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2006 ENnies Judge Voting Poll/Thread

Pick up to five (5) candidates for Judge for the 2006 ENnies.

  • Ankh-Morpork Guard (Graham Johnson)

    Votes: 172 26.1%
  • Crothian (Chris Gath)

    Votes: 426 64.6%
  • Cthulhu's Librarian (Richard J. Miller), SC

    Votes: 348 52.8%
  • diaglo (David Temporado)

    Votes: 235 35.7%
  • Eridanis (Matt Bogen), SC

    Votes: 42 6.4%
  • JediSoth (Hans Cummings)

    Votes: 34 5.2%
  • JoeGKushner (Joe G Kushner)

    Votes: 367 55.7%
  • Keeper of Secrets (Matthew Muth)

    Votes: 88 13.4%
  • Mixmaster (Leslie Foster), SC

    Votes: 44 6.7%
  • nakia (Nakia S. Pope)

    Votes: 61 9.3%
  • Quickbeam (Kevin Bopp), SC

    Votes: 82 12.4%
  • RavenHyde (Selma McCrory)

    Votes: 62 9.4%
  • Tarondor (Scott Nolan), SC

    Votes: 47 7.1%
  • Teflon Billy (Jeff Ranger)

    Votes: 458 69.5%
  • trancejeremy (Jeremy Reaban)

    Votes: 84 12.7%
  • Umbran (Arnis Kletnieks)

    Votes: 108 16.4%
  • Xath (Gertie Barden), SC

    Votes: 149 22.6%

  • Poll closed .
Alzrius said:
Heck with that, let's ask them the hard-hitting questions:

- How do you feel about the reorganization of RPGnow into two interlinked sites (RPGnow and RPGnow Edge) and why?

don't care either way. as a consumer if it helps me i'm for it. if it is gonna cost me in the long run then i'm against it.

- What is your opinion on how the prizes from last November's donation drive have yet to reach their donors?

they are prizes. which means "free". as my grandmother would say often. patience is a virtue seldom practiced. i'm not saying people who won shouldn't gripe. i'm just saying they will get their prize.

- Do you think Wizards of the Coast adding guidelines for "good taste" in d20 products was helpful or harmful to the industry as a whole? Why?

neither. it was helpful for WotC to establish a set guideline. it was harmful for some of the guys on the fringe/edge. overall the industry will continue.

- Is cover artwork with images that some might consider "risque" a smart business practice, or does it make the book awkward to purchase/be seen with?

age and who is buying i think are key here. if your mom is picking it out for you it might not be cool to have a brown wrapper on it. if you are a 12 year old hormone monkey then of course it is gonna get you to buy.

- What do you feel is the best RPG game system and why? If d20, then what subset of d20 (Fantasy d20, Modern d20, M&M, BESM d20, etc.)?


OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the others are just poor imitations of the real thing. :D
 

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- How do you feel about the reorganization of RPGnow into two interlinked sites (RPGnow and RPGnow Edge) and why?

Since I'm not a publisher, it doesn't really effect me. If it helps them with their organization, good for them.

- What is your opinion on how the prizes from last November's donation drive have yet to reach their donors?

I'm going to go with TB and Diaglo on this one. It is being taken care of, albiet slowly, and real life has gotten in the way. I'm sure RL has gotten in the way for all of us at least once, and it's sure to do so again. I'm inclined to give the good people a break.

- Do you think Wizards of the Coast adding guidelines for "good taste" in d20 products was helpful or harmful to the industry as a whole? Why?

Neither. It protects WotC's image for them to have set the standard, and the people who don't fall under the guidelines don't make up a large percentage of the industry. It's their ball, they can do what they want with it.

- Is cover artwork with images that some might consider "risque" a smart business practice, or does it make the book awkward to purchase/be seen with?

It depends on the target audience. For me, it would be rather difficult to walk around with, but some industries might find that it targets the (unfortunate) gamer stereotype. And marketing is based alot of off the stereotype of a target audience.

- What do you feel is the best RPG game system and why? If d20, then what subset of d20 (Fantasy d20, Modern d20, M&M, BESM d20, etc.)

Uh...wow. I wouldn't say there's a "best." I like different systems for different game types. Sometimes I even combine systems to get the feel I want.
 

As of 8:30 this morning we have 577 votes, we are now 106 % of last election's turnout. *Cheers* :D

Everyone in the previous election has now received more votes in this election.

