Valve Announces Winners for the First Steam Awards

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Valve Announces Winners for the First Steam Awards

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Only two of the winners released in 2016.

During the Autumn Sale, Valve added the ability for users to nominate games for a series of awards - and that ability extended to every game in Valve's catalog - for its inaugural Steam Awards. These aren't typical end of year awards, and not just because the choices weren't limited to 2016 releases. Instead of "Game of the Year" and "Best RPG," the Steam Awards use categories like "Villain in Most Need of a Hug" and "Best Use of a Farm Animal."

Between December 22 and December 29, a single category opened up for voting, with each only accepting votes for 24 hours. You may notice that there is no "Game in Most Need of a Sequel" category. Cough. Moving on...

The winners have been announced [http://store.steampowered.com/SteamAwards/], and here they are:

"Villain Most In Need Of A Hug" Award:
Portal 2

The "I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award" Award:
Euro Truck Simulator 2

The "Test of Time" Award:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The "Just 5 More Minutes" Award:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The "Whoooaaaaaaa, dude!" Award:
Grand Theft Auto V

The "Game Within A Game" Award:
Grand Theft Auto V

The "I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye" Award:
The Walking Dead

The "Best Use Of A Farm Animal" Award:
Goat Simulator

The "Boom Boom" Award:
DOOM

The "Love/Hate Relationship" Award:
Dark Souls III

The "Sit Back and Relax" Award:
Euro Truck Simulator 2

The "Better With Friends" Award:
Left 4 Dead 2

For more awards, you can check out Steven [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/17351-Escapist-Awards-Best-of-2016#&gid=gallery_6714&pid=1].

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[Zhukov]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

 

[Worgen]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Except that its totally bullshit it beat Undertale.

 

[Borty The Bort]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Except that its totally bullshit it beat Undertale.

I played half that game crying and laughing at the same time. Loved it. How the Walking Dead beat it is beyond me.

 

[Borty The Bort]

I'm just gonna be cynical and note that quite a few of the games that won were Valve titles.

"Best use of a farm animal" was handed to Goat Simulator on a silver platter. People knew it would win from the second they saw the title of the award.

"Just 5 more minutes" goes to COUNTER STRIKE!? How!? Games like Civilisation were panned away for Counter strike of all things. I've never played it,but from what I've seen it really doesn't strike me as that sort of game.

 

[Aeshi]

I'm sure the fact that every category that had a Valve game as a nominee was won by said Valve game with one exception is complete coincidence.

That's not even mentioning the "What's that Goat Simulator? Swallow this time? Yes sir!" award.

 

[Worgen]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Except that its totally bullshit it beat Undertale.

I played half that game crying and laughing at the same time. Loved it. How the Walking Dead beat it is beyond me.

Oh I know how it lost and its still bullshit. It was because of backlash against Undertale for the perceived 'crimes' of its fans. For some reason Undertale gained a rep as having a horrible fanbase despite the fact I have seen no evidence of such. I think it just goes to people telling other people they have to play a game then other people going "MEH, he told me to play a game, Imma hate it now forever".

 

[sagitel]

I'm just gonna be cynical and note that quite a few of the games that won were Valve titles.

"Best use of a farm animal" was handed to Goat Simulator on a silver platter. People knew it would win from the second they saw the title of the award.

"Just 5 more minutes" goes to COUNTER STRIKE!? How!? Games like Civilisation were panned away for Counter strike of all things. I've never played it,but from what I've seen it really doesn't strike me as that sort of game.

yeah. CS should have not won that. civ, total wars, the crusader king series, basically any 4x game, Xcom and... were all more eligible than CS. what CS should have won was the test of time award. CS 1.6 came out about 15 years ago and its still being played. goat sim was obvious. and I'm genuinely surprised by the number of awards euro truck sim won. never knew people wanted a trucking sim. also how exactly did GTAV break a guy's mind?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I understand more and more why people like TotalBiscuit and Jim Sterling say that award ceremonies like this are pointless.

 

[Borty The Bort]

I'm just gonna be cynical and note that quite a few of the games that won were Valve titles.

"Best use of a farm animal" was handed to Goat Simulator on a silver platter. People knew it would win from the second they saw the title of the award.

"Just 5 more minutes" goes to COUNTER STRIKE!? How!? Games like Civilisation were panned away for Counter strike of all things. I've never played it,but from what I've seen it really doesn't strike me as that sort of game.

yeah. CS should have not won that. civ, total wars, the crusader king series, basically any 4x game, Xcom and... were all more eligible than CS. what CS should have won was the test of time award. CS 1.6 came out about 15 years ago and its still being played. goat sim was obvious. and I'm genuinely surprised by the number of awards euro truck sim won. never knew people wanted a trucking sim. also how exactly did GTAV break a guy's mind?

GTA V was extremely overwhelming when it came out at first. I think that was the reason for it winning the award.

