2007 ENnies Nominees - announced!

[DaveMage]

As we "speak" (and as the publishers furnish me with the details) I'm updating the ENnies web site to include more information about each of the products. There will be a cover shot, description of the product, and link to samples (if the publisher has them available). Also, we deliberately left a week between the announcement of the products and the beginning of the 2-week voting period in order to give everyone a chance to better-educate themselves about the products.

There's truly some excellent stuff in there, and you won't be disappointed if you take the time to investigate the nominees!

THANK YOU!

 

[CaptainChaos]

You sir, are sucking ALL the wind out of my sails.

Sorry, man. Not trying to be a downer. It's just that when I check the announcements each year after the ceremony, I'm not rushing to see who won the Best Free Product category. I do look at it certainly, but my eyes go first to Best Game, Best Rules, and the like.

 

[GlassJaw]

If WotC decides to participate in the ENnies, the only problem that I can foresee is if they a) pay off the judges or b) the judges are unabashed fanbois.

I don't see either happening.

 

[jaldaen]

I'm not a fan of True20, but I really liked the Nevermore setting in the game I played in last year. It somehow escaped my attention that there was on-going support for it, so I'm (a) glad to see the nomination, and (b) going off to look at the new stuff.

Thanks a bunch... which character were you?

I've done a lot of polishing on the adventure I ran at Gen Con last year... and it is now a full-fledged adventure. It is in final editing and layout and I really am looking forward to unleashing it on the waking world

As for the Nevermore campaign setting it has a couple PDF supplements out (Liber Artefactorum; Lands of Nevermore: the Heartlands & the Wyrd) and more to come... I'm currently working on the Dreadlands supplement and enjoying the exciting epiphanies as they come to me

I hope you enjoy the supplements that are out and please feel free to email me (joseph.dm.miller@gmail.com) if you have questions regarding anything Nevermore...

 

[C.W.Richeson]

I'd like to see Ennie-nominated companies put excerpts of products (a pdf of art, or a chapter of a book, etc.) on their web site, and make those links public here. I suspect that it could help their sales and their voting tremendously if people had a chance to become familiar with their products.

Additionally, if folk want to become more familiar with a lot of these RPG.net has a bunch of reviews. I've even written detailed reviews of a few of the nominees, such as:

Spirit of the Century
Faery's Tale
Dictionary of Mu
The Esoterrorists
Hollow Earth Expedition
Helios Rising
Conspiracy X Second Edition
Scion: Hero

 

[MulhorandSage]

Congratulations to all the nominees. There are some excellent choices (I was pleased to see Thrilling Places get some well-deserved recognition; it's a neat book) and some ones which I'm looking forward to familiarizing myself with.

Thanks to the judges for all their hard work.

 

[fusangite]

Look at the list again. WotC won every category they had an entry in except one, and that was a minor category (Best Free Product).

As we know from real world elections, the results of an election years ago, or, even more significantly, five cycles ago is, at best, an extremely poor predictor of the next election's results. Had you applied this principle to past judge elections, you would not have predicted that the two incumbents who were re-elected would have placed behind two new candidates. Similarly, you would not have guessed that Crothian/Chris would have been defeated.

What I have not seen from you is an explanation for why the next ENnies vote's finalists will bear such a strong resemblance to those in 2002 when
(a) the third-party publishing environment has changed
(b) ENWorld has changed
(c) the voter base has changed
(d) the companies entering the awards have changed
(e) the relationship between the awards and D20 system products have changed

I have no idea how WOTC will do in next year's awards. Because (a) of these changes and (b) we have no idea what products will be entered and which publishers will participate. Maybe WOTC will sweep the awards. Maybe they'll be annihilated. Maybe some outcome between those two will happen.

What I can rely on is that the judges will produce a solid and diverse list of nominees and the fans will vote on which products are best. And the products the fans believe are best will win. So, regardless of how any individual publisher does, I know that, like this year's awards, next year's ENnies will recognize excellence in game publishing.

It's different in many ways. Green Ronin doing well was by no means a forgone conclusion. They had to fight for it in a way that WotC simply does not. WotC sells way more products than anyone else and EN World is a fan site dedicated to their game.

Green Ronin sells way more products than Expeditious Retreat Press; does this mean that it is a "foregone conclusion" that whenever Green Ronin's products go up against XRP that Green Ronin will win?

Given that we do not know how much or if voter turnout will increase with WOTC's entry, we have no basis on which to predict how relevant this information about the size of WOTC's customer base will even be.

It's not like the ENnies got their start at a Mutants & Masterminds fan site.

So? The ENies used to be attached to ENWorld. Now they're not. And ENWorld remains a site for all D20 games, not just WOTC product.

Why not base your arguments on data about the hobby now, not the hobby five years ago? That's one of the virtues of democracies -- they live in the present; things are what the voters make of them at the moment they cast their vote.

I guess I'm wondering if you believe in people's choice awards. Do you trust the voters to recognize excellence in their hobby?

The only place? You don't think the D&D brand, 30+ years of market dominance, and sales orders of magnitude bigger than their competition are advantages?

Again, your argument rebounds on companies like Green Ronin. Don't they also have "advantages" in your scheme?

A crucial point about the ENnies is that one award is for Best Publisher. The vast majority of awards are not for companies; they are for products. As the awards have demonstrated again and again, products with few resources behind them can and do beat products with many resources behind them.

 

[Neko7C]

Hi ! just a few words to tell you how honoured and proud we all feel here to get 6 nominations this year for Qin RPG.
You can already find a demokit, a map and a character sheet in english to download here :
http://www.7emecercle.com/


Dextra, if you need anything for your Ennies files (images, for instance) just let me know by mail.

Thanks, a thousand times, thank you !

 

[Dextra]

Hi, publishers

I'm writing this from work, but thought I'd get the process started so that when I get home I can update your entry on the nomination page. Please email me at denise@ennieawards.com the following info:
-200 characters of text, spaces included describing the product.
-if nominated for an art category, list your art director and/or lead artists. If for cartography, then your mapmakers, etc. I know, much of the info is already on your entry form, but if I have to type in hundreds of nominees, I won't have a chance to finish it in a timely manner!
-150 x 150 pixel graphic. Most likely the cover of your product. jpg or gif
-link to a single page that has your product sample on it.

If you're nominated for Best Publisher, send me your company logo (once again 150x150 pixels) and up to 150 characters of text, spaces included describing the company.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Thanks a bunch... which character were you?

I was a female caster-type. There were a couple players that detracted from the overall experience, but I think with the right group it would make a heck of a module. You did a really good job with the atmosphere and mixing the puzzles into the flow.