There seems to be little significance to a "lifetime average posts per month"

Code:
402 	Teflon Billy (Jeff Ranger)    		        69.67%	104.71 posts per month
372 	Crothian (Chris Gath)    			64.47% 	[color=red]  ---=Tilt=---[/color]
321 	JoeGKushner (Joe G Kushner)    		        55.63% 	167.36 posts per month
310 	Cthulhu's Librarian (Richard J. Miller), SC     53.73% 	167.39 posts per month
201 	diaglo (David Temporado)    			34.84% 	272.27 posts per month

149	Ankh-Morpork Guard (Graham Johnson)             25.82% 	284.06 posts per month
134 	Xath (Gertie Barden), SC    			23.22% 	 82.45 posts per month
 95 	Umbran (Arnis Kletnieks)    			16.46% 	129.60 posts per month

 80 	Keeper of Secrets (Matthew Muth)    		13.86% 	 45.23 posts per month

 67 	trancejeremy (Jeremy Reaban)    		11.61% 	 60.16 posts per month 
 65 	Quickbeam (Kevin Bopp), SC    		        11.27% 	 38.89 posts per month
 58 	RavenHyde (Selma McCrory)    		        10.05%	   .13 posts per month

 57 	nakia (Nakia S. Pope)    			 9.98% 	 37.45 posts per month
 44 	Tarondor (Scott Nolan), SC    		         7.63% 	  4.55 posts per month
 40 	Mixmaster (Leslie Foster), SC    		 6.93% 	  7.22 posts per month
 33 	Eridanis (Matt Bogen), SC    			 5.72%	 31.87 posts per month
 30 	JediSoth (Hans Cummings)    		         5.20% 	  7.08 posts per month

* Note; The current server only records back to January 2002. Eight candidates have "Jan 2002" as their "join date".
 

MavrickWeirdo said:
* Note; The current server only records back to January 2002. Eight candidates have "Jan 2002" as their "join date".
actually i go back further than jan 02 too. like most of the others.
 

I'm doing a little number crunching regarding what factors seem to matter to voters. So, I'd appreciate knowing the gender of Mixmaster and nakia. Thanks.
 

fusangite said:
I'm doing a little number crunching regarding what factors seem to matter to voters. So, I'd appreciate knowing the gender of Mixmaster and nakia. Thanks.
Well, in the Judge nomination thread I remember Mixmaster making some comment about his wife, so I would bet he is male. :)
 

Some observations about how the results are correlating to different things:

Postcount
The five candidates winning more than 200 votes all have post counts over 4000, whereas only two candidates behind the pack has a post count of over 4000. It should be noted, however, that these two candidates both have higher post counts than two of the five leading candidates.

It does not appear that post counts higher than 4000 strongly correlate to placement within the top five candidates. The fifth place candidate, who currently holds about 35% of the vote has a post count of more than double that of the first place candidate who holds about 70%. Similarly, the second place candidate, who holds about 65% of the vote accounts for about 40% of all posts made by all candidates.

I would argue, based on this data, that there is probably a floor post count that a candidate would likely have to achieve in order to be viable. I would set that number around 4000. However, once this floor is achieved, it is unclear that post count is a useful predictor of candidate placement.

Reviews
Of the seventeen candidates, eight have published reviews. Of these eight, four occupy the top four positions, three occupy places 9-11 and one is currently dead last. Of the candidates winning more than 300 votes, every single one has published at least one review. There does, then, seem to be a strong correlation between having published at least one review and placing in the top five candidates.

However, the number of reviews published does not seem to be a good predictor of placement once this number exceeds zero. For instance, the tenth place candidate has published the third largest number of reviews of all candidates.

I would argue, based on the data, that reviews function much as post count does: exceeding a certain floor number is all but essential for winning a judging post. But whereas this number seems to be around 4000 for posts, it is 1 or 2 when it comes to reviews. And, as with posts, some highly prolific writers do not appear to benefit from producing these reviews.

Posts Per Month
Of the leading five candidates, all but one exceed a posting rate of 150 per month and all exceed the posting rate of 100 per month. The fifth and sixth place candidates have the third and second highest posting rates, respectively exceeding 250 per month. Of the candidates not in the leading five, only two exceed a posting rate of 150 (or 100 for that matter) per month.

I would suggest, then, that 150 posts per month is functioning as another "floor" for determining candidate viability. It is interesting to note, at this point, that two of the candidates who have the highest ratio of votes to posts per month are the two that are publicly identified as female. It is also noteworthy that posts per month, much more than reviews or total posts, appears to have a fairly direct correlation to number of votes in addition to constituting a floor.

Seniority
Excepting the fourth place candidate, all of the leading five candidates were active on ENWorld prior to January 2002 while only a third of those outside of this group have this much seniority. There do not seem to be any strong correlations between join date and placement within the group who are currently losing.

Nevertheless, I am tempted to see seniority as operating much like total postcount and reviews as establishing a mimimum criterion that either 80% or 100% of the leading candidates fulfill.

Moderation
Although last year's first place finisher was a moderator, the one moderator running this year is just a few votes above dead last place. I would suggest, therefore, that moderation, contrary to what we might have suspected based on last year's results, does not seem to be much of a factor.

What does this tell us?
In my view, I think we can learn a few things from this list from two perspectives. For those wishing to win a position as an ENNies judge next year, some things that are certain to help you:
1. Make 3-5 posts per day.
2. Publish at least one or two reviews.
3. Push your post count past 4000.
4. Stick around.

More importantly, from these results I think we can learn a bit about what subset of ENWorlders are voting. I would suggest that our average voter, not mobilized by the candidates has the following characteristics:
1. Is interested in the forums and forms an impression of people who post consistently.
1a. Reads posts critically, voting both based on name recognition and post content.
2. Is interested in the capacity of candidates to review products but can make this decision based on fairly few reviews.
2a. Reads reviews critically, voting both based on name recognition and review content BUT may not be a consistent reader of the reviews section of the site.
3. Has been active on ENWorld for some time.
4. Likes female candidates better than males, all other things being equal.

