Round 3: You Can Only Pick ONE!

Okay, time to force a choice, since the last poll was basically tied. I like a decisive result!

What's going on, anyway? Why did Monkey Island "win" round 1 but then fall off, not just against the new challenger, but Heaven's Vault, which it previously led by like 20 points? It's not like the cultural context of Monkey Island changed in a couple of days, so what's up?

Well, this is where we get into interesting flaws that come up from different voting systems. I use "check all that apply" because forcing only one vote per person causes all of the most similar games to cannibalize each other. Not just stuff like FF6 vs FF7, but, for example, Crash Bandicoot is way more likely to win when all of its opponents are similar-looking JRPGs. So single vote, while most decisive, is only really helpful once you only have two choices. Even a third option would muddy the waters.

But "check all that apply" is its own kind of muddy, because it doesn't actually express interest levels. So when I give you a dozen games to vote on, people are clicking on a game like Monkey Island for a wide variety of reasons ranging from "this is my favorite game of all time" to "oh yeah I guess I've heard of that!" This is why, interestingly, when I hold a clarifying round between the top contenders you suddenly see very different results. People who were previously thinking "yeah, Monkey Island is fine I guess" behave very differently when the question becomes "do you want Monkey Island to defeat Heaven's Vault, specifically?" Even though that's how they had functionally voted the first time.

Voting is weird! You can teach whole courses on it lol

A de-'meh'ing of results might be achieved by ranked choice voting, but because people aren't generally used to that system it's complicated to implement, complicated to explain, and, perhaps above all, difficult to have a good interface for. So in the Patreon Chosen Game polls (still waiting on Fallout New Vegas to end) my janky but easy compromise has been to have BOTH "check all that apply" and single vote, at the same time, reducing the cannibalization while still allowing people to state a preference. If you missed the explanations years ago, that's why the Patreon form (which we haven't seen in a few months) is like that.

These are different. These are some goofy, less formally organized bonus polls to give those tiers a bit more input in the long wait before the next properly nominated and voted game can happen. Full disclosure, Heaven's Vault was my personal addition to the vote, and then I added Viewfinder later, so all of the games that were nominated by the $15 tier have actually been eliminated lol *shrug*

Anyway, vote! Whatever wins should have early access Patreon videos coming sometime M-W next week!

Heaven's Vault

"An archaeologist uncovers a lost history in an ancient space Nebula. Award-winning narrative adventure game with hieroglyphic language puzzles, from the creators of 80 DAYS."

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6C08QCP3ZQ

Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/774201/Heavens_Vault/

Viewfinder

"Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single player game offering gamers hours of interesting and fun experiences while uncovering the mysteries left behind."

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXX1bYpioAM

Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382070/Viewfinder/