In all honesty, these awards in particular strike me as just an advertisement for Valve's games. Hilarious how they simply dominated the awards despite the fact I don't think they have released a game in 4 years, let alone DLC of any sort. There were many games that were much more qualified to win a lot of these awards. "Better with friends" should have gone to games like "Overcooked" or one of the "Jackbox" games. "Villain most in need of a hug" really doesn't suit GLADoS in my opinion, because if anyone tried to hug her they would immediately be thrown into a trash compactor somewhere in the Aperture facility. I don't even know who they are actually referencing in that award. I could have voted "XCOM" in reference to the alien invaders, and that would have the same context and same valid reasoning. That award in particular was just a popularity contest over who likes which villain best.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I understand more and more why people like TotalBiscuit and Jim Sterling say that award ceremonies like this are pointless.

Pretty much. Play what you like and have a good time. The Steam awards were just a popularity contest. Not saying that each of those games don't have a lot going for them in their respective categories, but I think I voted for a different game in every one of them.

"Villain most in need of a hug" really doesn't suit GLADoS in my opinion, because if anyone tried to hug her they would immediately be thrown into a trash compactor somewhere in the Aperture facility. I don't even know who they are actually referencing in that award.

I assumed they were referencing Wheatley. He fits the category a lot more than GLADoS. I voted for Zulf from Bastion. He's a villain in the sense that he fucks up a lot of your stuff, but you can empathize with him in why he did it. I've played through the game multiple times and I always choose to take him along in the end.

 

[Borty The Bort]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Except that its totally bullshit it beat Undertale.

I played half that game crying and laughing at the same time. Loved it. How the Walking Dead beat it is beyond me.

Oh I know how it lost and its still bullshit. It was because of backlash against Undertale for the perceived 'crimes' of its fans. For some reason Undertale gained a rep as having a horrible fanbase despite the fact I have seen no evidence of such. I think it just goes to people telling other people they have to play a game then other people going "MEH, he told me to play a game, Imma hate it now forever".

Well... To be fair, have you ever seen the Undertale community page? I know it's not much to go by, but, well...
It might have better suited the "I thought this game was cool until it won an award award," though that's just my opinion

 

[Zhukov]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Except that its totally bullshit it beat Undertale.

Nah, all is right with the world I say.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I've never played it,but from what I've seen it really doesn't strike me as that sort of game.

Well, that doesn't leave you with much information to form an opinion with does it?

Bear in mind that in seventeen years there have only been three main versions of Counter Strike, yet all three have been comfortably the most played FPS game of their generation. CS:Go came out in 2012 yet still has half a million players at any given time of the day.

Technically with Counter Strike the mantra is 'just one more round' which lasts about ninety seconds, so five more minutes isn't quite accurate. However, you never play 'just' one more round, you play ten or fifteen or twenty more rounds.

Then it's gone midnight and you wonder how you've sat through five map rotations without realising it. I'd tell you to go and play it, but it will eat a chunk of your life.

 

[Worgen]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Except that its totally bullshit it beat Undertale.

I played half that game crying and laughing at the same time. Loved it. How the Walking Dead beat it is beyond me.

Oh I know how it lost and its still bullshit. It was because of backlash against Undertale for the perceived 'crimes' of its fans. For some reason Undertale gained a rep as having a horrible fanbase despite the fact I have seen no evidence of such. I think it just goes to people telling other people they have to play a game then other people going "MEH, he told me to play a game, Imma hate it now forever".

Well... To be fair, have you ever seen the Undertale community page? I know it's not much to go by, but, well...
It might have better suited the "I thought this game was cool until it won an award award," though that's just my opinion

There were a bunch of awards that would have fit it. The community page looks like a normal one to me, along with the occasional hate thread, just like cod.

 

[MHR]

I don't know how Skyrim wins test of time. TF2 is older than all those games and always has more concurrent players than Skyrim. It's people modding it that keep Skyrim active anyway, not the developer. I've played both for hundreds of hours, but Skyrim isn't the game I come back to "over and over again." TF2 is the one that keeps getting official updates.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I don't know how Skyrim wins test of time.

More people voted for it. That's how. I didn't vote for it either, but I can see why people would. Besides, I'm glad TF2 didn't win since it would have made the awards an even bigger Valve circle-jerk than they already ended up being.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I don't know how Skyrim wins test of time.

Released in 2011, in the top 40 highest grossing Steam games of 2016.

That's original Skyrim, not the remaster. Even without a public vote that's pretty emphatic, although Civ 5 came out a year earlier and is also in the top 40, but Civ players seem an insular bunch, I doubt too many of them voted.

I'm not sure about TF2, it's player base is strange and I bet the Skyrim community is better organised.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Walking Dead got the sad game award so all is right with the world.

Yep. And it was my only pick that got nominated to boot.

TBH Considering how goofy these categories are, and the games that have end up as nominees, i can understand most of these picks.
Except the "Test of time" Award going to Skyrim - that one deserves my "Hot Bullshit" award.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

That was the most "unimaginative, blandly shoving it right in you face and pointless"-awards I ever saw.

An most voters did not even seem to get their grasp on the categories right.

At least I got some money out of it by selling the stupid trading-cards.