Vive Report

Click here to jump straight to the polls and vote!

Check out the 2016 Vivey Awards Results page here.

It’s that time of the year again folks, holidays, good spirits, and gaming awards! We started the Viveys last year as we didn’t feel that VR was getting enough attention with all the other big gaming awards mostly focusing on flat gaming. Thus, here we are wrapping up 2017 with our second annual Vivey awards!

The Viveys focus solely on the HTC Vive and are 100% based on community voting. We do our best to pick the most talked about, most popular 2-3 titles for each category as clickable votes, but always include an “other” option, so even if your favorite title isn’t listed as an option, we encourage all to write in their favorites using the “Other” field. We manually review all entries to catch any differences in title. So just write whatever you loved most for 2017 per category, and we promise we’ll count it.

Our goal in creating the Vivey Awards was not only to recognize the efforts of developers and creators in the VR space, but also to encourage them. As VR matures, think of all the changes we’ve already seen since this time 2016. We’re already seeing AAA developers releasing content in the form of ported full games (Skyrim VR–we’ll get it eventually–Fallout 4 VR, Croteam’s Serious Sam IP and Talos Principle), as well as “built for VR” experiences such as Doom VFR, Killing Floor Incursion, even some Oculus exclusives, which hopefully we’ll see on Steam although it’s not likely (Arktika1).

Not only have we seen growth in content, but also the birth and release of Vive Trackers, which further set HTC Vive on a level of its own in terms of immersion and pushes the boundaries of VR technology as a whole. And finally, at the end of 2017, we’ll see the release of tracked accessories like the Hyperkin Gun Blaster and the HTC Vive Ping Pong/Racket handle set, all of which utilize the fantastic Vive Trackers. Soon (actually already thanks to CloudGate’s Island 359) we’ll see more full body avatar inclusion, the ability to use multiple trackers on your body (feetsies, hip) bringing full body immersion into virtual reality. If you have the trackers, I encourage you to check out the awesome work the people at CloudGate have done with their “Virtual Self™” full body avatar system which can utilize anywhere from 0-3 Vive Trackers to better convey your real life movements to your virtual avatar.

Lest we forget, TPCast! 2017 was a bit of roller coaster for those of us clamoring for wireless VR as we saw a few different pre-orders for the TPCast go live, things got confusing, a scattered region-based roll-out, but most importantly, in the end, they shipped! I happily received my TPCast in November and have been rocking wireless VR ever since. Thank you TPCast! But as we’ve all seen, there’s still plenty of room for improvements and plenty more work to be done.

2018 should bring all of the above together, and really let creators start using these incredible tools and assets in creating even more immersive, full game, mind-blowing experiences. Even of the few things that are already known to be in the works, there’s plenty to get excited about. And who knows, maybe one of these days Mr. GabeN will somersault down his red-carpet-lined entryway and pop up with an announcement regarding the highly anticipated Knuckles controllers and the phantom “3 full games” we’ve only heard murmurs about. Again, just more awesome content to keep us on the edge of our virtual seats.

2017 was also the year the rest of the major players jumped aboard the VR train, or should I say “Mixed Reality” train. I won’t really get into it here, but the additional of 4 (or 5?) new Windows mixed reality headsets, as well as the super popular Pimax 8K Kickstarter, is surely a boon to all VR as a whole. Hopefully, in 2018 we see more cross-play and more communication from all of these manufactures as they work towards an openVR standard.

These awards are both a way for us to look back and celebrate what moved us the most throughout 2017, as well as a guide to help newly anointed VR enthusiasts who are just getting into the VR game now, or those who will be joining us throughout 2018. These awards can act as a clear, truly community-based record of everyone’s favorites from all of 2017.

With 2017 coming to an end, we say goodbye to “early adopter” and say hello to “consumer-based VR ecosystems,” and “fully body tracked wireless VR.” So have at it, voice your favorites and help shape the future of VR.

VOTE!

Once again we’ve split things up into three main awards for Best Game, Best Experience, and Best Application, where you can vote for your VROTY. We’ve also included nine sub-categories from which you can voice your favorites from a variety of genres. We’ve randomly selected a few of the more popular titles as clickable votes, but we welcome all submissions so type any title you want into the “Other” section. We are trying not to go overboard with the sub-categories so as to keep this fairly specific with only 12 awards in total.

The voting will be open until January 1st, 2018 @ 12:00am EST. Please share and encourage your friends to vote for their favorite titles as well, while they have the chance.

And again we encourage you to write in your vote in the “other” field, we quickly, randomly chose the clickable votes based off our perception of popular titles throughout 2017, so please do not feel you must select a clickable vote.

 

 

 

Cheers, everybody. Here’s to a bright and beautiful 2018!

Peace and love,

-dgtlhrt & shurl