The official account of No Man’s Sky on Twitter has expressed its gratitude with a short note, and the community is again all over it. The creators of Hello Games revealed that the players have nominated the space exploration game in the ‘Labor of Love’ category at the Steam Awards, which is meant for the most supportive games over the years even after their initial release. Through simply a few heart emojis, they connected the voting with an easy ‘You lovely people nominated us… Vote now!’. A typical Sean Murray humility, that is for sure.
But the interesting thing is that this time—the nomination is not just any other. It’s a No Man’s Sky full-circle moment. A redemption arc that a writer would literally kill for. The game that launched… let’s put it this way, it was a journey… is now getting awards chiefly for the support it has received over the years, and this is the usual case, if you really think about it. The tweet’s replies perfectly mirror the present-day community: on one side, there is a huge amount of love, on the other side, there are still some complaints, and above all, there is one loud, collective shout for keeping the light-nofire news coming.
Let’s first talk about love. It is like a waterfall. Players are calling it an ‘easy win’ and the award ‘literally sounds like it’s made for NMS.’ One user, @LJaroh, hit the nail on the head: ‘Bought the game on release, and have loved it since. Yes, I even loved it when it launched, and it has only gotten better.’ That’s the feeling. A few others pointed to the ‘amazing FREE content updates’ that have even lasted longer than some other games. It’s a common reason for feeling proud among the players who survived the hard times and now get to see the new free content rollout as that’s the updates justification for sticking with the game at that point. The developers have created an incredible story that they have successfully told with a very engaging and patient audience.
Yet, at the same time, just like it is always the case on the internet, the replies are not all positive. A small part of the players has pointed out some problems that they would like to be solved. One user, @budczus64684, was rather straightforward: ‘FIX THE MOTHERFCKING VR HUD. People can’t room scale properly coz the HUD doesn’t follow players POV.’ So, even during a celebration, there are some people still hoping that the ‘labor’ means dealing with the details. Another response, @silenced_toys1 just said ‘The award systems need to be looked into, just saying’ with a thinking emoji. Not sure if that’s a hit at Steam or about the nomination process, but it’s there anyway!
Next, the elephant in the room, or rather, the dragon coming from behind the horizon? Light No Fire—Hello Games’ next game. If you take the tweet replies at face value, the hype for that game is not only past the station but also already moving at warp speed. A big part of the replies is actually all ‘give us Light No Fire news please’ in different ways. It’s like a broken record—but in a fun, desperate way. @Tblockshaolin stated very clearly, ‘Light no fire news please.’ @MustacheOfANord joked, ‘you better give us some LNF news for all the glaze we are giving to you xD.’ And @SenseNopedOut was going for the sarcasm award: ‘You should be nominated for sadists of the year for not dropping anything about LNF.’ The demand is huge, and gamers are almost treating this nomination as a bargaining chip. @LJ_2020 said, ‘Sean if yall win which I got a feeling yall will… give us a new trailer for light no fire please!’
That’s the most amusing tug-of-war. The community is uniting in pulling No Man’s Sky an award for its past and present devotion while at the same time, they are screaming into the void regarding the future. They are fine with voting but at the same time, they want a little something-something in return. A teaser. A screenshot. A blurry conceptual art of a tree. Anything! There is even a joke from @KickenTailGame: ‘I heard after I vote, a LNF Beta key will be in my inbox, any truth to this??’ We wish this was true, buddy. Everyone does!
There is also the real competition. The Steam vote is putting No Man’s Sky against some very strong contenders. Some replies pointed to other nominees. @uzizushs asked the motive for ‘helldivers 2 and rust’ being included in the list, accusing the balance of Helldivers and other games on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
