September’s Theme: Superheroes
August is over and your time traveling abilities are gone. Welcome back to the present! Worry not though, because this month you’ll be gaining superpowers. Everyone likes superheroes, right?
Super strength, flying, telekinesis, mind control, invisibility, burning, freezing… There are so many super powers! Your imagination is the limit, so get to work because it is time to defeat your enemies (and the backlog). Become the hero of your story!
September 26th is Batman Day which celebrates his first appearance in the comic world. As everybody should know, Batman is no longer alone in fighting crime. There are all kind of superheroes with him and we’re going to join him too. Even though he doesn’t have amazing powers he is the protagonist of this month and our inspiration for the monthly theme: Superheroes!
There are quite a few superhero games and series on steam such as Batman and
Spider-man. However I may be wrong about everyone liking superheroes, so games where you have superpowers that make you feel like a superhero are included as well. These are games such as Prototype.
You can find a list of applicable games here. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments there of any games you think fit. The submission post is here for you to list your heroic accomplishments. Please remember to keep us updated on them on your profile as well!
FAQ
Do I have to participate in this month’s theme?
No, as with every theme, these are merely suggestions for anyone who is unsure about what to play next. If you already have a battle plan for your backlog and/or don’t like this month’s theme, you’re free to ignore it.
What happens if I don’t participate in the monthly theme?
Absolutely nothing.
What happens if I play all the games from the theme list this month?
Still nothing.
I don’t own any of the games from the game list, how can I still participate?
The game list is most likely incomplete. If you own or know of any other games that might fit this month’s theme, feel free to suggest it under the corresponding post.
I already played all the games I own from the theme list, should I play something again to participate?
If it was an awesome game and you’d like to replay it, sure, go ahead. Only replaying it for the theme won’t help you with your backlog though, so if that would be your only reason you should probably think about trying something else instead.
Many thanks to Downward Concept for the logo!
Hurray, new theme is here. I might play Batman Knight earlier as I was planing.
Just finished it recently. I loved it!
Nice!I’ve been wanting to play the Arkham games on PC for some time, might try to find time to play the first one during this month. I’m also playing two LEGO superhero games (Batman 2 + Marvel) with my nephew every time he comes to visit, maybe we could finish one of those?
I’ll have to see, but good idea for the theme, Teakupo!
Ooh nice! :)
I believe I have some long overdue games that are applicable for this theme.
Sure seems like there’s an awful lot of “special days” around these days. Is there any day that is just a day now? :D
don’t even google “Batman Day”, technically there are like 5 of those alone, 2 of them in September ;)
I didn’t even realize there was 2 in September :D
well, there’s the one you mentioned, and apparently DC Comics has their own (on the 17th this year? seems they change it, probably depending on what they want to do for that day/to have it on the weekend). And then there are people who say it should be the first day he “became” Batman, but it’s not clear if it’s the first day he put on the costume or the day his parents died … I don’t know, every google result I clicked when I read your suggestion, had a different date and a different reason ^^
Nice, I don’t have many games that fit the theme but I’ve been wanting to play/finish those so it’ll be the perfect occasion. :)
Have fun! Feel free to suggest any games you think fit too. The super power like games part of the list is definitely incomplete.
I was wondering if The Wolf Among Us would fit the theme? (I’m really not sure, I mean it’s an adaptation from a comic book but i’m not sure it involves super heroes per se)
That would be awesome since I’ve just beated the game today ahah
Superheroes timeeee! :D
Damn, and I JUST got the majority of The Darkness II achievements over the last 2 days. Talk about bad timing :D Nice theme though, looks fun ^_^
I’ve been looking for an excuse to play the Supreme League of Patriots games too, this will work :3
I still can time-travel though. That’s my superpower!
If I get to beat Arkham City, Chroma Squad and Psychonauts it will be a great month!
What about a Speedrunners tournament to get some hours into the game? It’s a multiplayer game primarily anyway.
+
but didn’t you guys want to do Town of Salem as well? Two games in one month? Is that even possible? :O
Sure, it’s possible, just a matter of organizing it.
