Should WOTC participate in the ENnies?

[mattcolville]

Because it's supposed to be for "Best RPG book" not "Best RPG Book From A Company With No More Than Two Dozen Employees".

Are you sure? Because it seems like consensus in this thread is that, apart from the nomination, it's just a popularity contest. If you want to create an award for "best" as opposed to most popular, you create a panel of judges. You don't open your voting up to the public. Public voting means it's just "most popular."

The Oscars are voted on by members of the Academy. And except for the Big Five categories, you only vote within your area of expertise. Only costume designers vote on best costume.

The Best Picture award, for instance, is voted on by all members of the Academy. Which is why it's often a synonym for "the nominated film with the biggest box office." Return of the King wins, not because it's the best movie, but because vastly more Academy members saw it than any of the others. Especially that being the year where they stopped allowing producers to send out screeners in the hope of combating piracy.

This is a good analogy for the ENies. You sometimes get a real good picture as Best Picture if all the nominees are equally obscure.. In other words, if the judges don't nominate a WotC prodct, you might actually get a "best RPG" out of the process. If they do nominate a WotC product, it will tend to win. For no other reason than "more people know about it than any of the others."

 

[mattcolville]

I'm getting the hint that some posters to this thread believe that WoTC titles would be a slam-dunk win in most categories.

But not letting WoTC a shot at the ENnies is like barring pro athletes from competing in the Olympics. WoTC has just as much opportunity not to win as any of the other participants.

Well, no. The Olympics are an actual competition. Very rarely there's an element of human judgment, but for track-and-field, which is to say the classic Olympic events, there's no judges and no voting. You either run faster than everyone else, or you don't. The analogy doesn't hold even at a superficial level.

 

[mattcolville]

A lot of people see movies that are nominated for Oscars only because they were nominated. How many more people went to see Last King of Scotland because it won a Golden Globe in a movie marketplace where this largely indie film had to compete with the likes of the massively over-marketed Blood Diamond?

This is an argument against WotC entering, you realize this, yes?

There's no WotC product that's The Last King of Scotland. If your goal is to get more, smaller products noticed, then under no circumstance should WotC be allowed to enter.

 

[Glyfair]

There's no WotC product that's The Last King of Scotland. If your goal is to get more, smaller products noticed, then under no circumstance should WotC be allowed to enter.

Because the Golden Globes didn't allow the blockbuster movies to enter?

I don't understand. The Golden Globes is an example of the fact that the smaller films can get noticed among the loud, boisterous mainstream movies.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Let me put it this way: After seeing how my friend was treated by the biased, arrogant mods at the WotC forums, and the way they persecute certain segments of posters, I have vowed never to buy another WotC product as long as I live, and have convinced my peers to do the same.

Are you gonna call that arrogance? For not wanting anything to do with WotC?

Who's the arrogant one now, eh?

No, it's free will.

I was simply trying to point out that based on the decision to withhold entry it could be perceived that WOTC is on some sort of a "high horse", not willing to participate out of some sense of being better than the rest of the RPG publishing community, in other words a decision borne from arrogance.

My view is that WotC should enter some products and see how they do. If they win cool, if not well congratulations to the winner and we walk away planning to look to what the other guy did so well. Either way the bar gets raised and the industry is better off regardless of who wins.

You are entitled to want us bared from the awards even if they are personal reasons

 

[Scott_Rouse]

This is an argument against WotC entering, you realize this, yes?

There's no WotC product that's The Last King of Scotland. If your goal is to get more, smaller products noticed, then under no circumstance should WotC be allowed to enter.

No I would say you are wrong because the way see it WOTC is the Blood Diamond. It has more marketing and the big name behind it but as Last King of Scotland proved the smaller film can win on it's own merits regardless of hype or box office take.

 

[mattcolville]

Because the Golden Globes didn't allow the blockbuster movies to enter?

I don't understand. The Golden Globes is an example of the fact that the smaller films can get noticed among the loud, boisterous mainstream movies.

The golden globes are awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press association and are generally bought and paid for by the studios. Most studios won't bother buying one for their summer properties because there's no perceived value there.

 

[mattcolville]

No I would say you are wrong because the way see it WOTC is the Blood Diamond. It has more marketing and the big name behind it but as Last King of Scotland proved the smaller film can win on it's own merits regardless of hype or box office take.

So, is it a good thing that the smaller product got noticed in the shadow of the bigger product?

 

[Glyfair]

So, is it a good thing that the smaller product got noticed in the shadow of the bigger product?

Yes. Yes it is.

Imagine Tiger Woods retired at the end of this year. Whoever wins Player of the Year will always be tarnished by the "but if Tiger hadn't retired..." However, if they managed to win while Tiger was still active and competitive then it would be a shining moment.

The same applies to more subjective subjects. Winning the Best Picture Academy Award when there is a weak slate of movies for the year isn't nearly as good as winning in a year when several "best in decade" movies were released.

 

[Rel]

Let me make it abundantly clear that and and all snarky comments directed toward any individual* or company in this thread will be viewed in a VERY dim light by the mods.

*Except toward Paris Hilton. She's fair game.