Monte on Origins awards and ENnies

[Rasyr]

What sort of advertisement do you folks do for PDF releases? I wouldn't think it'd be as easy to let people know that it's there as it is in printed form stuff where you can just walk up and pick it up because it 'looks neat'.

Announcements on message boards, sometimes banner ads, etc.. Nothing exceedingly special. At least in our case.

 

[Rasyr]

A lot of problems with this year's Origins Awards came from the fact that they were handed out by bellydancers and stormtroopers.

No arguements there. But that was just icing on the cake, as it were. The awards themselves had lost a great deal of prestige long ago. In fact, the tuxedo year, alluded to in the quote in the first post of this thread is also quite roundly derided in by many as well. hehe

Despite the hard work of the academy or anyone else, the 9:30 AM Thursday ceremony instantly ceded any claim that the Origins Awards are the most prestigious awards in gaming.

Again, no arguements about that. Personally, I have no idea why that sort of announcement was decided upon - the Academy has NOTHING to do with it. Others actually found out before the Academy was told about it. One positive thing that came out if that shambles is that it won't be done like that again...

The most prestegious award in gaming _cannot_ have a ceremony like the one we got at this year's show. No matter what policy changes must be made at the "behind the scenes" level (and I am sure there are many of them), the public image problem is the #1 problem facing the awards today, and this year's ceremony actually made things considerably worse than they have been since I started paying attention to the awards several years ago.

As I said above, I fully agree with these statements.

Whether the Ennies are an "industry" award show (by your definition) or not, judging by last year's ceremony, they are most certainly not pathetic, which is a courtesy I can no longer extend to the Origins Awards.

Please note that I have never, ever meant to imply in any fashion that the ENnies were anything but a good thing. If I did, then I apologize.

However, by the definition that I used, they are not industry awards. There is nothing wrong with that, and does not mean that they do not have value. I happen to think that they have a great amount of value, which is why I support the ENnies, and submit products for them.

You've got your work cut out for you, that's for sure.

Yup! Hey! You can join the Academy and help too!!

 

[Erik Mona]

Prove to me that the Origins Awards are worth saving, and I'll be happy to help.

A good way to do this is to produce an award ceremony that doesn't make all involved want to cry and/or shower. Not allowing academy members to vote on categories in which their companies have nominations would be an extra bonus, as well.

--Erik

 

[Rasyr]

Prove to me that the Origins Awards are worth saving, and I'll be happy to help.

A good way to do this is to produce an award ceremony that doesn't make all involved want to cry and/or shower. Not allowing academy members to vote on categories in which their companies have nominations would be an extra bonus, as well.

Hm.... I will give some thought to that first part to see what I can come up with..

Ceremony - this year's ceremony will NOT be repeated, period. That much is already decided upon. As to what the ceremony is going to look like in the future, I don't know yet, as that hasn't been decided yet.

The Awards Process - this actually resembles the ENnies right now. A small jury votes on and create the final nomination list. This is then voted on by the Academy. However, the whole academy does not vote on everything. When you sign up, you affiliate yourself with up to 3 categories, and those are the ones you are allowed to vote on. This same list of nominations is also used for the Gamer's Choice (which mirrors the ENnies more closely).

Well, short on time right now (wife has doctor's appointment) - will be back later..

 

[GMSkarka]

What sort of advertisement do you folks do for PDF releases? I wouldn't think it'd be as easy to let people know that it's there as it is in printed form stuff where you can just walk up and pick it up because it 'looks neat'.

One of the best things about using RPGNow is that they have a function that breaks down sales by source...so you can clearly see what marketing efforts are paying off.

In order of importance (best results to least), our usual efforts are:

1) News and PR releases, and general thread participation on ENWorld.
2) Front Page advertising on RPGNow
3) Repeat customers or new customers following repeat customer's recommendations.
4) Our own website and forum.
5) Banner Ads.
6) News and PR releases, and general thread participation on other fora.
7) Print Ads

Number 3 is a nice thing. Once you've developed a recognized brand, your repeat customers tend to evangelize for you, and it really does pay off.

 

[jgbrowning]

Number 3 is number 1 for me. Happy, satisfied customers easily pay off more than what they purchase themselves.

joe b.

 

[Conaill]

To go off on a tangent.... don't you think that referring to Michael Morris by his surname is a little rude? If someone started calling me "Morrissey" I think I'd be pretty offended.

Guilty as charged!

My only defense is that I keep typing "Morrus" first and then having to correct it because I notice it's the other Morr*s guy...

Uhm, that's not really much of a defense, is it?

I hereby promise to try to do better in the future. Feel free to call me on that...

So Michael, what do you prefer: Michael, Mike, or MM?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Number 3 is number 1 for me. Happy, satisfied customers easily pay off more than what they purchase themselves.

You have a lot of good products. My favorite is Magical Mideval Society: India. OR IT WOULD BE IF YOU'D WRITE THE THING!!!!

Someone lock Joe back in the writing dungeon and chain him to the desk. He got loose again.

 

[Staffan]

...and, if I may add, one of the true strengths of the PDF side of the industry. The "three-month window/life cycle" thing just isn't a factor at all.

Adamant Entertainment still has steady sales of product that we released back in 2003, for example. Sure, there's a "new shiny toy" spike during the first couple of months, but unlike the print business, where sales plummet and often disappear entirely after that, the PDFs settle into a steady sales pattern, that, at least as far as we've seen so far, is perpetual.

Just wondering... in your experience, does that translate into more products = more money, or more products = the same money split more ways? I don't mean the sales spike for new stuff, but the "steady sales pattern".

 

[jgbrowning]

You have a lot of good products. My favorite is Magical Mideval Society: India. OR IT WOULD BE IF YOU'D WRITE THE THING!!!!

Someone lock Joe back in the writing dungeon and chain him to the desk. He got loose again.

Heya, BG, sorry about that. I don't know if you know but Suzi's father just passed away and we're picking up the slack with his real estate business for probably around a year or so, so we'll be even farther behind than normal. But, there will be an expanded version of MMS:WE (hardbacked with a few new chapters) coming out next year. MMS:WE is now OOP (out of print) and doing the revision and new chapters require less time (which we're rather short of now) than putting out Silk Road or India.

joe b.