Baldur's Gate 3 has won Steam's 2023 GOTY Award

When Starfield wins most innovative, that's when you can disregard the rest.
- Sifu, TLOU and RDR2 aren’t even from 2023 as well…
  What a load of shite.
  
  TLOU Part 1 was a 2023 release, even though it's just a remake but at least I can let that slide. Even SIFU was a 2023 Steam release so I can let that slide. RDR2 is in a category that specifically built for games before 2023. What I can't let slide is giving it the labor of love award. It hasn't been touched since launch and the online component is a gong-show because of it's bugs and cheaters. Even the singleplayer mode had a huge audio bug that affected many people (including myself) and the only work around was getting some guys script that you have to run before launching the game.
  It's completely abandoned by Rockstar and does not deserve to come anywhere close to the "Labor of Love" award.
- This is why children don’t get to vote when it really matters.
  
  It's the reason why I don't ever pay attention to gamers' choice awards etc. For all the shit that critics get, usually I agree with their consensus
- I voted for without a doubt, which i though was gonna win the most innovative
- Some viewpoints would prefer it if you wrote off bg3 that way.
  
  Some viewpoints are actually wrong that way.

- Why was Cyberpunk not even a finalist? They released a massive update this year and have pretty much fixed the game and added lots of new content through the DLC.
  
  Cyberpunk legitimately turned itself around and won back the public after a disastrous launch, just like NMS did.
- Deleted.
  Who knows. Kids voted on this stuff.

Starfield is the one of the least innovative games I've ever played. How the fuck did it win that?
- Probably ironically, just as Red Dead winning it despite the shennanigans behind it.
- Steam Awards, like any publicly-voted award, is a name recognition contest.
- The innovations in menu UI is out of this world!
- Ah, but you did play it. That's the point.

Starfield won the innovative gameplay award? RDR2 won labor of love award? Some of these winners are extremely strange.
- The problem with the Steam Awards is that they try to get as many people to vote as possible, even if people haven't actually played the games in question.
  People will see a bunch of games they haven't played, be like "oh hey I at least know the name of that one" and vote for it even though they have no idea if the others are more deserving or not.
  
  You don't even need to have played the games to vote.
  It even tells you if you've played each game, but still let's you vote on the ones you haven't.

Starfield for most innovative gameplsy? Am I missing something or do people on Steam ride that Bethesda cock hard?
- At the time I'm writing this, recent reviews reached mostly negative (29%), and all-time reviews are mixed (64%). Which is honestly a lot more than it deserves, but I would hardly call that "riding Bethesda's cock".
  It's probably just a matter of big games getting more votes, because of name recognition. This is just a popularity contest, after all.
  
  Honestly wouldn't be surprised if most people chose it as a joke.
- Best guess is people voted it because they didn't know any of the other games and didn't bother to check.
- I just came here to ask the same question. It's not innovative one bit, it's a clone of No Man's Sky, and a shitty one at that.
  
  They copied shouts from Skyrim, except worse, that's how un-innovative it was.
- The steam awards were never anything but a contest about which game is the most known. I really dislike them due to that, but at least one title (BG3 deserved it this year)
- Yeah that's pretty awful
- Your Only Move is Hustle
  Starfield
  Shadows of Doubt
  Contraband Police
  Remnant 2
  Which game out of the choices given do you think most people have heard of?

As any proper award ceremenoy, useless popularity garbage. Rdr2 a labor of love? After they abandoned the multiplayer cause they coudnt give it money printing shark cards?
And starfield is innovative? In what? Being the laziest pile of poo that people still bought?
What a bunch of drivel
- After they abandoned the multiplayer cause they coudnt give it money printing shark cards?
  At least the multiplayer got attention, the single-player game never got anything after the initial release.
  
  GTA V, RDR2, and soon to be GTA 6
- Last of us winning soundtrack award is LOL too
  
  Darktide would have been better.
- It's almost as if all this was only a marketing ploy with no deeper significance...

