2007 Judge Selection

[Dextra]

The nomination forms are starting to trickle in, and now I'd like to open up a thread where people can ask Nominees their opinions/positions on certain topics. Participation is completely optional, but hope voters will use this is a tool, along with the nominee writeups- to help make an informed decision.

I've come up with a few questions to get things started, and encourage other voters to chip in with regards to what you think are the important issues at hand:

1. How do you think price factors when evaluating a product?
2. Do you have a favourite system, or particular dislike of one? Why? How will this affect your ability to judge products?
3. How do you feel about PDFs? Inherent advantages and/or disadvantages?
4. Mutant or troll?

 

[DaveyJones]

5. mechanics or concepts? if you find too many errors in mechanics or in the writing will you fault the submission?

6. are you in a long term relationship or a job which requires you to be on call or have little free time? how much time are you willing to spend to see this project to completion? are the outside factors going to effect your commitment? (a non gaming SO, a sick child, an aging parent, a new job, a move, planning a marriage, etc...)

7. what are you gonna do with your stuff when all is done?

 

[crazy_cat]

8. 4e - Now, Soon, Later, or Never?

 

[Crothian]

I guess I'll be the first to tackle these

1) Price is a factor but it is one of the last and least important factors. Usually when compairing two books they have to be really close for me to have price make the difference. There are the rare exceptions for something that is unusually cheap or unusually expensive though.

2) I don't have a favorite system, but I'm still looking for one. There are systems I like better then others. Some systems just work better and are easier to understand then other systems. Other times the system just does not do what the game is designed to do. But my like or dislike of a system rarely makes me bias towards or against a game. It can be hard and sometimes I have to set the book aside and clear my head for a few days to do it, but I really try to give each book a blank slate when I start to read it.

3) I'm a fan of PDFs. I review a lot and read even more. But they are at a disadvantage but that has shrunk in the past few years.

4) Mutants.

5) I perfer concepts to mechanics. Concepts are what I build my own games on and mechanics are just how we do it. But errors in either are going to be seen as faults of the submission. In the past few years we have gotten more good books then bad so it is important to be a little picky and just nominate the very best.

6) As much as I hate to say it, I have plenty of free time to be a Judge. I've taken vacation days to get it all done before. The first year I did this it basically costy me my girlfriend at the time (it was going to end anyway it just happened sooner because I was a Judge). I'm a single guy with family and friends that understand there will be many weeks I'm not going to have time to talk to them.

7) I give most of it all away. My friends each get a few books or a small pile. I give some away at Gamedays and at Gen Con for people that help us there. I give some to Denise to help raise money to cover the costs. The rest gets placed on selves and evtually traded away or kept until I can find a good home for them.

8) later, since it is not this year I don't have to worry about it.

 

[trancejeremy]

9) Which is your favorite Beatle?

 

[schporto]

10) Software. What role do you see for software in DnD? Do you use software in DnD (more than Word/PDF etc)? Are minis more important than software?

I may not be asking this right. And while this is a secondary thing - it is important to how I'd vote. I use software in my game, and I consider it more useful/important than minis, or battlemats, or paper foldup models.
-cpd

 

[Crothian]

10) Software. What role do you see for software in DnD? Do you use software in DnD (more than Word/PDF etc)? Are minis more important than software?

I may not be asking this right. And while this is a secondary thing - it is important to how I'd vote. I use software in my game, and I consider it more useful/important than minis, or battlemats, or paper foldup models.
-cpd

10) I'll start with minis first. I am not one that usually uses Minis however the group I do does make use of minis. I have found that they can aid the game and there are a lot of cool accessories to have fun with the battle mat and minis. It's not my first choice of how to do things, but I can see why they are so popular.

I don't use software but that is because I don't own a laptop and not because I dislike gaming software. As a reveiwer and former Judge I have seen software that I would use if having a computer when I game was convient for me. I don't see minis as being more important then software. They kind of serve a similiar purpose of making the game easier and more fun for those people that like and can make good use of them.

 

[Teflon Billy]

1. How do you think price factors when evaluating a product?

Pretty low on the list, like a tiebreaker at best.

It's not that I think price is not worthy of notice in my day-to-day life...it's just that unless there is a categpry like "Best Value" or something akin to that, I'm not sure I should be judging something based on it's it's sticker cost.

2. Do you have a favourite system, or particular dislike of one?

I find that I cycle through about five "Favorite systems" a year on average. I think certain systems are better for modelling certain genres, other than that I don't really have favorites.

Most fo the systems I particlarly hate are long out of print (and deservedly so I should think )

How will this affect your ability to judge products?

Well, my taste has always factpred into my judging, this year isn;t likley to be different.

3. How do you feel about PDFs?

I'm more a fan of content than chosen media...though I do wish .PDF's were published more often with an eye to taking advantage of their electronic strengths rather than just treating them like "print yourself" paper files.

Inherent advantages and/or disadvantages?

4. Mutant or troll?

Mutant.

 

[Teflon Billy]

5. mechanics or concepts? if you find too many errors in mechanics or in the writing will you fault the submission?

Concepts are what I buy products for. If something is truly awful in terms of errors and proofreading though (like where it starts affecting my ability to absorb the information and such), it will probably affect my opinion.

A miscalculatd Skill point and that kind of thing though? It won't ususally kill an otherwise good product for me.

6. are you in a long term relationship or a job which requires you to be on call or have little free time? how much time are you willing to spend to see this project to completion? are the outside factors going to effect your commitment? (a non gaming SO, a sick child, an aging parent, a new job, a move, planning a marriage, etc...)

In my previous efforts as an ENnies judge I have never failed to complete the work. It becomes my first priority. My wife and family are understanding about this time of year for me, and my job is such that I have a lot of free "reading time" during working hours.

Three times I've found it necessary to take time off from work to complete the reading, and have always done so.

7. what are you gonna do with your stuff when all is done?

I keep the stuff I like, give abunch away at Gen Con to EN Worlders who express an interest, distribute a bunch to local conventions as prizes, donate a bunch to the ENnies auctions for fundraising and---given the success of last years decision to donate a bunch to the library at Children's Hospital in Vancouver--I'll likley do some version of all four again.

 

[Teflon Billy]

9) Which is your favorite Beatle?

A tie between John and Ringo.