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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pramas" data-source="post: 2941835" data-attributes="member: 995">The Ennies are without a doubt the most prestigious RPG award in the game industry now, which is pretty amazing when you think back to the first awards ceremony (held online) and consider how much they've grown in a short time. The Ennies do so much right and so far they have avoided many of the traps of other awards. That is really an achievement and all the volunteers that make it happen should be proud of what they've built. So to Denise, the judges, Morrus, and all the volunteers of previous awards--kudos to you and well done. We should also thank the EN World community at large, for providing a positive place where such a set of awards could be nurtured. Now that this great thing has been built, though, of course we also want to see it continue to thrive and get even better. I think that's the spirit which commentary should be (and in most cases is) offered. I totally understand why Denise does not want to have discussions about the nature of the awards right now. She's got a ton to do between now and GenCon and I think we'd all agree that should be her focus. I do think there is an advantage to having a discussion about the awards now though, even if Denise herself doesn't go back to read it until next year. Namely, that right now publishers who have been nominated can offer commentary before they find out whether they've won or not. After the awards some commentary could be seen as "sour grapes", even if it isn't. By having a discussion before the awards are given out, that can be avoided. For my part, I have two observations, which are based on watching what happened to the Origins Awards over the years. 1) It really is worth the effort to define the categories in a clear and unambiguous way. The OAs have been poor about actually documenting what the awards are for and often leads to a disconnect between what people think an award is for and what it's actually for. 2) There was a big drive to reduce the number of categories in the OAs, which I think was misguided and damaging to the awards. One of the great things about the Ennies as an RPG award is that usually like products compete against each other. I think that's something well worth keeping. Right now the OAs have exactly two categories for RPGs, which is pretty ridiculous. The Ennies have largely avoided this trap and that's good. I did note though that there used to a category for smaller settings like city books (Best Setting Supplement IIRC) but that category isn't around this year. I wonder if Tim would have had an issue with Shackled City being in that category, where it's city setting would have competed against similar products. That's all I've got to say. Congrats to all the nominees and I'll see you all Friday night at GenCon!</blockquote>

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