Nominations are up!!

[mearls]

Rasyr: You say you don't expect your comments to change the awards at this time. Then, instead of making them and harping on about them, how about waiting to be constructive when the awards aren't already taking up 150% of my wife's available time?

I think this is the key. There's a line between pointing out things you'd like to see changed, and going on and on about it to the point that the method of delivering your message drowns out your message.

IMNSHO, this is the best slate of candidates I've ever seen. There's top to bottom quality in every category. For stuff like the Shackled City, I think the judges did precisely the right thing.

Running an award of any sort in the RPG "industry" is an exercise in frustration. The Origins Awards are so crippled precisely because of all the infighting, whining, and vicious politics that surrounded them.

It'd be sad to see that happen to the ENnies. This award is important, IMO, because it shows that the fans care enough about the business to put all this work into it. I honestly don't even care who wins, or if stuff I worked on gets nominated. I just care that the people I sell books to care enough about this hobby to put a ton of work into an award.

Whether you win, lose, get a nomination, get ignored, or whatever, if you work in the RPG business the ENnies honor the work you do. And for that, let me say THANK YOU to the staff and judges.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Whether you win, lose, get a nomination, get ignored, or whatever, if you work in the RPG business the ENnies honor the work you do. And for that, let me say THANK YOU to the staff and judges.

I completely agree, and I am refreshed to hear a voice of goodwill amidst the complaints, especially telling from the creator of Iron Heroes, which was an excellent book and is the only product I expected to be nominated this year that was not (I'll bet it just missed it too). As far as I'm concerned, this sort of philosophy is a credit to the industry, and it makes me proud to be paying to support it

 

[Treebore]

Personally I'm tired of complaints being treated like they are a bad thing. The only way to improve is to know what is wrong.

As for you Hellhound, if your wife is being harassed with e-mails and phone calls, that is wrong, but if she is so stressed out that she is letting complaints get her down and distract her from the focus of her reponsibilities, get her drunk as hell. That, or a couple of hours of a good toe curling bedroom workout, always do the trick for my wife and I.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Personally I'm tired of complaints being treated like they are a bad thing. The only way to improve is to know what is wrong.

I believe the important thing to recognize, though, is that there's a difference between valid complaints and just plain whining.

 

[HellHound]

This question merits a simple "it depends".

I think the real issue is that this attempt at constructive change is being spearheaded by a major stakeholder in the awards - the companies themselves. You can't just ignore your stakeholders when you run something.

If it was complaints from individual users (and yes, she gets a bunch of those in email too), then I'm sure she would give it a quick "whatever*".

*Actually, I'm sure she would be a lot more politic than that - there is a reason she has the job besides her hard work.

 

[Mark]

I completely agree, and I am refreshed to hear a voice of goodwill amidst the complaints, especially telling from the creator of Iron Heroes, which was an excellent book and is the only product I expected to be nominated this year that was not (I'll bet it just missed it too). As far as I'm concerned, this sort of philosophy is a credit to the industry, and it makes me proud to be paying to support it

Well said.

I think there have been far fewer complaints in this thread than it seems. There are a lot more people who only popped in to say, "Congrats!" and then moved along. However, changes and complaints are probably better saved for a revamping period, post Gencon. There should probably be a page on the site with that suggestion and information. Perhaps also an email form on that page with an automated reply that states that all complaints and concerns are welcome and will be handled in due course. Some people seem to feel disenfranchised by the process and nobody wants that to be anyone's mindset. It's far easier to give someone a link to information for properly registering a complaint than it is to leave them feeling unheard, and the result is in everyone's better interests.

 

[HellHound]

Personally I'm tired of complaints being treated like they are a bad thing. The only way to improve is to know what is wrong.

I agree COMPLETELY.

Complaints are great, but there is a time for them. Innundating the awards with them NOW, when you had 10 months prior to this to do it, and another 10 months before we get to this stage again... that is a pain.

Through complaints, things get done. But piling extra work on overworked volunteers = no fun at all, and your message gets lost.

If you post your complaints in September, say, when things start up for next year's awards, then you have a much better chance of an intelligent discussion AND of results.

---

That said, it is true that there has been a lot less crankiness in here this year than in most previous years.

 

[Rasyr]

Rasyr: You say you don't expect your comments to change the awards at this time. Then, instead of making them and harping on about them, how about waiting to be constructive when the awards aren't already taking up 150% of my wife's available time?

You know... basically any other time of the year except right now when the ENnies are at their peak and the people who work on them are working their BUTTS off on them? You want change for next year, then bring it up next year.

