Intro:
Resident Evil 2 Remake, Bioshock Infinite, Dishonored and Cyperpunk 2077. All four of these games have the potential to enter the IR Hall of Fame (the most prestigious award lineup naturally). How does one try to accommodate for them all? Considering that four games out of five had already been claimed. Whereas (with the Hall of Infamy) there has only been one entry. The answer is quite simple: you don’t. Even more so for reasons that I will go into, I have found myself with multiple excellent games and a drought of awful titles. So I have come up with some changes as to how games get picked.
Changes as to how I select games for the Halls:
In the past three years(2018 to..Well now) I used to seek out games by reputation (good or bad). After buying them I would put them on the list throughout the year. If and when I get to the game in question and decide it is as good/bad as the reputation claims to be (based on my experience). The game gets judged and placed accordingly. The problem is when the games you get tend to be unexpectedly great.
This year already saw the likes of Superhot and Stick Fight: The Game enter the Hall of Fame . I still have four more potential candidates with four out of five seats already filled. Clearly this method cannot continue. I cannot just give it to whatever game gets played first. What I was thinking is that I do not give out the place until the end of the year, maybe have an awards blog post at the end of the year? Something for both the great and the terrible to celebrate the end of the year? Where I can decide which games (out of the pool of names gathered throughout the year) are the best/worst. I think this will help give great and terrible games the chance to be given the treatment they deserve.
Economic incentives and spending on bad products
If you had to decide between spending your limited money on Hunt Down the Freeman or Undertale. What would you pick dear reader? Hunt Down the Freeman of course. The problem with me is that I only have so much money per a month and (despite two of my most viewed pages being about bad games) I have to decide which games I want to spend both my money and time on. It would be natural for me to seek out good (or at least decent games) before any sort of bad projects. Even more so when you have no idea if the game in question will get you many views, it is one of the reasons why I created the Dark Steam Hunt. To encourage me to seek out bad games in order to help the reader not waste money.
What I plan to do now is to look for well known bad titles (Silent Hill Homecoming or Contra: Rogue Corps) and bad games with historical significance (Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness or Drake of the 99 Dragons). I always want to talk about games that will interest you, amuse and educate you about the trails of the game industry. I will not pick asset flips or obviously bad titles (like Lost Daughter). You can see why they are bad purely from a visual standpoint. Plus there is not much of interest I can say about games as nonsensical as Lost Daughter. DSH will cover games that are maybe not instantly, recognisably bad but might have some terrible flaws. DSH will also cover games that have some historical significance within the industry or culture.
Conclusion:
Going forward, I hope that this will help you understand how this new selection process will decide what goes in and what stays out. I still need to figure out how I can get bad games without wasting too much money; however I look forward to providing you with entertaining and informative content.