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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 729277" data-attributes="member: 7394">I'm not surprised, but here's a bunch of reasons why I'm right and you're wrong <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> First of all, the issue of being qualified - Judges are qualified to rate one product against another because they have been given and must read through all of the products that have been nominated. In order for anyone else to be qualified to determine which product is better than another, they too would also have to have all of the nominated products and take the time to read through them. If I were to group myself in with the general public, I would say that I am not qualified to vote because even with my 200 + Non-WotC D20 products, I don't have everything on the list from last year, and likely won't have everything from the list this year either. I have to wonder how many people here have the collection I do, let alone the collection they would need in order to make an informed vote. This brings up the oft-discussed issue of:Market Penetration - Lets assume that Chris Pramas is correct about WotC's numbers (and I'm not confirming nor denying that he is because #1 I do not have the exact sales figures and #2 even if I did, I would not divulge them publicly. So for that reason, we'll go with what Chris said since he used to work at WotC and has a pretty good idea what he's talking about.) If WotC in fact sells 50,000 of every title, and most D20 publishers sell 1,000 to 5,000 of each title (and I do have it on good authority from non-WotC sources that this is an accurate figure), then 90% of the people who bought a WotC product in a particular category do not, in fact, own any given title in the same category, and there's a good chance they haven't even leafed through the product at a game store, let alone done an objective evaluation.Market Subset - The "D20 Industry" is actually a subset of the entire RPG industry. What makes it a subset of the larger industry is the fact that 100% of any D20 publisher's customers are also WotC customers. In other words, this gets back to market share and the fact that any D20 publisher that isn't WotC doesn't stand a chance to compete against them if the winner is decided by a popular vote.So, given the fact that it was a sweep last year because WotC was allowed to enter and they have the majority of the market share, if the same voting system is used again this year, again WotC will sweep the awards. You might as well not bother with the nominating and the voting and just announce all the WotC products as winners now!Now, keep in mind that I am saying this not as someone that doesn't like WotC. In fact I love WotC. WotC is my employer, and I actually love my job. For that reason I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world.I'm also not speaking on behalf of WotC. It is entirely possible that they will decide to nominate some products this year - or not. I don't know. I haven't asked.I'm in favor of allowing WotC to compete, but only if the playing field is level. Last year the playing field was not level, and the winning products came down to a popularity contest. The bottom line is that it should be rated strictly on the quality of the products, and that can only be determined by people that are qualified to judge them. Unless all things are equal, such as market share, brand recognition, etc. then the public shouldn't be part of the vote. If we have similar results this year, I predict that next year there will either be no nominations made from publishers who should be winning, there will be much less interest in the award, or people who actually care to see these based on quality rather than quantity like myself, will just not bother with the voting or any other aspect of the award.</blockquote>

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