Recently a friend of mine pointed out some nice comments written about his products. (Note: my friend's product was not even listed as an honorable mention, so I doubt that it would have ended up within the final 5 for its category if the following had not been part of it).
In that blog, the ENnies Judge mentions that Battletech had been had an ENTIRE PRODUCT LINE entered as a single product.
Prior to being sent the link to the blog, I had not been paying attention to the ENnies this year. But upon seeing the underlined part in the image below, I did a little bit of checking as having a company being allowed to enter an entire product line as a single entry comes across as a severe abuse of ENnies, and unfair to the other entrants who are relying on a single product, not 10 or more products all lumped together as one.
Since when does an entire product line get entered as a single product? Click on the "Sample" link on the ENnies website, and it takes you to an online store where each product is listed separately. They aren't downloaded from their publisher as a single product? They aren't released as a single product, or even as part of a larger set (i.e. PHB, MM, and DMG - core books) that makes up the core parts of a given system. They are individual, separate products.
So why were they allowed to be entered in the ENnies as a single product?
And then there is this.....
By allowing all these different products to be entered as a single product, they also allowed a product to be entered that was published OUTSIDE the eligibility dates allowed by this year's awards.
The following image is from the ENnies website shows some of the thing included in this "SINGLE PRODUCT":
And this next image comes from the online store that the "sample" link takes you to. Notice the date it was added to the online store's catalog.....
March of 2005!?!?!?! There is no way that that single product could be considered to be eligible on its own, yet it is included in the entire line as a single entry.
Why did nobody question this before? Why did nobody notice that at least one of the items considered to be part of the entrant was from 2 years ago?
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Okay - before it gets brought up,yes, I have had issues with the ENnies in the past. I personally believe that the ENnies need to codify their rules in such a manner to allow for changes/updates, but to not allow judges to change the rules on a whim, or allow the rules used to be completely dumped on the whims of the judges in a given year.
Luckily for the ENnies, they have been blessed with judges of high integrity since their inception. However, that is not something that can fully be counted on to happen each and every year, hence my wanting the rules to be codified. I am not asking for any specific rules to be included or excluded, only that the rules not be change-able on the whims of a the judges each year.
If the rules were codified, then something like this (an entire product line as a single entry and/or products that are not normally eligible) would be less likely to happen...
In that blog, the ENnies Judge mentions that Battletech had been had an ENTIRE PRODUCT LINE entered as a single product.
Prior to being sent the link to the blog, I had not been paying attention to the ENnies this year. But upon seeing the underlined part in the image below, I did a little bit of checking as having a company being allowed to enter an entire product line as a single entry comes across as a severe abuse of ENnies, and unfair to the other entrants who are relying on a single product, not 10 or more products all lumped together as one.
Since when does an entire product line get entered as a single product? Click on the "Sample" link on the ENnies website, and it takes you to an online store where each product is listed separately. They aren't downloaded from their publisher as a single product? They aren't released as a single product, or even as part of a larger set (i.e. PHB, MM, and DMG - core books) that makes up the core parts of a given system. They are individual, separate products.
So why were they allowed to be entered in the ENnies as a single product?
And then there is this.....
By allowing all these different products to be entered as a single product, they also allowed a product to be entered that was published OUTSIDE the eligibility dates allowed by this year's awards.
The following image is from the ENnies website shows some of the thing included in this "SINGLE PRODUCT":
And this next image comes from the online store that the "sample" link takes you to. Notice the date it was added to the online store's catalog.....
March of 2005!?!?!?! There is no way that that single product could be considered to be eligible on its own, yet it is included in the entire line as a single entry.
Why did nobody question this before? Why did nobody notice that at least one of the items considered to be part of the entrant was from 2 years ago?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay - before it gets brought up,yes, I have had issues with the ENnies in the past. I personally believe that the ENnies need to codify their rules in such a manner to allow for changes/updates, but to not allow judges to change the rules on a whim, or allow the rules used to be completely dumped on the whims of the judges in a given year.
Luckily for the ENnies, they have been blessed with judges of high integrity since their inception. However, that is not something that can fully be counted on to happen each and every year, hence my wanting the rules to be codified. I am not asking for any specific rules to be included or excluded, only that the rules not be change-able on the whims of a the judges each year.
If the rules were codified, then something like this (an entire product line as a single entry and/or products that are not normally eligible) would be less likely to happen...