Several different things going on here.

1) My first post in this thread was a questioning comment.

2) My later posts were in response to those who answered my first post, most specifically Joe since he responded to my first query.

3) My question(s) (and the responses I received) have fully led me to believe that there is quite possibly a serious flaw in the awards process.

4) As I stated before, I don't expect anything to be done. I am not asking that the judge vote be redone or anything along those lines. However, the issue I pointed out IS a topic of conversation here. A topic of conversation between the participants. Nobody is asking Dextra to comment, nor do I think that they are expecting her to. ( I know that I am not, on either account).

5) Also there is the fact that if problems and issues are not brought to light immediately (even if there is nothing to be done about them at the time), others have a tendency to treat the issue as if "well, if you thought it was important, why didn't you bring it up then". I have had this happen to me too many times in the past that if I see something I think is wrong.

I WOULD like to take a moment to thank all of this year's judges, they have done an excellent job. And, Hellhound, I think that you might be exaggerating how much time you actually get to spend with Dextra. I have been involved with awards before as a judge so I know how much time that can consume. Dextra is the coordinator, and thus likely spend 10x as much time on them. She is doing a herculean job, and should be heartily commended for it.

It has also been brought to my attention that some folks may think that I am "working this issue" that I have because Cyradon was not nominated. I want to refute any such thoughts right now. Heck, I am proud that Cyradon received an honorable mention. And it took me 3 different times looking at the announcement flyer before I even realized that Cyradon had been honorably mentioned. The first time I looked, I saw Shackled CIty as a nomination under Best Adventure, and then when I saw it again, I didn't finish reading the rest of the the Best Campaign nominations before coming here and posting my question about it.

I saw that product being nominated in two such vastly different categories, it looked like a problem to me. I still think it is a problem, not with the people involved, but with the processes. Processes that are still evolving. Therefore, I brought the issue up here in this thread (also partially due to #5 listed above).

Hellhound, if I had thought that this was a problem that Dextra needed to deal with now, I would have emailed her directly, not asked about it here. I apologize if my questions/comments have caused her grief.

 

[Crothian]

3) My question(s) (and the responses I received) have fully led me to believe that there is quite possibly a serious flaw in the awards process.

That's what I'm interested in.

From what I've read it seems that Shackled City being nominated for Best Adventure and Best Campaign Setting/Setting Supplement is the issue.

As one of the Judges I felt that Shackled City is one of those rare products that covers a lot of areas. It has setting material in it as well as Adventures. Not every product fits neatly into one or the other category, there is going to be cross over.

 

[Dextra]

Good golly

Well, I'm certainly glad to see that the ENnies, as usual, are sparking controversy conversation!

About an hour ago (after dropping the eldest off at dance class, having picked her up from school after work), I came home to a fried CPU. And all I could think of was how thankful I was that my computer didn't actually burst into flame from all of the traffic it has been seeing. Fortunately once I gave it a chance to cool off, it came back just fine. Now I'm listening to my fans chugging away, and being thankful that I'm driving to the city tomorrow so I can pick up a new one (although I'm not thankful for the expense, sigh... maybe I can bill the new fan to the ENnies?)

Honestly, I'm glad for the discussion and constructive criticism. However I'm going to ignore it for now. There's no time for reform between this moment and when I get back from Gen Con. I will keep an eye on this thread in order to make sure no disinformation is being spread, and maybe try and bask a little in the occasional (but oh, so wonderful) words of praise. But for now, I'm going to concentrate upon working with the nominated publishers in order to maximize their visibility, update the web site, deal with my Gen Con and hotel convention services people, order trophies and medals, prepare to print certificates, mail the publishers, get the voting booth prepared, do a massive PR run in gaming media and other media about the voting and the awards ceremony, get our publicity materials ready for the convention, chase down some sponsors (just got an email informing me of the additional $700 worth of costs I wasn't counting on), do some damage control and ego salving for some publishers, keep up on my hate email, get the Dream Date and product auctions going and advertised, and maybe sleep more than five hours in a night.

As I'm sipping my Growers Granny Smith Apple cider with a large storm fan aimed at myself and my beleaguered computer, I'm actually quite pleased with where we are, and how far we have come. There's considerably less kvetching than in past years, and the flames are not burning with teh hate of a thousand suns. We're golden.

If there's anything important, email me. If I don't get back to you within 24 hours, then my computer truly did go to silcon heaven, in which case, phone or send smoke signals. Thank you everyone for your kind words and thoughtfulness.