There is no way they actually gave "Most innovative gameplay" to Starfield. And on top of that Best Soundtrack to Last of Us Part 1? Did they change the soundtrack for the remaster? How is it even nominated in 2023?
- Steam users voted for those titles.
  
  I've come to accept my tastes are beyond most gamers.
- Just because it's the same doesn't make it worse though - so it definitely is up there with the best game soundtracks of games from this year

Anyone who didn't expect BG3 to win Game of the Year has been under a rock since it launched O.o Anyone who expected Starfield to win Most Innovative Gameplay, are you offering divination services to the public?
Damn, I know some people are dead-set on insisting that Starfield isn't that bad but... innovative?? Really??? Most innovative?!?? Baffling!
- Anyone who expected Starfield to win Most Innovative Gameplay, are you offering divination services to the public?
  It was an easy call to make. Steam Awards are voted by the public, so it's all about name recognition.
  The other finalists in that category were Shadow of Doubt, Contraband Police, Remnant II, and Your Only Move Is Hustle. Of all these, I had heard about Starfield and Remnant II.
  I'm sure some of these games are awesome and I want to check them out by virtue of being finalists, but it was pretty clear Starfield was gonna win on brand recognition alone.
  
  Exactly. It's pretty hard to vote for a category when you don't even know half of the games. When it came to the most innovative category I imagine most people had only heard of Starfield. Remnant 2 was good, but it was always a more niche title and it got largely overshadowed by BG3 releasing only a week later.
  And of the indie titles I had only heard of Shadows of Doubt which I think is really innovative. It's sort of a procedurally generated detective game where you're solving crimes while technically also committing crimes. But it's in early access and is not an easily accessible game, so I don't really fault it for not doing the rounds in the gaming circles.
- Like someone else said it's gotta be a result of the voting for the awards being awful. I wanted to like Starfield and (ducks down) even got it early at the higher price.*
  But yeah lol innovation is a joke. Makes me feel bad for the devs who really made innovative stuff this year.
  *To be fair I had a shitty week before that and needed a new Bethesda game to make my life less awful so it...worked? It was my comfort food ok?????
  
  Tsk, tsk. :P It's okay, don't worry about it. Also don't worry about the red dot dancing around near you. It's just having a nice time. Feel free to stand up and stand still in front of the sni- uh, the rest of us ~.^
- I know, what an upset. Fifa2023 should have taken it.
- It's probably an ironic award, though I stand by the statement that Starfield isn't any worse than Bethesda's other mainstream titles post-Morrowind, except for the fact that it can't ride on the writing of much better writers who either left the company or made the IP they acquired.
  Starfield is the first pure creation of Modern Bethesda, and they can't rely on the excellent lore and world building of other games like Fallout 1 and 2, Morrowind, etc.
  That being said, 90% of issues can be solved by halving the radius for POI generation, adding a huge number of new POIs for the pool, and adding a survival mode to make shipbuilding important, space travel require fuel, and spacesuits necessary for environmental protection.

I'm shocked Pizza Tower lost soundtrack though.
Most Innovative Gameplay Award - Starfield
ahahahahahahahahahaahah 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣😹🤣🤣😹no fucking way
- Hi Fi Rush was a great contender for sound track, I would have liked either of those winning it. Last of Us winning is fucking wonky though.
- I'm hoping it was just a bunch of kids trolling bc they thought it was funny
  
  I think at some point you have to accept that they aren't pretending anymore, or being 'ironic.' This is how people really are.
  When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Starfield, innovative? They took fallout 4 mixed it with no man's sky and made it bad.
- Idunno if it's what you meant but this comment could read like "They took a dumpster fire, poured it into a septic tank, and then added something unpleasant" 😅 Seems Fallout 4 isn't much-loved, and at least in my mind NMS is never gonna escape the shitstorm it caused at launch (though even I've bought a copy by now) so... owch!
  Either way, I fully agree that possibly the most despised-for-being-dull game of the year getting called "innovative" is asinine. Maybe it's sarcastic? The only other option that makes any sense is that a lot of people just voted for it because they knew the name and had no real opinion. Kinda gross if that's the case :-\
  
  NMS at least is working on its redemption and now game is at least decent and has entertainment value. Sure it's a bit grindy but to those who love exploration it's a gift.
- It's just as innovative as fellow Most Innovative award laureate Stray's automatically- jump-to-a-highlighted-platform style of platforming with crappy stealth sections.

