Winners of the 2023 Steam Awards

[Isgrimnur]

[Chraolic]

I can't argue with most of those, but how on Earth did Starfield get awarded "Most innovative gameplay"? It's literally Fallout 4 with spaceships.

[Blackhawk]

I can't argue with most of those, but how on Earth did Starfield get awarded "Most innovative gameplay"? It's literally Fallout 4 with spaceships.

It's Oblivion with guns and starships. I think the only new mechanics they've introduced in the game that weren't present in Oblivion are the companion reputation bit and the Lego block starship design. Starfield has plenty of good qualities to be praised for, but 'innovative' isn't one of them.

[Blackhawk]

Also:

Labor of Love Award
This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the debut of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.

This does not describe Red Dead Redemption in any way, shape, or form. They stopped updating it after less than a year, and the multiplayer was so unpopular (it was unbalanced and boring) that they they officially abandoned it after a year and a half.

[Max Peck]

It's been pointed out elsewhere that the Labor of Love and Most Innovative Gameplay categories were captured by sarcastic/ironic voting campaigns. Those games won because a lot of like-minded people thought they were the opposite of what the categories were supposed to represent.

I have no thoughts about who should have won the innovative gameplay category, but Cyberpunk 2077 was clearly robbed in the labor of love category.

[Rumpy]

Also:

Labor of Love Award
This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the debut of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.

This does not describe Red Dead Redemption in any way, shape, or form. They stopped updating it after less than a year, and the multiplayer was so unpopular (it was unbalanced and boring) that they they officially abandoned it after a year and a half.

Yeah, while I consider it their magnum opus, Rockstar has treated RDR2 like a red-headed stepchild, despite being their newest game, just because it won't make them as much money as GTA Online. And while I've been in awe of the details put into the game world, to call it a labour of love in 2023 is to not understand how badly they've treated it. And the way they've treated it gives me serious pause into any future followups, or Rockstar's ability in general of taking care of its games. I've heard people saying, once GTA6 is released, that maybe they'll focus their efforts on RDR3. To that I'd say, you really think they would given RDR2's treatment? It'll be the same excuse all over again, only now with GTA6 in place of GTAV taking priority. And it says much that a game with much better tech got sidelined by a decades old game. They never once stepped up to leverage that new tech by constantly changing things up in RDO like they'd done in GTAO. Heck, they never even completed Online's story, just left it hanging. The only thing they ever do these days is giving clothing discounts, change up the special events and add snow during the holidays. Not what I'd call nurturing by a long shot.

[Max Peck]

That's the point with how the voting in the category was manipulated. This is essentially the same sort of thing as a review bombing campaign, and it's working as intended. There are plenty of articles coming out this week that are focusing on the absurdity of RDR2 and Starfield winning those particular categories.

So, Uh, What's Up With The Steam Awards?

The results of 2023’s Steam Awards are in. Each year, Steam turns to the community to vote on the year’s best games across a wide variety of categories. This year saw Larian Studios’ RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 grab game of the year, while Lethal Company, a first-person cooperative horror game, got the “Better With Friends Award” for its co-op gameplay. The Last of Us Part I snagged Best Soundtrack, which seems odd because it came out in 2013, but it technically wasn’t added to Steam until 2023.

Then there were some stranger choices. Bethesda’s much-hyped and mostly fine RPG Starfield won Most Innovative Gameplay? And perhaps even more confusingly, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption II won the “Labor of Love Award,” a title reserved for games that continue to receive updates and support years after release. Rockstar announced in 2022 that Red Dead Online wouldn’t receive any future updates.

The Steam Awards are voted on by the Steam community, not in a secretive, smoke-filled room of mysterious judges. No, the awards are chosen by your average gamer—many of which were equally ready to send Starfield into Mostly Negative review status as of December 25, 2023.

I had more than enough criticism of Starfield last year, and to be honest, my opinion of it has probably only soured with time. But while there’s fun and value to be had romping around Bethesda’s 1,000-planet-rich galaxy, one can hardly say it’s innovative. At best it’s a fragmented Bethesda RPG joint of the kind we’ve been playing since 2011. And games like No Man’s Sky or Elite Dangerous have certainly done more with the concept of space travel, right? Can someone please explain to me how Starfield is innovative? Aside from its clever use of new game plus, which plays with the idea of infinite universes, I’m hard-pressed to find the innovation here—especially when it is so abysmal on the accessibility front.

And what about Red Dead Redemption II winning an award for the game with the most continued support this year? Over games like Deep Rock Galactic? The online mode hasn’t received an update in literally years. Cyberpunk 2077 snagged that award last year, but is there some reason it couldn’t have grabbed it twice in a row? Cyberpunk 2077 is hardly the same game it was in 2022 following a substantial 2.0 update and satisfying expansion with Phantom Liberty. Or what about No Man’s Sky? It’s the game we all reference when we talk about comeback stories, yet it’s never won Steam’s Labor of Love. Grand Theft Auto V grabbed both 2018 and 2019’s Labor of Love Award.

[Rumpy]

Are you saying it was purposefully done to show how useless the awards have become? If so, congrats I guess. But conversely, I could see how people could easily believe it then feel misled.

[Blackhawk]

I'd be more supportive of such 'grass roots' protests against some of Steam's absurdities if they most often used as a bludgeon based on "The main character is female!" Or not white. Or there is a character that appears for a few seconds in the background that's gay.

[Holman]

In 2022, Cyberpunk 2077 won the "Labor of Love" award.

This was the same year Dwarf Fortress finally arrived on Steam.