How do you feel about the ENnies so far?

[Crothian]

I think the lack of WotC products really hurts it this year.

Why? As a Judge I obviously saw everything that got nominated and I've seen the books wizard put out. I'm not sure if they entered it would have changed anything. Wizards did not have a lot of really great products and to get nominated the product seriously has to be great.

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

Why? As a Judge I obviously saw everything that got nominated and I've seen the books wizard put out. I'm not sure if they entered it would have changed anything. Wizards did not have a lot of really great products and to get nominated the product seriously has to be great.

Mostly name recognition. I don't follow the secondary publishers as closely as some, but I have to say that I didn't recognize hardly anything that was nominated. This lessens my enthusiasm for the awards. Plus, the suspicion of a lot of people will be that WotC products might have won if they had been in the running.

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

By the way, I have warm-fuzzy feelings in general toward the Ennies. I found ENWorld because of them!

 

[Crothian]

Mostly name recognition. I don't follow the secondary publishers as closely as some, but I have to say that I didn't recognize hardly anything that was nominated. This lessens my enthusiasm for the awards. Plus, the suspicion of a lot of people will be that WotC products might have won if they had been in the running.

My point is that suspicion is not really that accurate. Now, I'm just one of five and I'll admit products that I didn't think were the best in a category made it anyway, it happens to all of we get out voted. But if Wizard would have entered and got nominated in say 4 catagories for thier books, that still wouldn't have changed much. If you aren't familar with what we nominated, a few wizards books in the mix would still mean you are not familar with most of what was nominated.

 

[Crothian]

By the way, I have warm-fuzzy feelings in general toward the Ennies. I found ENWorld because of them!

That places you firmly in my "cool file"

 

[BSF]

Mostly name recognition. I don't follow the secondary publishers as closely as some, but I have to say that I didn't recognize hardly anything that was nominated. This lessens my enthusiasm for the awards. Plus, the suspicion of a lot of people will be that WotC products might have won if they had been in the running.

That's too bad. It is increasingly rare that I buy a WotC book. There is so much other good stuff out there that WotC just doesn't put out much that I need. Of course, I homebrew. If you use one of WotC's settings, I imagine there is much more of interest in their product line.

Anyway I would encourage you to take a look at more third party stuff. There really is some quality stuff out there.

 

[Turjan]

But if Wizard would have entered and got nominated in say 4 catagories for thier books, that still wouldn't have changed much.

The way awards of this kind work, it would have most probably meant that Wizards would have won in these 4 categories. People can only vote for things they know. As even ENWorld has a high percentage of people who never touch any d20 products other than those from WotC, they would have most probably collected the most votes, regardless of their relative quality. It will not surprise me if they win the fan award, either.

In this sense, I don't feel completely comfortable with my own votes, either. Although I like quite a few non-d20 RPG's, I only know maybe half of those on the nomination list. I'm not really into supers, and without having the possibility to look at those games, I could not even vote for them in the art category. My most questionable omission might be my failure to look at the plethora of nWoD entries, because I personally loathe those games. Nevertheless, there is some kind of guilty feeling that I even did not give the entries enough of a chance to harvest a vote in an art or style category. Then there's Burning Wheel; this game looks as if I might really like it, but I didn't manage to have a look at it during the voting period. This means: no vote from me.

I suppose most people vote somehow along similar lines. That's why I think WotC entries would win most categories where they would be nominated, whether they were good or not. At least I knew most of the d20 entries and felt pretty comfortable in my votes in that field.

 

[francisca]

<shrug>

I'm not buying at the rate I once was, so I'm pretty immune to the Ennies or about anything else, for that matter. I did buy Sidewinder: Recoiled after last years Ennies, however.

 

[francisca]

In this sense, I don't feel completely comfortable with my own votes, either.

FWIW: I left around half of the ballot entries empty, as I had no idea what a lot of the stuff even was.

 

[DaveMage]

Well...since you asked...

1) I have a concern about the need for fundraising. I think that if GenCon wants their name in the awards, and is going to dictate their content, they should assist with funding enough so there is no need for fundraising. The ENnies seem to be a lot of work for those involved as it is, and to compound that work with fundraising seems like too much added stress. (Although I do admit that some of the auctions, such as sitting with the game designers, are pretty cool. )

2) The non-d20/OGL products are of no use to me, and I wish they weren't part of the process.

3) IMO, there should be some sort of fan vote and nomination process that is independent of the formal submission process - even if it's just for 1 or 2 categories. I think it's a travesty that there's no way to recognize, for example, WotC products, and also perhaps groundbreaking ones like the World's Largest Dungeon, since AEG for whatever reason didn't submit it.