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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 4488792" data-attributes="member: 59506">For comparison I did some research on the Academy Awards, just to provide some contrast for the ENNies. I'm not saying that the ENNies are as big as the Academy Awards, but for the small world of gaming, and those who are involved in it and fans of it, I think it's just as big a thing for us (if maybe a bit less formal and irreverent<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />). Although, I feel that the ENNies are much more fan oriented than the Oscars, and probably don't take itself as seriously as the Academy Awards do. AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences):Members are chosen by nomination from current members of the Academy. They must be nominated by at least two current members of the Academy from their specific category (writers, actors, directors, etc). There are 15 categories plus a category of "Members at Large". The "Members at Large" do not fall within the other 15 categories (such as actors, directors, etc.) but are people who have contributed to the Movie industry. These can include (and have included) Lawyers and Critics (newspaper critics and television critics). However the names of members are not released. Those who have been nominated are sometimes released, but not always, and very few former members have been identified. The ones who are known are mostly just the original members and other "historical" relevent members. There are nearly 6,000 members (or more) at any given time. Movies to be considered are submitted by movie companies, and the members of the Academy vote on, and thereby choose, which movies, actors, etc. win the awards. Comments: The Academy is made up of members who have acted in movies, directed movies, written movies, and have friends in said movies. They have endorsed movies, and even spent money on movies. They very much could even vote for their own movies. However, since the Academy has absolutely no transparency, who is voting and what they voted for will never be known outside of the Academy. However, the fact that there are over 6,000 voting members would probably mitigate any votes based on individual favoritism.  The ENNies:The judges for the ENNies are chosen by votes cast by fans of the gaming industry. Members of the ENNies can be fans, writers, publishers, and critics, and bring their own preferences with them, but again they are chosen by the fans. Unlike the Academy, ENNies Judges do not vote on who wins, they decide the nominees and fans do the voting. The Judges and Staff of the ENNies are known and can be contacted by email, or discoursed with on any of the RPG forums, very unlike the Academy. Comments: The ENNies are extraordinarily more transparent than the Oscars. The ENNies could even be said to be extraordinarily more fair than the Oscars since Judges and Winners are picked by Fan votes, not insiders fiat. If even the Academy Awards can't find a way to eliminate subjectivity and Judge preference/prejudice, I would say it's nigh impossible to expect the ENNies to attempt that very thing. Humans are just not capable of pure objectiveness. To expect this is to expect the impossible.  The only real problem I see, is that due to the ENNies normal transparency, Zachs posts, and his posting of emails, makes it appear that the ENNies were hiding something. But once the ENNies Staff and Judges responded to and explained what happened (there side of the story), I thought it became obvious they weren't hiding anything. I do feel that they made some minor mistakes, and compounded the impact of those mistakes with probably not the best management and PR responses. However, nothing that has been revealed, whether posts or emails, after hearing both sides of this, has convinced me that any intentional impropriety took place. The evidence just isn't there to support such allegations. However, could the ENNies be improved with some better PR? IMO, without a doubt.  Will the ENNies continue to improve and learn from their mistakes? I have no doubt they will. They appear to have already taken steps to avoid such mistakes in the future. Do I feel that the best products were awarded in the last ENNies Awards? Absolutely Yes, because WE picked them. Do I feel that the "ENNies Award Winner" tag on products is tainted or worthless? No, these products deserved to win, and are the best of their field because WE said so.  After everything posted in this thread I don't think anymore, that the ENNies problems are due to a lack of transparency, but more due to PR and false allegations. I am looking forward to next years ENNies. I'm sure they'll be fair and exciting (hopefully I can make it to GenCon some year and see them for myself<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />).</blockquote>

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