If anyone was still taking them seriously, they sure as hell aren’t now.
RDR2 took labor of love. I was hoping for DRG.
Hogwarts got an award (Best on Steam Deck). Hogwartz is not only politically odious but is just an open world with Potterverse assets, and takes place mostly in the swamp anyway.
Starfield got most innovative despite having the usual buggy-plus-banal that is the typical Bethesda formula. WTF?
So, okay, I’m a snob. And I’m disappointed with the Steam community.
The starfield and rdr2 ones are spite votes, obviously. Starfield is sitting at mostly negative for being shallow and repetitive and rdr2 was abandoned.
They’re meme votes.
How did rdr2 get labor of love? R* abandoned it. There was no new content for 3 years
Honestly, this one bothers me WAY more than Starfield. Sure, SF might not actually be a GOTY candidate, but the shipbuilding alone really is innovative. RDR2 was my JAM for a few years, but Rock$tar abandoned it like a red-headed stepchild!
Have you never heard of Kerbal Space Program?
Or Space Engineers? EVE Online? Elite Dangerous? Besieged if you play it very badly?Spaceships aren’t really new.
I think my favorite was the winner of the 2023 Labor of Love award: Red Dead Redemption 2, which hasn’t had a major content update since 2022.
I finally played through the RDR2 campaign a few months ago. The game is kinda a masterpiece and I wanted to vote for it when I saw it as an option. Then I remembered it came out 5 years ago and as far as I’ve heard from friends there’s nothing special about the online play.
Bit confused as to how it was even a candidate for the award lol