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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BastionPress_Creech" data-source="post: 1725577" data-attributes="member: 12016">I was reacting to an earlier statement of charging more money. A nominal fee such as yours could be acceptable depending on how that money was to be used and other submission requirements. Likewise, Bastion would not have an issue with making a donation provided we know exactly how the money is to be used (such as advertising in the Gen Con program book).Well said. One of the inherent arguments/drawbacks with awards that involve RPGs is that there really is no tangible benefit to the winners. The products that win are well past their 30-45 day sell cycle with few (if any) reorders, especially in the d20 market. And please don't try to say that the winners get a lot of exposure, because that's not something you can actually quantify unless there is an immediate spike in sales after the awards. This is an excellent point and something that needs to be addressed. As Patrick Lawinger eluded to in an earlier post, the ENnie awards and EN World in general doesn't even blip on the average gamer's radar. I quit counting the number of times in the past year that gamers I conversed with at gaming stores and conventions who were completely clueless about the Origins Awards, ENnie Awards, EN World, or even RPG.net. Simply put, in the larger scheme, awareness needs to be increased on a grand scale so a blip does happen on the gamer's radar. On the Saturday after the awards, we had our winning silver certificate for Torn Asunder posted at our booth. Many folks that came up didn't know about the awards and even more simply didn't care. Why? Because there is nothing that they derive a benefit from. "Oh, you won an award. That's nice. But I've never heard of it." Unlike popular TV awards, RPG awards offer nothing for the casual gamer. TV awards such as the People's Choice Awards offer even the uninterested one thing, a common point of reference. When a famous actor or actress steps up to the podium, the viewer recognizes them and may even have an opinion about them. 'Joe Gamer' and 'Josephine Gamer' don't necessarily have that same reference because of the diversity in games.But this is an issue that is not restricted to the ENnies alone. The roleplaying game industry in general is fighting with the same problem. How do you go about making the "mainstream" gamer aware of your product (or award) when he does not frequent the Internet gaming sites, which serve as the focal point to your award or product? The quick answer is, of course, advertising. But advertising costs money and the costs involved for a national campaign promoting the awards and roleplaying in general would be enormous (just ask Wotc how much they are spending on 30th anniversay advertising). So leading back to Dextra's question, how can the awards be used to promote not only the winners, but EN World and roleplaying in general that provides a benefit to the winners? That's a $64,000 question and one that a properly run and conducted marketing study would help with. But then there's the high cost of running a study again. Hmmm no-win situation, isn't it?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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