I'm upset that HiFi Rush didn't win anything at all
- Maybe it should have had an amazing soundtrack like The last of Us
  
  TLOU does have an amazing soundtrack but come on it was released eons ago. Justice for Chai

BG3 winning GOTY and LC winning BWF awards make sense. what doesn't make sense is Starfield being innovative, RDR2 having constant dev support and Pizza Tower being robbed for the second time.

Starfield won "most innovative" which immediately denigrates and insults literally every other game that received an award.
What an actual fucking joke.
BG3 getting GOTY makes complete sense, I've put like 1k hours into the game and every play through has been different and engaging.
The voice actress for aylin and the voice actor for ketheric are simply amazing, but honestly all the VA's did an amazing job.
As much as I love RDR2 it did not deserve, at all, labour of love.
- That and RDR2 make no sense. What did they add to RDR2? It's just a good game that still exists, they aren't continuing to work on it.
  
  You are absolutely correct and I amended my comment because as much as I enjoy RDR2, having to navigate their god awful DRM every time I open one of their games is easily one of the most annoying things in gaming. Not to mention I don't even think R* has done any serious updates to the game since release
- 1000 hours? Really? BG3 came out 153 days ago, which means you would have spent, on average, 6 and a half hours a day every day since then playing just that game. I'm not saying you're lying... but I kind of am? (if true, seek help)
  Regardless, what you said is true. BG3 offers so many options that each playthrough is so drastically different, the replayability is as close to infinite as any story-based game has gotten IMO. It's kind of amazing the game works at all, let alone works as well as it does.
  
  I apologize, I inflated my time by 370.1 hours
  Not as bad as my rimworld situation:
- Was Ketheric the one voiced by JK Simmons? Maybe I've got them mixed up with another character, but I remember being surprised to hear him, followed by incredibly disappointed by how bad his delivery was.
  
  I thought Ketherics delivery was great but maybe we chose different paths? I've played a couple of durge runs and several mostly-positive runs where I attempted to turn ketheric to the light, so perhaps I missed the bad parts?
  IIRC JK Simmons was Ketheric

RDR2 beating DRG and DOTA 2 for Labor of Love is a fucking joke. Even RUST and APEX still get regular updates.
Outstanding visual style for Atomic Heart?! Are you shitting me? Only unique visuals in that is the faceless sex bots and it's a terrible game overall. Wholly undeserved.
Most Innovative Gameplay for STARFIELD?! OF ALL GAMES?! Yikes. Just.. fucking yikes.
- I had a similar reaction on these titles...honestly I felt that the results were rigged. Is it just me?
  
  Probably just the fact that it's a popularity contest. Doubt it's rigged, it's just poorly moderated and fabricated.
  
  I don't know but it would be very like Valve to put zero effort into ensuring it's not manipulated.
  That said, most large polls trend much more mainstream than people expect.
  Starfield may have been a bold new frontier in mediocrity but it nevertheless had about 2 million more chances to be someomes favorite game compared to some indie title.
- for real... RDR2 has been abandoned years ago
- It's not even that big of a surprise after last year's "best VR game" was Hitman 3. That game's VR support is, excuse my language, absolute fucking dogshit.
  Bonelab was a disappointment, absolutely, but at least it was a proper damn VR game and not a mediocre game with VR tacked on for literally no reason but, I assume, some exec's feature checklist

