Suggestion for the ENnies: Awards for Individuals

[Cassander]

Going to GenCon for the first time this year, I got to experience my first ENnies. The ceremony was professional yet fun, perfect for gaming awards. The speeches were classy and the music was funny but still appropriate. All in all, very well done.

One thing that stood out, however, was that the recipients of the awards were companies, rather than people. Best Cover Art goes to the company that published the book rather than the artist who painted the cover. Best Writing goes to the company that published the book, not the writer(s) who wrote it. Why?

I would suggest giving out the ENnies not to companies (except for Best Publisher and maybe Best Product type awards), but rather to the artists, writers, cartographers, editors, and art directors actually responsible for the feature that is being awarded.

I noticed for some awards, the publisher recognized the person responsible or even invited them up. But shouldn't it be the award presenter recognizing them? Shouldn't their names be on the awards list rather than just the publisher?

I'm guessing the reason things are the way they are has to do with the fact that not all of the individuals who worked on various aspects of these works will be in attendance. But it would still seem ok to at least put their names in writing for the awards and let someone else from the company who made the product accept the award on their behalf if they are not there. Would that be a problem?

If there is a problem figuring out attribution, couldn't the company be asked for clarification or a list of people responsible for the aspect that's getting recognition?

Anyway, just throwing out my 2 cents on an otherwise awesome event.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

For a lot of products and categories, it's just not feasible to award to a single person. For writing, rules, interior art, cartography, etc., it's often a whole team of individuals. So then you end up awarding something to two or three or a half-dozen people, and then you start excluding the editors that actually cleaned it up, ignore the back and forth between the writers and the artists that allow the vision to come to life, and so forth.

Not to say that they shouldn't be recognized, but even for the smallest RPG publishers, it's very much a collaborative effort. And I think overall the ENnies are better served recognizing the collective achievements rather than the individual. However, I would certainly encourage recipients of the awards to recognize the individuals responsible for the win (and I think, for the most part, they do).

*The preceding statement is purely my own opinion and not that of the ENnies, the other judges, or anyone else anywhere in this dimension or any adjoining dimension.

 

[Cassander]

I don't see the editor thing as a problem. If you had three writers and you awarded the ENnie to them, couldn't they simply thank their editor who helped them much like the publishers do now or how people at say the Oscars do?

I guess there'd be an issue in creating enough medals for a book written by say 6 people. Then you'd have to find a lead writer to give it to, but that still seems like it'd make more sense than just giving it to the publisher. I'm guessing they hand those out later. But I would think that if a book has one writer, that person should get the ENnie. Same for the cover artist. Or cartographer. Or graphic designer. Interior illustration I could see either going to the art director, the artists collectively, or both.

Looking back in history, I notice the first two ENnies list the individual recipients and then it stopped for the third, so perhaps these problems came up and it was easier to do it for publishers. I just worry this shortchanges the contributions from the writers and artists while overemphasizing the "medal count" among publishers. And I wanted to hear from the person doing the work, not the publisher, unless it was a publisher award.

 

[Toben the Many]

Nah. RPG companies tend to be small and function almost like mini families. Everything is a group effort. So when your writing is well received, you don't get happy about your own writing - you're happy for the company as a whole.

As far as writer's or artist's recognition, I think it's a simple matter of having the writers go up there to receive the award on behalf of the company.

Which leads to a different problem - often writers, artists, and editors don't go to the ENnnies in the first place, even if they are nominated. They may not be able to go to GenCon, for example, or they may be doing something else on that evening.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

I had an idea I threw out there on another forum.
Perhaps WOTC could create a single award for GenCon (or the ennies) where they would select a 3PP product (from a company that has signed onto the GSL of course) which they personally praise as the best the third party market has to offer. It would help smooth out tensions and show that they are trying to support the industry and not crush it. Whether they do or not is not a condition--I am simply throwing out the idea.