[ENnies] WotC on the outs

[Andy_Collins]

MM II

WotC did not wish to enter it.

While Colonel Hardisson's tact is appreciated, it might be more complete to say that "WotC didn't wish to take advantage of its not-entirely-correct use of the OGL to make a product eligible." (It's been argued that MM2, while it included the license, didn't really include enough open content to merit the use of the license.)

The spirit of the 2003 Enny Awards was clearly to reward achievement by companies who relied on the OGL/d20 license in order to publish their game. We in R&D (when nominating products for this year's awards) felt it would be inappropriate to abuse the rules of eligibility to nominate a product that didn't really fit that spirit.

 

[Ghostwind]

If worse comes to worse, avoid the whole issue of publishers providing product. Have Gen Con sponsor $400 worth of product for each judge, housing for the judges and passes for the jduges. Have the fans vote on what products they want to be seen. The publishers need to be removed from this equation and the fans need to be heard.

Just playing Devil's Advocate for a moment...

If the ENnies are to truly be a fan-based award, then why have judges at all? Do the ENnies awards require X number of judges to tell everyone else that these products are worthy of an award? Why not let the fans dictate it all themselves? Simply put up a web page like Bobby Hitt did with Pen & Paper.net where the fan was required to fill out the fields themselves. That way it is up to the fan to educate himself on the RPG products or simply vote for something that came out within the defined time criteria that he truly enjoys. Then there is no disparity because no one can say that Y company was unfairly represented. No expense, no judges, no nominations, just winners as dictated by the popular vote which is exactly what the Ennies are; the result of the popular vote.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Just playing Devil's Advocate for a moment...

If the ENnies are to truly be a fan-based award, then why have judges at all? Do the ENnies awards require X number of judges to tell everyone else that these products are worthy of an award? Why not let the fans dictate it all themselves? Simply put up a web page like Bobby Hitt did with Pen & Paper.net where the fan was required to fill out the fields themselves. That way it is up to the fan to educate himself on the RPG products or simply vote for something that came out within the defined time criteria that he truly enjoys. Then there is no disparity because no one can say that Y company was unfairly represented. No expense, no judges, no nominations, just winners as dictated by the popular vote which is exactly what the Ennies are; the result of the popular vote.

That's one of the reasons I'd like to see the mission statement.

A lot of great comments and issues have been brought up.

In some cases, it's taken the whole fun out of a fan event.

Knowing what this is supposed to be and where its supposed to be going, can help clear it up.

No one's jobs in danger here. The judges can potentially change every year.

Clear communication with no innuendo is necessary to address the real concerns.

 

[Andy_Collins]

Enny Goals

Jeff (Colonel Hardisson) Black asked me to share my thoughts about this year's awards, so here I am.

Clearly, there was a lot of confusion out there as to what was eligible for this year's awards. Heck, even we at WotC missed the change when we first started putting together our nominations. That's a shame, because it's now resulting in a lot of false assumptions about which products should or shouldn't have won the awards given out last Friday night. That's unfair to the products that rightfully won their categories.

Wizards of the Coast (specifically, R&D) entered the one and only product category for which we felt eligible. (See my MM II post above.) The department selected a product that we felt represented a top-notch effort, based on customer feedback, sales, and other factors. (Frankly, it was essentially a "pick 'em" from a list of a few products--we're pretty proud of a lot of things we published over the last 12 months.)

Frankly, I think it's a real shame that more Wizards products couldn't qualify for the non-rules categories. As an example, the fact that Henry Higgenbotham's fantastic cover for Book of Vile Darkness happened to be glued to a book that didn't include the OGL shouldn't have any impact on the recognition of the quality of his work.

The organizers of the Ennies have some hard questions to ask themselves between now and next year, and I think it's great that they're already asking for feedback. Regardless of one's opinion about how the awards turned out, I think it's clear that the intent of the organizers is a good one. I would encourage them to begin dialogues with the various d20 companies out there to see what feedback (if any) the publishers might want to share on a private level.

In closing, I'll just offer our thanks to Morrus and everyone else who cared enough to make the awards happen--as well as to everyone who voted--and our congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

For two straight years the awards has been dominated by the same names (first Wotc and now GR and Privateer) which indicates a potential problem with either the nomination process or the voting process.

Or it more likely means that there are a few companies that do consistently good work. The judges spent a lot of time going through all the submitted entries, and we really tried to recognize excellence where it was, regardless of who made made the product.

Despite Wulf's disagreeing with me, there were many publishers (prominent ones) at the awards that I spoke with that felt they never had a chance to win after the first few announcements came through. Considering the cost incurred to the publisher to submit a product for consideration (number of copies sent to the judges, shipping, etc.), there are several who will not do it next year unless changes are made. The popularity factor was very evident (again, this is not meant to degrade the winners, only make a point) in the way the awards played out. As a publisher, if you do not feel you have a reasonable shot at being nominated and then have a reasonable shot at winning should you receive a nomination, then why go to the expense of entering at all?

Why? Perhaps because one thinks one's product is good enough to win? As a judge, I can say I didn't go through all the submitted material just to pick out what I thought was most popular and nominate on that criterion. That type of thing simply doesn't enter into the judging process. I picked what I felt was the best from each category. I didn't care about who made it. I think our nominees reflect that.

