Awards and Fans and Publishers! Oh, my!

reveal

Adventurer
As the ENnie Awards enters its 10th year, we've been evaluating priorities and taking care to look at feedback from past years. So today we're asking your opinion on a few issues. Your responses will be taken into consideration as we move forward. Please note that we cannot afford the time or money to create too many extra categories. Also in your response, please note if you are a publisher, fan, if you've submitted to the ENnies/plan on doing so, etc.:

I. As the category structure is set out currently, anyone submitting product for the ENnies is relegated into two broad classifications - "Publisher" or "Fan". A Publisher is someone who produces role playing games or related products for sale. A Fan is someone who produces role playing games or related products for free. These classifications have been made in order to recognize those people who produce product in their free time and who generally have fewer resources to devote to their product. Also, since the Awards and many publishers started as fan web sites or productions, the ENnies wish to maintain their commitment to acknowledging the efforts of those in the trenches getting started.

We have two options to consider:

A. Keep 'em separated: Offer a Fan Product category (or more if quality and quantity of submissions so warrant). Categories would most likely be Best Web Site, Best Serial (webzine, podcast, blog), Best Product.

B. Let 'em compete together: Eliminate the Fan categories altogether. Many Fan productions believe they have sufficient quality to stand on their own feet without needing any special category to give them a leg up.

It has to be either/or so the rules can be applied to everybody. It would not be acceptable to have only some Fan products "opt in".

II. The definition of the category allows for any submitted free product or webhancement from a publisher, whether it's a full product, quickstart rules, etc. This category was created to replace the Best Web Site category, since for publishers, a web site is essentially a marketing and public relations tool, just like handing out free product. It is a "thank you" and an acknowledgement of the investment required to create a product that is not in itself going to make money.

Last year there was some discussion as to what should be permitted as a free product in the Free Product/Webhancement category. Should we change the definition of this category? And if so, how?

III. Please feel free to expand upon other topics below, fill out our online survey, or email the Business Manager personally at denise@ennieawards.com with your questions or concerns.

Tony Law
ENnies Assistant Business Manager
 

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It seems to me that if your goal is to acknowledge folks who do it for free, you should keep them separate.

After all, can't those (currently classified "Fan") folks who believe they can compete with "Publishers" effectively gain entrance as "Publishers" by charging a nominal amount for their product?
 

Many Fan productions believe they have sufficient quality to stand on their own feet without needing any special category to give them a leg up.

They are wrong. I understand that they want to think they are as good as publishers and some of them are. But they are not as good as the very best the Publishers have to offer which is what the awards are about.

I say keep fan products separated from publisher products. I would even go so far as to not allow publishers to submit free products into the fan categories.
 

They are wrong. I understand that they want to think they are as good as publishers and some of them are. But they are not as good as the very best the Publishers have to offer which is what the awards are about.

I say keep fan products separated from publisher products. I would even go so far as to not allow publishers to submit free products into the fan categories.

As an interested party who's been considering this for half-an-hour I'm kind of coming round to your point. We've a professional artist and a professional designer on a free product, but they don't have the time or support to match a large publisher.

I know this because I (not a professional editor) didn't complete a final typos check on the version that's to be judged before the deadline. They'd of had that support with a larger company. So, there's a kind of 'level playing field' case.

Whether or not free or Indie publishers should sort of accept that they can't aim for the same quality eventually is a different matter. Surely they've got to 'go for it' if a game's to be at all ambitious or novel? Even if it takes longer to grind away the rough edges.
 
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reveal said:
I. As the category structure is set out currently, anyone submitting product for the ENnies is relegated into two broad classifications - "Publisher" or "Fan". A Publisher is someone who produces role playing games or related products for sale. A Fan is someone who produces role playing games or related products for free. These classifications have been made in order to recognize those people who produce product in their free time and who generally have fewer resources to devote to their product. Also, since the Awards and many publishers started as fan web sites or productions, the ENnies wish to maintain their commitment to acknowledging the efforts of those in the trenches getting started.