After the ToS we can maybe have it the weekend after? I’m not sure I have time to organize it though. Participating even is just a maybe. T_T
Let’s see how ToS turns out first. Noone even mentioned a set time or anything. I think we should handle it like the RL tournament with sign-ups a week earlier with a set time that suits most time zones. I could do that if I feel like it. :D
Nice theme, but I won’t be able to do much this month.
Out of the initial list, I only own:
- the 2 Freedom Force games (still unactivated in my Humble library),
- Saints Row IV (it’d most likely fry my GPU given its current state),
- Scribblenaut Unmasked (good timing, I was just thinking about finishing it),
- Speedrunners (but it’s mainly a multiplayer game),
- The Darkness II (but I recently made a giveaway on Steam Gifts).
I guess I could tackle some of the previous months’ games instead.
Well no obligation to do anything from the theme at all … the themes are really just to give inspiration when needed, actually there’s nothing wrong with just doing older themes :)
Well I guess I’m gonna play The Darkness II this month!
PS: I love this month logo, it looks fantastic and I love the details of issue #6.
awesome! I can continue my playthrough in Gemini: Heroes Reborn from last month’s theme that I didn’t finish :P
Great theme! Maybe this will be my excuse to finally play Arkham City, Metal Gear Rising, and Saints Row IV. I’m not even going to touch Prototype with a ten foot pole though..
What happens if I play all the games from the theme list this month?
Still nothing.
Why not something like: you get a BLAEO crown on your picture ^^
Are you gonna make one? You can put one on if you like ^^
(sometimes people get to be player of the month/week, but we may do different stuff for that in the future …)
you gonna make one?
considering finishing 50+ games isn’t really realistic, I could risk free accept I guess (^_<)
(or maybe better not, who knows xD )
I just thought, whoever gets this much done, has earned a little extra ^^
I think that’s an interesting idea. Are you in the steam group? You could post a suggestion thread about it for people to discuss and expand on the idea :)
I think (poor) Mandrill is busy with other (more important) stuff ^^
(I still miss the monthly rankings (｡•́︿•̀｡) )
mandrill implemented a score list that we will use for the monthly rankings, so I hope we can bring them back this month. I’m still working on last month’s ranking, but I don’t know if it would be a good idea to post it after I’m done, since the month ended a week ago. We’ll see. :P
oh damn, now I slacked off last month due to missing rankings, but they still existed after all xD
Yeah but they won’t be tied to the theme anymore, we’ll just count any game :) I guess there’ll be an announcement when it’s all done.
hm, am I the only one liked the monthly rankings? Always gave me an extra motivation boost. ^^
You are definitely not the only one … but I think maybe you misunderstood (sorry if you didn’t and I’m needlessly explicit).
The plan is to have monthly rankings, but count any game, not only theme games. Right now the”competition” for the rankings is pretty much rigged from the start – there’s always someone who owns 20+ games from the list and someone else who owns 1 or none at all. We tried to adjust for that (after all, we know those numbers ahead of time), but bloating the theme list to 100+ games just so everyone has the same chance in the rankings felt stupid. Decoupling the theme from the ranking felt like a good solution (and allows us to have “better” themes, too, but we’ll see about that).
We also thought about having “all games” monthly rankings, but add some “theme games only” filter so you could have the “old style” rankings. We might do that later, but for now we aren’t really sure about the benefit.
hm yes, I meant theme rankings.
I don’t take it as a fully serious competition. In the end those with the most time ‘win’ either-way ;-)
But it was still a nice goal to have there. And I miss that part.
Now playing anything from the theme or not makes no difference. Making the themes kind of pointless for me to a big degree.
bloating the theme list to 100+ games
I never saw that negative. Having some more choice gives me the possibility to take a game I’m in the right mood for.
Even with say 200 titles, there are still 9800 not eligible.
Why is narrowing it down heavily better? Considering the ‘skewed competition’ aspect, doesn’t having few titles even exclude a big bunch of people from participating at all?
allows us to have “better” themes
In what way? Can kind of not imagine what you mean.
