Please Reform Steam VR GOTY Voting Policies

[temps]

Recently I learned that flat screen players who have never actually played any VR games, used a VR headset, or even ran SteamVR software can vote in the Steam VR Game Of The Year nominations process. This seems problematic because they have no experience inside a VR headset, and no playtime for any of the nominated VR games.

Furtheremore, the fact some of the games in the contest are available as flatscreen games is likely to bias them in favor of the flatscreen games and against games that are only playable in VR.

How can a flatscreen player with no VR gaming experience, no VR headset, and no experience playing any of the VR games being nominated be expected to competently judge whether one game or another is a better VR game?

Worse yet, it's my understanding that Steam even offers small incentives to the general Steam population to vote in the contest, giving people who don't know anything about VR, have never played any VR games, and have no interest in VR an incentive to vote in a contest between games they have no knowledge or experience in.

I think a reasonable reform would be to limit voting on VR game nominations in the GOTY contest to those who own at least two VR games on Steam, and have a certain reasonable amount of playtime in SteamVR.

Ideally, I think the contest should require at least an hour worth of playtime in each of the games nominated... but if that's too much to ask, my more modest reform proposal mentioned previously would be a huge improvement by itself.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publicado originalmente por temps:

Please Reform Steam VR GOTY Voting Policies

Recently I learned that flat screen players who have never actually played any VR games, used a VR headset, or even ran SteamVR software can vote in the Steam VR Game Of The Year nominations process. This seems problematic because they have no experience inside a VR headset, and no playtime for any of the nominated VR games.

Furtheremore, the fact some of the games in the contest are available as flatscreen games is likely to bias them in favor of the flatscreen games and against games that are only playable in VR.

How can a flatscreen player with no VR gaming experience, no VR headset, and no experience playing any of the VR games being nominated be expected to competently judge whether one game or another is a better VR game?

Worse yet, it's my understanding that Steam even offers small incentives to the general Steam population to vote in the contest, giving people who don't know anything about VR, have never played any VR games, and have no interest in VR an incentive to vote in a contest between games they have no knowledge or experience in.

I think a reasonable reform would be to limit voting on VR game nominations in the GOTY contest to those who own at least two VR games on Steam, and have a certain reasonable amount of playtime in SteamVR.

Ideally, I think the contest should require at least an hour worth of playtime in each of the games nominated... but if that's too much to ask, my more modest reform proposal mentioned previously would be a huge improvement by itself.

The awards are for everyone who is not a limited account.

And how do you know these people didn't play them elsewhere? Because Valve can't know that.

[temps]

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Publicado originalmente por temps:

Please Reform Steam VR GOTY Voting Policies

Recently I learned that flat screen players who have never actually played any VR games, used a VR headset, or even ran SteamVR software can vote in the Steam VR Game Of The Year nominations process. This seems problematic because they have no experience inside a VR headset, and no playtime for any of the nominated VR games.

Furtheremore, the fact some of the games in the contest are available as flatscreen games is likely to bias them in favor of the flatscreen games and against games that are only playable in VR.

How can a flatscreen player with no VR gaming experience, no VR headset, and no experience playing any of the VR games being nominated be expected to competently judge whether one game or another is a better VR game?

Worse yet, it's my understanding that Steam even offers small incentives to the general Steam population to vote in the contest, giving people who don't know anything about VR, have never played any VR games, and have no interest in VR an incentive to vote in a contest between games they have no knowledge or experience in.

I think a reasonable reform would be to limit voting on VR game nominations in the GOTY contest to those who own at least two VR games on Steam, and have a certain reasonable amount of playtime in SteamVR.

Ideally, I think the contest should require at least an hour worth of playtime in each of the games nominated... but if that's too much to ask, my more modest reform proposal mentioned previously would be a huge improvement by itself.

The awards are for everyone who is not a limited account.

And how do you know these people didn't play them elsewhere? Because Valve can't know that.

:winterbunny2023:

I'd rather have some people who played the VR games on other platforms like Oculus be excluded from voting because they don't have any playtime in the games on Steam as long as it means flatscreen players with no VR experience are also excluded from voting on games they have never played and know nothing about.

The value of the contest is meaningless if anyone can vote even if they've never even tried VR because the number of flatscreen players vastly outweighs the number of VR players on Steam, which means the votes of people who actually have experience in those games will be drowned out by votes from those who have no experience in those games.

I'd say the same thing and I'd respect the contest results more even if I was a person getting most of my VR games on Oculus instead of Steam (and thus couldn't participate in the vote).

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publicado originalmente por temps:

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

The awards are for everyone who is not a limited account.

And how do you know these people didn't play them elsewhere? Because Valve can't know that.

I'd rather have some people who played the VR games on other platforms like Oculus be excluded from voting because they don't have any playtime in the games on Steam as long as it means flatscreen players with no VR experience are also excluded from voting on games they have never played and know nothing about.

The value of the contest is meaningless if anyone can vote even if they've never even tried VR because the number of flatscreen players vastly outweighs the number of VR players on Steam, which means the votes of people who actually have experience in those games will be drowned out by votes from those who have no experience in those games.