We have two options to consider:

A. Keep 'em separated: Offer a Fan Product category (or more if quality and quantity of submissions so warrant). Categories would most likely be Best Web Site, Best Serial (webzine, podcast, blog), Best Product.

B. Let 'em compete together: Eliminate the Fan categories altogether. Many Fan productions believe they have sufficient quality to stand on their own feet without needing any special category to give them a leg up.

I would say keeping them as two separate categories is best. As you said by having a fan category it helps the ENnies maintain their commitment to acknowledging the work of those just getting started but haven't made it to the big time yet. I think that is a good thing to continue to support. Acknowledgment of a job well done by peers can be a rewarding thing for people producing content with no monetary compensation.

While some may think their materials are competitive with the publisher category, I would wager there are many others that realize there is a difference in quality - whether it be editing, the art or some other factor. I think it penalizes those folks by possibly a smaller number who think they are competitive.

reveal said:
II. The definition of the category allows for any submitted free product or webhancement from a publisher, whether it's a full product, quickstart rules, etc. This category was created to replace the Best Web Site category, since for publishers, a web site is essentially a marketing and public relations tool, just like handing out free product. It is a "thank you" and an acknowledgement of the investment required to create a product that is not in itself going to make money.

I am not entirely certain I follow, does this mean that a publisher who normally produces paid for content can enter a web supplement or their site into this free category that competes against the fan produced content category? And their website would compete against fan produced websites?

I do not think having publisher websites that generally produce pay for content to compete against fan made websites is a good thing. While the site may be free to access, in the cases of the larger publishers they will have paid people for content layout and design as opposed to the fan site which is handling things on its own.

I don't think I would put free supplements from a publisher that typically charges for product against free supplements a fan is putting out who offers no pay for content. Even a free supplement from a larger, pay for product publisher had dollars spent to produce it - even if the mangement decision was to release it for free.

I may have completely misunderstood this item though - disregard these comments if I have.
 
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I can see both sides of this topic.

Why not actually call it "Freelance Division"? The purpose of this division is to highlight those who are not affiliated with any company, past/present, but are just as good in the material they have created.

The division would have some of the same categories as the companies would for awards. Doing this would help promote the DIY (Do It Yourself) gaming community and show potential talent for companies.
 
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I think you should keep them separate.

Also, are you planning on switching up the categories for this year's awards?

After everyone has already submitted their entries?

That is not exactly confidence-building.

--Erik
 

I think you should keep them separate.

Also, are you planning on switching up the categories for this year's awards?

After everyone has already submitted their entries?

That is not exactly confidence-building.

--Erik

This was more for a question for future Awards honestly, but point well-taken, thank you. I certainly don't want to be instigating massive changes this far into the game!

To clarify for others responding in this thread, as a general rule any product entered is eligible for all the categories, whether it's an electronic book or a fan/DIY-produced product or a good ole-fashioned book purchased through your FLGS. So if the judges feel that a fan product can compete with the big boys, then it can be nominated in any of those categories such as Best Setting, Best Writing, etc.

The Fan product category (or categories) are in addition to the regular categories, and only fan-produced products can compete therein. Even if they're free, publishers are not considered in these categories.

And ProtoClone- we're not going to create a whole slew of new categories- it would make for a marathon event and mean an increase in costs. I like the idea of encouraging newbies, but to have the entire roster of ENnies categories would be too unweildy. But perhaps you could start up your own awards and we could work together to co-promote?

Does that help?
 

And ProtoClone- we're not going to create a whole slew of new categories- it would make for a marathon event and mean an increase in costs. I like the idea of encouraging newbies, but to have the entire roster of ENnies categories would be too unweildy. But perhaps you could start up your own awards and we could work together to co-promote?

Does that help?


I was not meaning a whole slew of new categories, just one category would suffice to be honest. It could be "Best Freelance Material" and anything submitted by people would be for this category only.
 

I'm surprised this has generated so little discussion.

For the record, I say keep 'em separated. In the same spirit, I could see a "Best D&D Product" category. Here all the WotC stuff could compete against itself, leaving the rest of the awards for smaller publishers and fans.
 

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