EDIT: I'm attaching the data I used in an Excel spreadsheet for those who want to play with it themselves, especially those (that means you Umbran) who can actually calculate correlation coefficients and the like.
 

Attachments

Last edited:

I'm doing a little number crunching regarding what factors seem to matter to voters. So, I'd appreciate knowing the gender of Mixmaster and nakia. Thanks.

I'm male.

I'll take a stab at a few of those questions as well, since I have some time this morning (to hell with grading papers!) :)

- How do you feel about the reorganization of RPGnow into two interlinked sites (RPGnow and RPGnow Edge) and why?

I'm fairly neutral on this one; as a consumer, I just need an organized site that allows me to find what I need quickly, while allowing me to explore some new stuff. The separation seems to facilitate that; I'd like to see a little better up front indication of whats on "the edge" and what's on the main site, though.

- What is your opinion on how the prizes from last November's donation drive have yet to reach their donors?

I understand that some people are frustrated. Prizes were promised and it's taken a long time to get them. But I never dontated to get any prizes whatsoever, I just donated to help the site. Anything else (I'm sure I'm not the only one that recieved some PDF's via email) that I receive is just gravy.

- Do you think Wizards of the Coast adding guidelines for "good taste" in d20 products was helpful or harmful to the industry as a whole? Why?

Both. In the long term, kids have to be brought into the hobby. That's easier to do if parents have less qualms about buying books for their kids -- qualms that arise due to perceived sexual, violent, or otherwise problematic content. It was a business and PR move for WotC to add those guidelines and I understand why they did so. In general, though, I want as many books to be published with as many different points of view as the market will allow. That helps the market and the hobby as well. I still think there is room for those books to be published.

- Is cover artwork with images that some might consider "risque" a smart business practice, or does it make the book awkward to purchase/be seen with?

Not to sound wishy-washy, but I think the answer is both, again. Whether or not someone feels awkward buying or purchaising a book with a "risque" cover or theme is something that's really determined by the purchaser, not the publisher. Personally, I don't care what the clerk of bookstore X thinks about me when I buy whatever it is I'm buying. The publisher wants to sell his or her product. To do so the product must get noticed. Striking cover art gets the book noticed.

In general, role-playing is now a hobby engaged in mostly by adults (at least folks over 17 or so), so products that cater to adult tastes/ are marketed towards the dominant demographic are fine. I hope, though, that effort is taken to bring children into the hobby and that future development of the hobby is not sacrificed to present sales.
 

Interesting post, fusangite. Apparently...postcount DOES matter! :eek:

Oh, and I don't see much point in answering those questions...since my answers are going to be pretty much exactly the same as everyone elses. In fact, I don't think many people WILL answer differently anyway. Maybe that was the point of them.

nakia said:
In general, role-playing is now a hobby engaged in mostly by adults (at least folks over 17 or so), so products that cater to adult tastes/ are marketed towards the dominant demographic are fine. I hope, though, that effort is taken to bring children into the hobby and that future development of the hobby is not sacrificed to present sales.

I've got to poke at this, sorry.

What's your evidence of this? Maybe ENWorld scews older, but the hobby sure doesn't. The WotC boards are crawling with younger players, so much so that it drives many older gamers crazy and so they find new places to go(such as ENWorld). This hobby is just as engaged by young teenagers as it is by adults, you just don't see them as much on the internet for various reasons. It also doesn't help that, at that age, many people are still very afraid of the stigma attached to D&D and, so, hide that they play.

Again, I'm only 19. I started playing near the end of 2e, which was Middle School for me. There were tons of gamers, it just took actually looking for them. High School was the same way. And now, at both High Schools I attented, its the same way. I know it because I still talk with some people(and some teachers) there that are involved in the games and help out. Young gamers are there, they just aren't here.
 

Ankh-Morpork Guard said:
What's your evidence of this? Maybe ENWorld scews older, but the hobby sure doesn't. The WotC boards are crawling with younger players, so much so that it drives many older gamers crazy and so they find new places to go(such as ENWorld). This hobby is just as engaged by young teenagers as it is by adults, you just don't see them as much on the internet for various reasons. It also doesn't help that, at that age, many people are still very afraid of the stigma attached to D&D and, so, hide that they play.

Again, I'm only 19. I started playing near the end of 2e, which was Middle School for me. There were tons of gamers, it just took actually looking for them. High School was the same way. And now, at both High Schools I attented, its the same way. I know it because I still talk with some people(and some teachers) there that are involved in the games and help out. Young gamers are there, they just aren't here.

Good point. I'm sure my perspective is itself skewed because I hang out an ENWorld and game with older people, so I guess I was generalizing off of my own experience. But I'd also consider you (at 19) and even folks slightly younger as adult gamers, as distinguished from children (say 13 -- younger).

To clarify -- it seems as if most material out there is being written for/marketed toward a "15 and up" crowd. I'm fine with that, especailly since those are the people that actually play the game.
 

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