I'd say the same thing and I'd respect the contest results more even if I was a person getting most of my VR games on Oculus instead of Steam (and thus couldn't participate in the vote).

None of the awards finalists require game ownership and that's the point, a popularity contest.

[Crazy Tiger]

Publicado originalmente por temps:

The value of the contest is meaningless

Steam Awards never had any meaning outside a fun distraction during sales events and perhaps a banner/badge for the "winners". Heck, in the past they had nonsense categories. I wish Valve would go back to those, at least that made it clear to people that there is no actual meaning.

Besides that, no awards have actual meaning. It's all popularity contests and/or people in the business rubbing each others back.

[Gwarsbane]

You do know that people could have VR games on another account right? Or 1 VR unit for the home, a few different accounts for all the people in the home. Or went over to a friends and played it there.

Or its just a really meaningless award thats just meant for a little interaction with the store while a sale is on. The game developers get nothing but maybe some extra sales and thats about it.

If people don't have VR, they are allowed to skip it. Heck the whole awards stuff is pretty much just meaningless to me, I vote for stuff I know and go down one of the sides just to get through it. I don't care who wins because even if I think I might like the game, I'm not picking it up for a few years till its cheaper.

[temps]

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Publicado originalmente por temps:

I'd rather have some people who played the VR games on other platforms like Oculus be excluded from voting because they don't have any playtime in the games on Steam as long as it means flatscreen players with no VR experience are also excluded from voting on games they have never played and know nothing about.

The value of the contest is meaningless if anyone can vote even if they've never even tried VR because the number of flatscreen players vastly outweighs the number of VR players on Steam, which means the votes of people who actually have experience in those games will be drowned out by votes from those who have no experience in those games.

I'd say the same thing and I'd respect the contest results more even if I was a person getting most of my VR games on Oculus instead of Steam (and thus couldn't participate in the vote).

None of the awards finalists require game ownership and that's the point, a popularity contest.

:winterbunny2023:

Might be a reasonable reform to require a certain amount of actual playtime in each of the nominated games in order to vote. (And nominees could provide a free gameplay demo to voters or something maybe).

Hard to respect the result of the contest if people who have never played the games (or even played any VR games at all) can vote.

Obviously some aspects of the contest are different like when people vote on "Best visual style" or something which only requires a glance at the art styles or screenshots to cast a reasonably-informed vote. No actual playtime for such things should be required, unlike other areas of the contest.

[temps]

Publicado originalmente por Gwarsbane:

You do know that people could have VR games on another account right?

I literally just addressed that issue when brought up from another user. Your comment added nothing to the discussion.

[eram]

i imagined what it would be like to wear vr and see the game in vr then voted.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publicado originalmente por temps:

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

None of the awards finalists require game ownership and that's the point, a popularity contest.

Might be a reasonable reform to require a certain amount of actual playtime in each of the nominated games in order to vote. (And nominees could provide a free gameplay demo to voters or something maybe).

Hard to respect the result of the contest if people who have never played the games (or even played any VR games at all) can vote.

Obviously some aspects of the contest are different like when people vote on "Best visual style" or something which only requires a glance at the art styles or screenshots to cast a reasonably-informed vote. No actual playtime for such things should be required, unlike other areas of the contest.

Again, you and Valve can not know whether or not a person played it elsewhere.

Do you think everyone owns the future 2D Game of the Year 2023?

[rawWwRrr]

My favorite VR game was not a finalist, so that must mean the entire process needs reformed... thread?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

My favorite VR game was not a finalist, so that must mean the entire process needs reformed... thread?

Also...

Here's an Oculus Rift S on ebay for $23:
If you can't afford a $23 headset, you arguably can't afford to waste your time playing video games in the first place.

Says a lot.

[rawWwRrr]

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Here's an Oculus Rift S on ebay for $23:
If you can't afford a $23 headset, you arguably can't afford to waste your time playing video games in the first place.

Says a lot.

:winterbunny2023:

....yeah... elitists being elitist. Just a fancy 3D appliance replicating those red/blue theater glasses. Unless I can get a holodeck-like experience, it's just smoke and mirrors.

[temps]

I think it's funny how so many of you are mad at my suggestion because you don't have VR headsets.

Whatever... I'm going to set up my Valve Index in this bigger room to play Half-Life: Alyx in room-scale VR later. =)



Oh, I also just ordered a Meta Quest 3 so I can play all those AAA VR Oculus exclusive VR games too that you guys also can't play.

[⚜Z3⚜ eris.exe]

thats a lotta text for something thats very meaningless and stupid

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publicado originalmente por temps:

I think it's funny how so many of you are mad at my suggestion because you don't have VR headsets.

Whatever... I'm going to set up my Valve Index in this bigger room to play Half-Life: Alyx in room-scale VR later. =)



Oh, I also just ordered a Meta Quest 3 so I can play all those AAA VR Oculus exclusive VR games too that you guys also can't play.

Who said I don't own a VR set?

It may come as a surprise to a rando but I do own an Index.

And Facebook (not using their new stupid name) is junk.