How do you feel about the ENnies so far?

[BiggusGeekus]

Just 1 would be fine.

Something like: Fan's choice for best d20 product.

I'm also supportive of something like this. What's the harm? Except that I wouldn't restrict it to d20. Or at least I'd have a d20 and non-d20 category. If that turned out to be too expensive to maintain, we could always drop a category. Like best writing for instance. Only chumps end up there.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I enjoyed getting a nice list of products to check out. I also was familiar with a number of them, so I felt confident in being able to vote for products and companies that I like.

There's still aspects of the nomination process that are unclear, but we sent an email and hope to get some feedback on that.

 

[Vascant]

Since this year I actually voted (Thanks for the extended time period!), normally I am pretty busy and just can't seem to get 5 minutes to myself in a 72 hour period. One thing I noticed very quickly, I knew nothing about most of the products listed for an award, I would imagine I am not alone in this. Given that, the award would be solely based on who had the largest following and not the best product in a certain area. I was the last person qualified to determine if a product is the best in a specific area.

This is pretty critical as I plan this year to have <Product> involved next year, I know now my biggest challange is not creating the best product but it is gaining market share. The more people that I can expose my product to, the more possible votes I will have. This just does not sound even right. We are critical of people who pimp their products and yet create an award system that demands it.

Please understand, I am not ranting because even though I do not agree with the system, I do appreciate the what must be huge amount of work people have done to make it happen.



(I have kept out all product names and sigless because this post isn't about them)

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Nothing wrong with pimping your product. If you want to make money off of this, it's a necessary evil. Just make sure that your product is worth pimping, and do it the right way. Participate here, answer questions, don't prosyletize where it's not relevant, act like a professional and know how to take criticism.

I think most people here recognize it's part of the game, so to speak. The only time we get critical of people advertising their product is when it becomes in your face or the person has a thin skin when it comes to negative posts. No one wants to see Derek Smart of RPGs around here.

 

[eyebeams]

Outside of hawking .pdfs, all awards are equally useless when it comes to promoting or celebrating RPGs. The Diana Jones awards are possibly the only exception, since they represent acclaim from a respected group of designers.

That said, the Ennies are a great boost for .pdfs -- the only awards that matter when it comes to that.

 

[Dextra]

If you want to encourage them to show up the next time you play, then yes, you should.

But, analogy aside, the fact exists that there are companies out there who don't submit. If there are EN Worlders out there who feel that a product really inspired them, or caught their attention in some way, it would be nice to have a way to honor those products even if they choose not to be a part of the formal process. I'm not advocating that such products be up for all of the awards, just one or two that would let the field be open. (And, of course, there's no shipping costs needed. )

Hi DaveMage,

I'd just like to pipe in here and try to address some of your points.

We bent over backwards this year- extending deadlines, telephoning and emailing, exploring shipping options, and evaluating the entire process- in order to accommodate the likes of AEG, Wizards of the Coast, Eden Studios, Sovereign Press, RoninArts, FanPro, Great White/Pinnacle, and Steve Jackson Games. For their own reasons- some I understand and respect, others a mystery to me- they didn't enter their products this year.
I agree with RangerWicketts analogy of the awarding of XP to non-participants. I don't think that people who don't play in a game should be rewarded for opting out.
I'm fairly confident that at many of those mentioned above (and others!) will enter next year. Heck, this year we had an increased number of publishers joining in the fun who had never entered before, and I expect the trend to continue as the awards gain viability and visibility. I'm going to continue to work on extending the olive branches to publishers big and small to get them involved.

As for the chance for a fan's award, we started one this year for Best Publisher. We'll be evaluating its success- based upon the nominations and number of ballots cast, fan and publisher feedback, and determine whether we'd consider expanding it. "Best Product" would be a bit nebulous, I'm afraid, but we might do it.

As for the funding part, as it is, Gen Con and EN World put in thousands of dollars worth of in-kind contributions. So they get to call the shots. The ENnies are still their awards. So if Peter Adkison and Morrus both say "expand beyond d20", then so we shall. If anyone else wants to start their own exclusively-d20 awards, I'll watch with sadistic glee interest. As it is, we're only a few hundred dollars away from breaking even for this year's awards. We're still keeping up the push, because we have past debts and future considerations to deal with, though.