Steam has once again shown us the flaws of a direct democracy, in that idiots get an equal vote to informed people. Really the only winner that makes sense is Baldur's Gate 3. Even discounting the obviously silly ones, like a game that hasn't been updated in three years winning Labor of Love, something like Hogwarts Legacy is a generic by-the-numbers open world collectathon that's nowhere near the best thing you can play on the Deck. Atomic Heart's visual style is a 2008 shooter with a sprinkle of Sovietpunk. Neither the Last of Us Part 1 or SIFU even came out in 2023.
On the one hand, you can make a clear argument that 2023 was a pretty shitty year for games, and say "sure the awards look stupid, but nothing good came out." That's a pretty fair take for AAA, but a ton of incredible games came out in the AA and indie space. Some of them, like Lethal Company and Dave the Diver, were mentioned, but tons of great games weren't even nominated. I think Valve needs to do a better job of policing the nominations if they want to show off more of the creative and original titles that go to Steam. Otherwise, we'll just keep recognizing derivative garbage, since it usually has the most money behind it.
- BG3 plays so damn well on the steam deck, too. I don't see how it wasn't an option.
- Also very hard to vote legitimately against a concentrated effort. 4 of the 5 games deserve to be there, should be about 25% of the vote each. 1 "luls" entry will draw the clowns that put it there, along with people who didn't originally think "burn it down"was an option.
- Neither the Last of Us Part 1 or SIFU even came out in 2023
  Both launched in 2023 - on Steam that is.
- Pretty much everyone voted for their favorite game
  
  Strong disagree. My favorite game of the year wasn't up for game of the year. I feel bad that I actually put some effort into "looking into" the games I hadn't heard of before (was this valves plan?) To make sure I was giving proper consideration before making my choices.
  I voted for 4 of the 11 winners, none of which went with the "troll" votes

Wow I'm embarrassed by the choices of steam users. Lethal company and BG3 make sense but the rest don't.
- Sifu does since it just got released on steam this year.
  RDR2 and Starfield though are just idiotic

This is... A weird spread of awards...
Like BG3 winning GOTY and story rich makes total sense.
But RDR2 won labor of love? What? Lol. Have they been putting out massive updates lately or something?
Atomic heart won visual style... Sure? I mean I guess it's atmospheric but I wouldn't call it particularly stylized.
Lethal company getting better with friends is a solid pick
Hogwarts Legacy is best on deck? The fuck? Lol I suppose i haven't played this one but I was under the impression the game was like... Fine? Kinda boring after a while but still playable? It's not horribly offensive but how does a game like that win an award for being the most beloved steam deck game lol
STARFIELD WON FUCKING WHAT??? Okay, I was not as big a starfield hater as some. I thought it was boring as shit for sure but I don't think it's completely without merit on the whole... But Innovative? Fucking LOL! Starfield innovated exactly 0 things, hell it retroactively made things from 2011 seem new by comparison. I don't think theres a single fresh idea in that entire game. Starfield winning most innovative game paints a very uncomfortable picture of the steam awards. There is CLEAR tampering going on here, either by bots vote spamming, or just a behind the curtain dealings with Bethesda. To be honest every single other award here feels tenuous at best just by Starfield winning that specific award. If that boring ass rehash of 2007 gameplay can be called the most innovative game on steam then I'm not sure I can trust any of these games actually got nominated by real players for any of their respective awards. What a fucking joke
- Nah, this makes sense to me.
  In order to get full credit (for the badge or card or whatever they had), you had to vote for every category.
  I've never played a VR game, but I still had to vote in that category, so I just... picked something.
  RDR2 is something a lot of folks have played. Hogwarts is something a lot of folks have played.

Such nonsensical results. It really is a popularity contest.
At this point, I think it's clear that voting restrictions of some sort are necessary. My first thought: players can only vote in a category if they've got at least 5 hours of total gameplay distributed amongst at least 25% of the games in that category, with a minimum of 30 minutes of gameplay per game.
- I was forced to vote in some categories because they promised me a chat emoji.
  I did, however, not vote by popularity, but I imagine many did.
  
