023 https://steamdb.info/app/1190051/info/

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[–] ElBarto@sh.itjust.works 141 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Technically the game does have innovative gameplay, no AAA studio has the balls to release a game as boring and lacking in gameplay that Bethesda has, they spent over a decade making fast travel the most integral gameplay mechanic.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Fast travel, plus inconsistency in whether or not you even get an "immersive" cutscene. Half the time you click into the menu and BOOM you're standing outside at some new location. About as much fun as fast traveling to another part of an Excel sheet.

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[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 69 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The awards don't mean shit, there was nothing even close to innovative about Starfield. They took No Man's Sky, made it worse, and shoved their 15 year old npc behavior in it.

[–] schmidtster@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Fan votes have been and will always be popularity contests.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago (10 children)

I am in a mad bubble then because I have never heard anything good about Starfield, or even seen for that matter. Besides maybe Joel Haver's starfield videos on youtube and those are parodies.

[–] schmidtster@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It almost seems tongue in cheek, especially with rddr2 winning the labor of love.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That or these big companies have an army of steam accounts for this. Thats not completely out of the question.

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[–] smeg@feddit.uk 11 points 10 months ago

It's worse than that because Steam essentially pay you to vote (by giving you a card or something you can sell) so people are incentivised to just pick a random game or the only game they've heard of.

[–] bender223 61 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wait, do they know what the word innovative means?

Wait, do they know what the word gameplay means?

Wait, do they know what the word most means?

[–] Ilflish@lemm.ee 47 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It was community chosen. So a lot of people trolled. There's a random dating sim in the"Outstanding story" finalists

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2322560/Love_Is_All_Around

[–] bender223 12 points 10 months ago

Ah, thanks for clarifying, or explaining how it actually happened. 👍

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[–] SpookyCoffee@lemmy.world 60 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

2006: Make oblivion

2007-2022: Recycle gameplay for other IPs

2023: Make oblivion in space

Truly innovative

[–] Montagge@kbin.social 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'd play the hell out of it if it's Oblivion in space

[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

That would be good.

This is TES online in Space, with half of the features replaced by loading screens.

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[–] amio@kbin.social 31 points 10 months ago (1 children)

2023: Make oblivion in space

I fucking wish. I'm a huge, bitter whiner about Starfield and I would've loved it if it'd kept quality as high as Oblivion was (for its time, don't laugh)

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[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 52 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I have no side to take, but it's sorta hilarious seeing people saying the award mean nothing when it's starfield that win it, and on the other hand congratulate Baldur's Gate for winning another GOTY. Truly the Schrodinger Award.

[–] Goronmon@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Games you liked winning awards is something to celebrate. Games you don't like winning awards is proof that awards are a joke and should be ignored. Just how things work.

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[–] MrKurteous@feddit.nu 19 points 10 months ago (5 children)

To be fair, "game of the year" feels like it's meant to measure popularity, while "most innovative" sounds like it shouls measure how innovative a game is, which is perhaps why the two awards get such different reactions.

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[–] zxk@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Steam awards are a joke

[–] GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (2 children)

ALL awards are a joke

[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's like the points are made up and don't mean anything

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 10 months ago

"Everything is made up and the points don't matter."

[–] DadVolante@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like someone never won an award

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[–] shneancy@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

seeing as we are the ones voting I don't think it reflects steam as a platform - just gamers

[–] caut_R@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That‘s a user-vote, no? I can‘t say I‘m surprised that there‘s some headscratchers, I doubt the average user knows what innovative gameplay is supposed to be. They should let people vote as they did, then curate the top 20 of each category into 10 fitting games so those that don‘t match the award category are out, and then let people put their final vote between those 10.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That‘s a user-vote, no? I can‘t say I‘m surprised that there‘s some headscratchers, I doubt the average user knows what innovative gameplay is supposed to be.

Valve incentivized its users to vote in all categories.

[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not only incentivized it, but put certain games at the front of all of the categories. I don't know if those games were already voted on by other players, or paid for ads by the companies themselves, but I know that I was presented with games that I didn't feel fit into the category they were in. Personally, though, I really don't give a shit about awards. I can't think of any, aside from some book awards, that aren't bought and paid for popularity contest.

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[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago

Steam has nothing to do with this, people voted like that.

[–] pacoboyd@lemm.ee 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's for the lock pick mini game.

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[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Winning this award has done so much more damage to Bethesda than I'm sure they could ever have expected.

[–] AnonTwo@kbin.social 16 points 10 months ago

It's completely fan driven so if thats the result, then fans trolled themselves

[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is this some 4chan prank?

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[–] set_secret@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

i couldn't even get through the tutorial, space skinned skyrim is a about as innovating as a subscription model for a new app.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Even if it weren't for all of the problems the game has it's hardly innovative. I don't think a Bethesda game has been innovative ever. They didn't even invent the fallout franchise.

[–] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Fallout 3: Find your dad!

Fallout New Vegas: Your quest for revenge will lead you right into the middle of a political struggle which will decide whether this post-apocalypse society will fall to fascism, a corrupt republic that's two bad elections away from fascism, a technofascist, your rule, etc.

Fallout 4: Find your son!

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[–] EvilLootbox@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It was indeed quite innovative. Was the first game I ever installed on my HDD that refused to run at any acceptable level, ~~without any warning anywhere that it needed to be on SSD or not at all~~.

[–] TheMauveAvenger@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That was Alan Wake 2 for me, except they innovated one step further. I had to reinstall it on my NVME drive because my SATA SSD apparently wasn't fast enough.

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[–] kick_out_the_jams@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's in the system requirements but even games that list an SSD as required there still sometimes work fine on a hard disk.

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[–] Cosmonaut_Collin@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I can't believe shadow of doubt didn't win it. I guess it just isn't popular enough.

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