The original thought for the themes was giving some inspiration/guidance for those moments when you are overwhelmed by choice and just don’t know what to play. It’s hard to find a sweet spot for “how much choice should there be”, but I believe a too large list to choose from isn’t really any help at all. And what I personally don’t like about those huge theme lists is that they actually look pretty random. It’s like making “games with grass in them” a theme – it’s so close to just counting anything for the rankings that I don’t really see the difference. (I’m obviously exaggerating somewhat, but it takes a while to arrive at the final theme lists and every month there is a moment when I feel we have a “games with grass” list.) So … is it important that the rankings motivate you to play theme games, or is it “enough” when they motivate you to finish random games you can choose freely? … that’s why I think that the rankings don’t really “lose” anything when they aren’t limited to theme games.
Now about the other half … Having the same themes we have now, but with fewer titles, yes that would “exclude” people from participating. And that’s what nelly really doesn’t like about it. I don’t know if “theme participation” really is a thing, I’d see it more as “there would be more people who might look to the theme for inspiration, but wouldn’t find any”. Which obviously still isn’t good. But … well my half-baked idea for the themes would actually be somewhat different. Right now the actual list of theme games is just a long concatenation of game titles, and all the theme tells me is some broad title that the games (hopefully) fit. So … I think it would be great to have a really, really short list of games – perhaps 10 games tops! – but do more “curating”. A paragraph of text for each game, a short synopsis to make me actually want to play that game. That list would be much too short for everyone to find something they own, but experience showed that there will be lots of comments with other suitable games anyway. So … if I don’t find anything in the “curated” list, I just keep on reading on the same page to find something in the comments. I could also just pick a “past theme” that I like better (yes I can do that now, but curated theme lists and not losing out on the rankings might make that more attractive). Since the theme isn’t tied to the rankings, it really doesn’t “matter” if I play one of the “original theme games” or some suggestion someone else had. (Oh and if you really want to, you can then see “theme participation” not only in playing stuff from the list, but also in suggesting games for others.)
Wow, that was some wall of text. Well … all of this is just my opinion about how the themes could be “better” (I put those quotes for a reason ;) This is actually something we admins discussed a lot, and my opinion certainly isn’t shared by everyone. Still, thank you for reading it all :)
every month there is a moment when I feel we have a “games with grass” list.
I just don’t see that at all. I actually wasn’t exaggerating with “9800 not eligible games” cause Steam surpassed the 10k by now.
That’s already narrowing it down by 98%. Then most own only little, for me with a rather big lib on avg 10%, so 20 titles out of a “huge” list of 200.
With current theme it’s only 1-2 handful. Never seemed it too much for me before either.
rankings don’t really “lose” anything when they aren’t limited to theme games.
It’s the opposite way, themes lose out. To me the themes had become an event-like experience where the community goes into a little competition/challenge with the rankings.
From a quick look it seems participation rate already dropped now :-/
Putting the ranking only globally, everyone would just go his way and those with the most time win.
On a theme people have to go out of their way a little and play fitting games, which is the only chance for me to not end up last ;-)
I think it would be great to have a really, really short list of games – perhaps 10 games tops! – but do more “curating”
Why not make a new category called “BLAEO recommends” or even actually use the group’s Steam curator for that too?
I see potential there for something new, but absolutely no need to sacrifice current themes.
you can then see “theme participation” not only in playing stuff from the list, but also in suggesting games for others
nah, it’s about playing games… the group once meant to be ;-)
Since the theme isn’t tied to the rankings, it really doesn’t “matter” if I play one of the “original theme games” or some suggestion someone else had.
In that aspect it ‘doesn’t matter’ wherever I go for a suggestion. That way though it just loses all meaning and pull for me either.
It was with the first ranking, that rounded up the whole thing and made me to focus on finishing game(s) (and not just stopping mid-through, which happens to me a lot otherwise). But taking any part out (either ranking or theme or event or community) and it falls flat again and loses its motivation boosting effect.
I fear we have arrived at a point where resolving this will make both of us regret having spent so much time typing ;)
It’s the opposite way, themes lose out. To me the themes had become an event-like experience where the community goes into a little competition/challenge with the rankings.