I wish these publishers would speak up. We need dialogue about these issues. However, it sounds a bit too much like some are expecting nominations just for entering. At least, that's what I'm getting from what you wrote. There was a lot of competition this year; everyone can't be a nominee, and everyone can't win. To be honest, I wish they could. I don't want people think that just because they weren't nominated that we thought their product was crap. The individual judges' lists reflect that some products came very close to nomination, but didn't quite make it. I had proposed a "Judges Choice" parallel award for each category to reflect this, but the proposal was roundly rejected by the posters here.

If you look at any awards system in other genres, such as the Academy Awards, there is a tangible benefit to being nominated and/or winning: increased revenue due to movie rentals or people going to the theater to see the movie. With the RPG industry, there is no such benefit (although GR might make a good argument that sales of M&M products at Gen Con were influenced by the ENnies). This is a key reason why larger publishers who aren't necessarily frequent visitors to this community may feel less inclined to participate. To them, it has no meaning.

Let's present a hypothetical idea. Say Decipher comes out with a d20 version of Lord of the Rings. Since they do not frequent these boards or EN World at all, in general, they are already fighting a bit of an uphill battle to not only get nominated but also potentially win. What benefit would an Ennie award provide them? They already have a substantial fan base, just not on EN World. Since the voting is really a popularity contest among EN community members only, why should Decipher feel like it should enter (even if it has a book that is the greatest thing since plastic dice)?

There are changes that need to be made as the award evolves and not all of them are ones that people will want to hear. However, if the ENnies are to ever gain a serious measure of respect among the RPG industry in general, and not a small group of d20 publishers that hang out here, it has to be willing to take the steps needed to earn that respect. This is the real challenge that lies ahead...

I'm interested in hearing what you propose. I made some proposals of my own last year and just before this year's awards, as did many others. Many of those proposals were implemented, and many weren't. As you say, we need to discuss this.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

In some cases, it's taken the whole fun out of a fan event.

Yep, to some extent I have to agree.

No one's jobs in danger here. The judges can potentially change every year.

Yes, they can. There was turnover this year, as a matter of fact. I'm not going to put my name into the running next year, so there will certainly be turnover next year as well.

 

[Vigilance]

I have a suggestion along a slightly different tack. I don't think free products should be entered in both the "Free Product" and "Electronic Product" category.

Free electronic products are downloaded with much greater frequency than pay electronic products- so I think this skews the voting a little.

Chuck

 

[JoeGKushner]

I have a suggestion along a slightly different tack. I don't think free products should be entered in both the "Free Product" and "Electronic Product" category.

Free electronic products are downloaded with much greater frequency than pay electronic products- so I think this skews the voting a little.

Chuck

I agree with this.

I also mentioned that I don't think that a PDF product that is also a print product should be eligible for the PDF category since in many ways, especially now, it was originally designed to be a print product.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'm using both GR and Monsternomicon to illustrate the point of multiple "wins" (by this I mean gold and silver awards). Monsternomicon took home a win in every category they were nominated for: Best Monster Supplement, Best Graphic Design and Layout, Best Interior Art and Best Cover Art while Freedom City scored with Best Campaign Setting, Best Graphic Design and Layout, Best Interior Art and Best Cover Art (if I remember correctly). This is why I was saying that restricting a single product to a single category forces a publisher to cater to that book's strengths and focus on the category it stands the best chance of being nominated in.

Baffling.

A product that was entered into and won it's category should have not been allowed to enter?

I disagree with this. The idea that a company that has sunk it's heart and soul into the cover art, the mechanics, the setting fluff, the layout and the interior art has to "pick one and go with it" when it comes award time is bizarre.

To use the Oscars analogy, it's no accident that "best director" , "Best Score" , "Best Screeplay" often go to the same entrant as "Best Film". Sometimes there is just outstanding product.

I'm not sure what's gained by saying that Monsternomicon-- due to the quality of it's cover--should be barred from competing in "Best Monster Supplement" (or vice versa).

 

[Erik Mona]

Steve Creech said:
>>>
Green Ronin is very popular among EN Worlder's and gained substantial votes as a result every time one of their products was nominated.
>>>

I think that's absurd. Green Ronin is popular around here because, simply put, they're one of the best publishers in the industry, and consistently produce products that receive rave reviews here and elsewhere.

They gained the votes because their products are worthy of those votes, not because people think they have a cute logo or because everyone just wanted to pull a prank on Trancejeremy.

Your suggestion that products only be considered for one category is tantamount to the Academy Awards not allowing a Best Actor nominee for a movie nominated for Best Picture.

I don't mean to be rude, but that's dumb.

One of the reasons it makes sense to allow the nominations to fall where they may is because it takes _a lot_ of people to put together an RPG product. I was lucky enough to step onstage a time or two at this year's ENnies representing my freelance company, Super Unicorn Design Studio. Graphic Designer Sean Glenn and I dedicated most of our free time last year to contribute to M&M's success and make it the best game it could possibly be. We're enormously proud of our work, and are very pleased to have garnered a couple of graphic design awards that recognize our hard work as something valuable to ENnie voters.

Under your solution, let's say that M&M still won Best d20 Game and Privateer's Monsternomicon still one Best Monster Book. _Neither_ the gold nor the silver winners would then be eligible for the graphic design or art awards, which seems to me a shame. It essentially means that the award goes to the third best product, which, while nice, is hardly as meaningful when the two strongest competitors have been eliminated from contention.

"Yay! I won the gold award for third place!"

Lame.

--Erik