Do you take gaming awards seriously?

[Walking Paradox]

I listened to the latest episode of the Fear the Boot Podcast and although they talked about something entirely different for most of the episode, they started off by asking each other if they took the various gaming awards that go around in the game business seriously. They mentioned the Origins Awards, The Ennies, and the Gaming Genius Awards (which seems to be new). They didn't mention the Charles S. Roberts Awards, for wargaming, but I digress.

Anyway, their big question was, has your decision to buy a game, a supplement, or whatever ever been influenced by it having been nominated or awarded one of these awards? For my part, it's made me curious on one or two occasions but it never made me want to buy something outright. I know that a couple of games that I bought years and years after their original release did win Origins or CSR Awards when they were released, but that wasn't what made me buy them. (These were GURPS, Ogre, and one or two old wargames by Avalon Hill whose names escape me at the moment; those names stick out the most in my mind but there were probably a million others.

 

[Mercurius]

About as seriously as the Academy Awards or baseball All-Star Game selections - in other words (and no offense to anyone involved) not very. Now I imagine gaming awards are a bit less of a popularity contest than the All-Star Game, and maybe more along the lines of, say, the Hugo and Nebula awards, but even then I would think that they are dictated largely by fads, that is what is the current flavor-of-the-month in gaming trends.

That said, they do say something. The winner of Best Picture in the Academy Awards is always a good movie, although I find that it is rarely the best among the nominations, at least in my opinion!

I don't pay much attention to gaming awards, so I could be wrong.

 

[RangerWickett]

Dread.

And if nothing else, it's a mark of distinction among game designers, which helps talented folks move up in the world.

 

[Umbran]

"Seriously"? I'm a consumer. The most the awards do for me is give me an indication of what products might be worth looking at. So, awards are, at most, as serious as the purchase of a particular gaming product.

If I were a producer of content, the aggregate influence on consumers could be considerable, so I'd probably take them pretty seriously - the results either impact a chunk of income, or they are data for considering what products I should consider creating.

 

[Janx]

Some of the best games I have won awards.

Roborally

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion


On video games and board games, if I see 2 games that "look interesting" but I'm only going to buy 1, I get the one that won an award that I recognize.

 

[Agamon]

Winning might a be a big deal to the creators, but I don't much care one way or another if a game wins an award or not.

However, games that get nominated are brought to my attention, and I am more likely to check out something that looks interesting on a nominations list.

 

[Morrus]

This thread was late in starting this year! Folks are slowing down!

 

[Smoss]

Never influences me. The only reason I check out awards is to see if they were awarded to worthy games. By the time any awards are out, Ive already examined the games anyway.

Smoss

 

[Crazy Jerome]

There are gaming awards? Who knew? Just kidding!

 

[gamerprinter]

I attended the Ennies in 2007, just to see what the hubbub was about, as well as to try and recognize what makes a particular product 'win worthy' over other products. I thought it was interesting.

Now that I create products, it has more meaning to me - as recognition within the industry. Not necessarily that such an award will jump start a particular product into big time sales or anything - just the recognition among other creators only.

I have to admit though, that I've won many contests for cartography before I ever started to make actual products. Those contest wins pushed me to become a content creator in the first place. So there's probably more influence in an award, then I give it credit for...

Good reviews for a product seem to have more credence with me, however - and more considerations whether to buy a product or not.

GP