Origins Award Winners

This years Origins Award Winners were announced at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, this last weekend. Among the categories were two RPG ones (Best Role-Playing Game of the Year; Best Role-playing Supplement of the Year) that had some strong contenders vying for the statuette.

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This years winners are:

Best Board Game of the Year: Gloomhaven by Cephalofair Games!
Best Card Game of the Year: Ex Libris by Renegade Games
Best Family Game of the Year: Azul by Plan B Games
Best Role-playing Game of the Year: Adventures in Middle-Earth Player’s Handbook by Cubicle 7 Entertainment
Best Role-playing Supplement of the Year: Dungeons & Dragons Xanathar’s Guide to Everything by Wizards of the Coast
Best Miniatures of the Year:Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition by Games Workshop
Best Game Accessories of the Year: Terraforming Mars Organizer by The Broken Token
Best Collectible Game: Star Wars Destiny: Awakenings Booster by Fantasy Flight Games

Eric M. Lang and Ken St. Andre were also inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame.

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(photo courtesy of Andrew Peregrine)​

Other contenders for this years best RPG were: Blades in the Dark, Blue Rose, Cthulhu Confidential, The Dark Eye, The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, My Little Pony: Tales of Equestria, Monsterhearts 2, Puppetland, Starfinder, Star Trek Adventures, Tales from the Loop, Traveller Starter Set and Vurt.

The other contenders for the Best RPG supplement were: Rhovanian Region Guide (Adventrues in Middle-earth), Loremaster’s Guide (Adventures in Middle-earth), Narrator’s Kit (Blue Rose), The Grand Grimoire of the Cthulhu Mythos (Call of Cthulhu), The Two Headed Serpent (Call of Cthulhu), Codex Germania (Castles & Crusades), Codex Slavorum (Castles & Crusades), Cypher System Expanded Worlds, Predation (Cypher System), Gamemaster’s Companion (Doctor Who), Atlas of Earth Prime (Mutants & Masterminds) and the Demon Lord’s Companion (Shadow of the Demon Lord).

 

[TerraDave]

They did go for the big sellers.

As discussed in the earlier thread, this is not done by popular vote, but I guess sales and popularity have some weight.

 

[JeffB]

Glad to see Ken St. Andre get his due.

 

[Jer]

Have they announced the Fan Favorites for the categories yet?

 

[kenmarable]

They did go for the big sellers.

As discussed in the earlier thread, this is not done by popular vote, but I guess sales and popularity have some weight.

Or, alternatively, capitalism works to some extent and the best products might tend to have the best sales.

Or, the products with the highest budgets and best chance at high sales will tend to have the most effort put into them to make them better than other products.

Or.... etc.

There's many potential explanations of why the best selling products are more likely to win awards other than sales and popularity having some weight. Correlation does not mean causation (and even if it did, which way does that arrow of causation point?)

 

[Mavkatzer]

Congrats to Cubicle 7! I love Adventures in Middle Earth!

 

[Eltab]

If the Origin Awards have a factor for # of items sold, that is a good thing. High-quality products will sell better over time, as word of mouth spreads. This is healthy for the industry.

In contrast, the Oscars can all go to a movie(s) that was only shown for one weekend in two theaters (NYC, LAX) by invitation only. That bothers me: I haven't seen the nominees and don't know if they ARE any good (or as good as their hype).

 

[Morrus]

In contrast, the Oscars can all go to a movie that was only shown for one weekend in two theaters (NYC, LAX) by invitation only. That bothers me: I haven't seen the nominees and don't know if they ARE any good (or as good as their hype).

I think that's the point of them.

 

[Grimstaff]

Congrats Ken!

 

[Jhaelen]

If the Origin Awards have a factor for # of items sold, that is a good thing. High-quality products will sell better over time, as word of mouth spreads. This is healthy for the industry.

No, it's not. And here's a great example why:
You may not have heard of it, but in Germany the 'Echo Music Prize' which used sales numbers as the main criteria for the award has (finally!) been canceled this year.
Here's the relevant quote from wikipedia:

The Echo Award was heavily criticized worldwide when Farid Bang and Kollegah received the award for best hip hop/urban album in April 2018. The nominated album, Jung, Brutal, Gutaussehend 3 (English: "Young, brutal, handsome 3"), contains the track "0815", in which the artists refer to their muscles as being more defined than those of Auschwitz inmates. The duo was even allowed to perform this track during the ceremony, despite heavy protests weeks before the award show.

Campino, singer of German punk band Die Toten Hosen, was the first one to criticize the committee's decision during the ceremony.[10] His remarks received a standing ovation from the audience.[11] Several artists later returned their Echo awards in protest, such as Marius Müller-Westernhagen, who returned all of his seven Echo awards received over the years. Other artists returning their awards were German conductors Christian Thielemann and Enoch zu Guttenberg, Russian-German pianist Igor Levit, record producer Klaus Voormann, and the Notos Quartett.[12]

However, criticism did not only come from artists and the German press. Several businesses joined in, with Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, being one of the most recent high-profile commentators, saying that this would hurt "Germany’s international reputation". He also asked if "antisemitism [was] becoming acceptable in Germany" again.[13]

As a consequence, the Echo Award was discontinued.[2]

Unfortunately, the number of sales is absolutely NOT indicative of quality, whatsoever. If you ever accidentally listened to the radio, you should already have noticed that.