From the Void Gaming Awards 2023
Today, we are incredibly proud to welcome you to the first ever From the Void Gaming Awards, where we recognize the best of the best in gaming this year in a totally objective, omniscient, unquestionable manner.
If you get one of our awards and want to post a response, feel free to do so, and do so with no time or character limit. We’re not running any ads here and Kojima is nowhere in sight. We’re not cool enough.
Most Astounding Game
Baldur’s Gate 3
BG3 is an incredible achievement. Although I might lament that it doesn’t quite keep up the amazingly high bar it sets with its first two acts through a slightly disappointing final third, it is nonetheless an overall stellar experience.
In an industry plagued with layoffs, studio closures, game cancellations, developers forced into live-service, other cash-grabs and various disappointing decisions, a game developed with such ambition, focused vision and deep care despite its supposedly niche appeal is worth celebrating, especially as it manages to reach full release with such aplomb.
In the end, the fact that its third act leaves a slightly sour taste despite actually being quite good in a vacuum is a testament to how truly incredible the rest of the game is. There might have been some other great games this year that remained more consistent in what they delivered throughout their runtime (honorable mention to Super Mario Wonder), but none were more successfully ambitious and significant within the broader context of our industry than Baldur’s Gate 3.
Speaking of BG3…
Best “Are We The Baddies?”
Altagram
After Baldur’s gate 3 released to the joy of everyone in the industry, one stain came to tarnish the picture: its credits. Although quite thorough overall, they did omit some key workers, most notably the freelancers hired by loc agency Altagram to translate the game over the course of 3 full years (but did not fail to credit Altagram CEO Marie Amigues & other leads at the company). Missing credits is a problem that has plagued the gaming industry, and localization in particular.
In response, Altagram blamed developers (and fear of poaching), Amigues positioning herself as a victim of devs refusing to credit with more than the ‘Altagram’ company name, a stance one might find funny considering she’s credited by name in a lot of games as Altagram’s CEO, certainly much more than her workers have been historically. Larian Studios also noted that it was Altagram that chose to omit freelancers, not them…
On August 10, the agency pledged to do better, forming a credits committee and eventually publishing a long, detailed crediting policy.
Last month, they were called out for missing credits in Warcraft Rumble.
Best Scam
Fntastic / The Day Before
From Biomutant to The Day Before, I’ve learned that if I keep seeing some random game in Steam’s most wishlisted titles for literal years, it’ll probably be ass. Where Biomutant was the result of some middling devs’ ambitions way outpacing what they were capable of, The Day Before looked like an obvious scam I’m surprised even released at all.
Artificial hype, “volunteer” employees, asset-flipping, plagiarism… It is, if nothing else, an entertaining tale. For a good retelling, watch this video from Skill Up.
Best Evil Move
Lionbridge
In the middle of the year, Lionbridge, one of the biggest translation agencies out there and a company with executives bagging millions of dollars every year, unceremoniously told all its freelance translators via email that it would, without prior discussion or negotiation, unilaterally reduce what they would pay them for “fuzzy segments” moving forward in an effort to “remain competitive”. For details on why this is such an evil move, read our in-depth breakdown.
Not only is this a company trying to impose a change of rates to freelancers (who should be the ones deciding on their rates, or at least be given an opportunity to negotiate them) after having previously agreed to different terms, but fuzzies themselves are a controversial issue generally considered to profit agencies way more than translators, and Lionbridge was already reportedly underpaying its freelancers even before it imposed this change.
The community did not take this lying down. Several translators’ associations came together to sign a letter addressed directly to Lionbridge and many freelancers on their roster told them where to put their new fuzzy grid and cut ties with them.
Since then, Lionbridge has posted calls for new translators, allegedly looking to replace those they lost with less combative ones, and 6 months later has still not responded to the community’s open letter.
Best Capitalism
Embracer
This year that gave us some absolutely incredible video games (and Starfield) might actually above all be remembered for the brutal layoffs and studio closures that shook the industry and are likely to continue in 2024. In a master move, Embracer Group managed to impose itself as a standard-bearer for this industry-wide disaster.
In 2021 and 2022, Embracer crashed through the games sector like a tidal wave of money buying up an astounding number of studios including Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Tripwire Interactive, Tuxedo Labs, 3D Realms, SlipGate Ironworks and more with the end goal of securing a $2 billion deal with Savvy Games Group. When that deal fell through in 2023, Embracer had to restructure, which naturally meant laying off a lot of their employees and even outright closing several of the studios they had just bought, such as Volition and Free Radical Design, seemingly looking to eventually compete with EA’s graveyard of murdered developers.
Never forget: more than encouraging innovation or fostering success stories, what capitalism is truly best at is destroying people’s livelihoods and obliterating art in the name of profit.
Line goes up… until it comes crashing down.
Best Game Awards Speech
Swen Vincke
Freed from the constraint of having to make time for Hollywood actor Anthony Mackie to riff at an audience that came to celebrate games, Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke made his Chalamet-bestowed Game Award speech on Twitter after the show, taking time to thank his studio and their community, as well as paying tribute to their departed friends and colleagues, and those at Wizards of the Coast who lost their jobs. We invite you to read the entire thread, but for our part, we want to thank him deeply for taking time to bring particular light to the QA and localization workers who otherwise get ignored way too often.
Thank you, Swen 🤍
🤍 See you in 2024