  I literally only voted on one thing by accident because the button made it look like I was going to go to another page to choose my vote in that category. Turns out I was just voting for the game I was looking at immediately and irrevocably.
- Don't be so upset, these awards are decided by the gamers. Every Steam user can take part in the selection and voting.

The fact that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk didn't make any of the lists, especially for the soundtrack category, was disappointing. The fact that a fucking remake won the best soundtrack category is straight-up gross. Valve should honestly disqualify remakes from the steam awards. There are a few exceptions, like I think Halo's MCC is worthy of standing by itself, but they've gotta do something more than remaster some textures and throw in a few new models.

Starfield continuing the tradition of Stray's "Really? You're Calling THAT Innovative?" award.

Did RDR2 get an update that freshens the game up? I thought Labor of Love was for things like Terraria where the devs keep updating the game over time. I would think that NMS of all titles would be more deserving, unless they have a rags-to-riches sort of award
- Cyberpunk wins something similar in TGA and while it's somewhat controversial, it still makes sense. RDR2 is just plain incomprehensible.
  
  Yeah it makes no sense that Cyberpunk wasn’t even a finalist for this award. They should’ve won for the comeback they’ve made after their disastrous launch. RDR2 is a bizarre choice.

The Last of Us is a goddamn masterpiece I will never shut up about, but I don't even remember the soundtrack. If it deserves as award in 2023 (a questionable premise to begin with), it should be for the story, acting, or gameplay.
- I prefer the soundtrack from TLoU2 (same composer), but TLOU1 has a stellar soundtrack as well. It's a bit more nuanced and background though.
  I'd recommend checking out the OST to jog your memory. It's still quite good, and strangely well matched for the game.

Huh I was expecting butthurt in here over hogwarts legacy
- Really good game tho
- Starfield winning Most Innovative, while the game was somehow the opposite of innovation, overshadowed the bigot-of-the-day hate.
  
  Well I would say steam users genuinely liked Hogwarts. Nobody realistically boycotted the game it was just a reddit and twitter thing

I guess I really should play it at some point.

I didn’t think I would enjoy Hogwartz Legacy as much I have. I’m not sure what I was expecting but being a demigod who just absolutely wrecks anything in my path with pure violence wasn’t it

They really had Starfield competing for “most innovative” with nothing but smaller indie titles that most people probably haven’t played. No wonder it won, it looks like Valve practically guaranteed them the award.
- The biggest other game on that category was Remnant 2, a fantastic game that improves on everything the previous iteration did but isn't really innovative since it's a sequel.
  The votes make no sense.
  
  I agree with you, but how many people do you think played Remnant 2 vs played Starfield? Unfortunately part of these game awards, at least for ones that players vote for, is the popularity aspect. People will vote even if they only know 1 or 2 of the nominees, so a game’s popularity ends up being a huge advantage.
  So in this case Starfield, for some bizarre reason, got stacked up with a bunch of indies with significantly smaller player bases. So despite Starfield having no right to win the award, it did.
  It really feels like it was purposefully pit against those games to give it a free award. I can’t think of any other explanation.
  Edit: Some people are speculating that people voted for it as a joke, and did the same for RDR2 winning “Labor of Love” despite having no new content since release. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if this was true.
  
  Remnant 2 was far more innovative than Starfield. The biggest innovation of Starfield was to get the game to even run on their crappy engine.

Still wondering why the fuck RDR2 was on the nominations at all

sounds good but I can't get the FUCK out of the shars temple because i played pacifist with both the rats and the other asshole

the award heist is going smoothly. theyll never know what hit them. but even though everyone banded together to put my crappy scribbles on the lineup, i need you to click on them AGAIN because gaben DOESNT WANT US TO WIN!!!
who is stronger, todd howard (1 man) or the HUSTLERS (millions)
—Game developer of Your Only Move Is HUSTLE, a fellow innovative award finalist