Well that’s why I put the emphasis, I wasn’t talking about themes there. Actually event is a word that popped up in our internal discussions before – I have to start nitpicking now, sorry, but I hope you get my gripe with this. The original idea for the themes evolved into something where event (or maybe themed competition) would be a better name, and that’s fine, but I just wouldn’t call that theme anymore. So, just for this discussion, let’s separate those two concepts – what you’d call “BLAEO recommends” is close to the original theme idea (at least as I saw it), and event is a better name for what you see and want as a monthly thing.
So … I’d like to improve the theme part, and you really care about the event part. I don’t even think there’s a contradiction. When we just skip the whole “separating” step (which is mostly* a conceptual one in how I see this stuff), then what we’d arrive at would look like this: Start with any of the old themes, take the 10 coolest games from the list as “featured games”, use the complete (and “open”) list as a filter on the monthly rankings to get “theme rankings”, and now we can both be happy (?).
Now why we are having this discussion is really because I was lying a little with the “mostly*” above. We obviously are doing that separation a little more explicitly – we wanted to have the global/unrestricted rankings, revil needed some time to adjust his scripts, and I saw the opportunity to take apart the concepts and rebuild. Actually I had thought that we’d have that one “summer break” month without rankings, then switch to “unrestricted” rankings for September, and then depending on feedback maybe/probably add the “theme filtered rankings” for October – but look how well that schedule turned out ;)
I made one mistake somewhere up there: I wrote we don’t see the benefit in having the “theme filtered rankings” when really that should have been that I don’t see it. Which I guess isn’t exactly true either; I can see there’s a benefit for you, that should probably be enough.
Well … I hope now we are at the “regretting having wasted so much time typing” point? … So, to conclude (or not), about my personal gripe with the theme rankings … you wrote
Putting the ranking only globally, everyone would just go his way and those with the most time win.
On a theme people have to go out of their way a little and play fitting games, which is the only chance for me to not end up last ;-)
And that kind of mixes two things. Actually those with the most time (namely, SevenDeck and Akantha) did win in the past themes. But that alone didn’t bother me too much, I shared your take on it – just try not to end up last. And that kind of worked for me. Now … I’ll just use your numbers: If you own 10% of the 200 games theme list, that 20 games are a nice pool to choose from, I agree. My lib is, I don’t know, 55% of yours, so I probably have a pool of 11 theme games. Still kind of works, but that’s probably close to what the average AkanDeck finishes for a theme. Even with all the time in the world I could just be beaten by library size. I don’t have that time, so meh. But what about someone with lots of time, but only 100 or 200 games in their library? I just don’t like competitions with unfair starting conditions.
This comment was deleted over 7 years ago.
Does lego super hero counts? i guess it will be batman month…
Yeah, the lego games are mentioned! :) http://backlog-deepness.rhcloud.com/posts/wbr4znl
Props for including Green Lantern in the pics :P
Hu? Why didn’t Teakupo repost it? There’s no mention of her either?
It’s the way mandrill implemented the themes. There’s no option to enter the theme host. I’ll talk to him later when he’s online. Until then, I added her to the post.
Yeah right now only admins can create the special theme posts that show up in the “monthly theme” menu … but I just changed the post author, so everything’s fine now :)
It’s me again =P
Got a reply in this post and noticed that its permalink doesn’t work, as it gets “overwritten” by the
/theme/2016-09part.you can check it right from this reply :)
I’m telling you about every bug/strange behaviour I find but, please, tell me if I’m annoying you and I’ll stop :)
Nah, please do go on telling me :) Already fixed it, will be in the next update.
Ok then :)
and.. actually are all permalinks (from different pages, permalink as anchor still works) which don’t work. Realized only now that I clicked on another reply.
Don’t know if it’s the same issue. If it is,just ignore this message =P
I thought I had fixed it – well, I fixed something, but … nope. I created a forum thread so we don’t spam here too much. It’s rather technical though, I’m just sorting my thoughts there.