 

[HellHound]

Outside of hawking .pdfs, all awards are equally useless when it comes to promoting or celebrating RPGs. The Diana Jones awards are possibly the only exception, since they represent acclaim from a respected group of designers.

I'm quite impressed with the publicity push from the ENnies committee this year. They've printed 25,000 inserts for the attendee bags at GenCon along with publisher information and booth listings for the nominees. Plus there has been a push for additional visibility through the distribution networks, with the nominee and winners lists set to be pushed into the distribution channels by several channel partners and consolidators - that's a big deal, IMO, because it brings these (primarily) backlist products back to visibility, hopefully throughout the channels and maybe to the end consumers.

Finally, while most awards are generally of little use for PROMOTING RPGs, I think that stating that they are useless for CELEBRATING RPGs is a serious stretch.

There are many authors, illustrators and cartographers out there, not counting publishers, who see this in a different light, who celebrate their nominations and winnings in the various RPG awards out there.

As an honest question and not as a goad, how would you make 'celebrating' RPGs better?

 

[Turjan]

As an honest question and not as a goad, how would you make 'celebrating' RPGs better?

I noticed that it's sometimes hard to find a list of the ENnie winners of past years. This year's ENnie page lists at least the 2001 winners. I found another year's list by googling on gamingreport, if I remember correctly. In general, they are not easily accessible, or at least it's not very obvious where to find them.

Of course, such a list of past winners has no influence on current sales, but it makes clear that someone values the award, and a page with product images of those old winners would be a nice move into this direction. As it looks now, the award seems kind of disposable .

 

[Crothian]

The Diana Jones awards are possibly the only exception, since they represent acclaim from a respected group of designers.

WEll, I doubt that since even I don't know who thise "respected designers" are.

 

[DaveMage]

Hi DaveMage,

I'd just like to pipe in here and try to address some of your points.

We bent over backwards this year- extending deadlines, telephoning and emailing, exploring shipping options, and evaluating the entire process- in order to accommodate the likes of AEG, Wizards of the Coast, Eden Studios, Sovereign Press, RoninArts, FanPro, Great White/Pinnacle, and Steve Jackson Games. For their own reasons- some I understand and respect, others a mystery to me- they didn't enter their products this year.
I agree with RangerWicketts analogy of the awarding of XP to non-participants. I don't think that people who don't play in a game should be rewarded for opting out.
I'm fairly confident that at many of those mentioned above (and others!) will enter next year. Heck, this year we had an increased number of publishers joining in the fun who had never entered before, and I expect the trend to continue as the awards gain viability and visibility. I'm going to continue to work on extending the olive branches to publishers big and small to get them involved.

As for the chance for a fan's award, we started one this year for Best Publisher. We'll be evaluating its success- based upon the nominations and number of ballots cast, fan and publisher feedback, and determine whether we'd consider expanding it. "Best Product" would be a bit nebulous, I'm afraid, but we might do it.

As for the funding part, as it is, Gen Con and EN World put in thousands of dollars worth of in-kind contributions. So they get to call the shots. The ENnies are still their awards. So if Peter Adkison and Morrus both say "expand beyond d20", then so we shall. If anyone else wants to start their own exclusively-d20 awards, I'll watch with sadistic glee interest. As it is, we're only a few hundred dollars away from breaking even for this year's awards. We're still keeping up the push, because we have past debts and future considerations to deal with, though.

Denise,

Thanks for the response. As for the funding source. I absolutely understand (and agree) that those who are providing the $$ get to call the shots. No problem there. But, I think that if GenCon and EN World are going to co-sponsor then both entities should be sure that all costs can be covered prior to the process beginning. (And even though I'm not involved in the process, I *hate* fundraising, so I don't like the fact that you and others have to resort to it, and endure the stress that goes with it, to keep the process solvent. That's not a burden I'd wish on anyone.) However, if you feel that both entities have done enough, and don't mind the situation, then it's a moot point.

As for those who chose not to enter, I think it's unfortunate, and while I agree that they should not be entitled to all the privileges of those who do enter, I think that since the main purpose of the awards is to recognize excellence, then there should be some mechinism of honoring a great product, even if the business supervisors of that project choose not to submit.

Thanks for listening (reading?),
David