On Raspberries and P3n1ses

[Radiant]

Those of you who haven't already, should check out this year's Golden Raspberry Awards, and, for that matter, the recipients of last october's Ig Nobel Prize.

The reason I'm bringing this up is this: the yearly AGS awards used to have an award for the worst game of the year, called the P3n1s award after its first recipient. This ran into some controversy last year, as an relatively high quality game was nominated because some people considered it "a huge disappointment", and hence the award was dropped this year.

However. I think it would be fun to have one, or perhaps up to three, less serious awards for the AGS ceremony (or, perhaps, for a separate less serious ceremony a week later). These would, however, require a better description than "worst game". There are plenty of games released for AGS each year that aren't intended to be serious, and yet are quite funny in one way or another, and could deserve some recognition.

For instance, we could have the "funniest game" award, or the "strangest plot twist", or the "silliest concept for a game". Or even the "blurb text that is completely unrepresentative of what the game actually does". Games that I could envision winning include Snail Quest, and Me Go Store, and probably quite a bunch of others.

Thoughts please?

[Dualnames]

Yes, I agree totally. And you might end up winning an award as well since no chance of winning anything else...
Anyway, despite my stupid comment I think we should re-install the award but naming it otherwise. Radiant award for example or whatever. We should bring it back for the hell of it.

[Radiant]

Radiant award for example or whatever. We should bring it back for the hell of it.

Cuppit award?

[Buckethead]

cuppit award? You mean for most anoing dialog? Anyway, this is a good idea. Maybe HDA can get an award after all. 

[m0ds]

I agree it's a shame the award wasn't included. I think it's a shame we let peoples offence get in the way. The P3N15 award is as old as the awards themselves and served a good purpose - to prove that some games just don't cut it for a wider audience. But it wasn't only that, it was also aimed at capturing generally weird games, joke games or games that are just too abstract to truly appreciate. And I'm particularly annoyed that it was dropped after offending people who barely even use the forums. Despite the hard work on games it saddens me when traditions are lost, or changed here at AGS, and that was one of them. One of the funnier times when it comes to the AGS awards. I think adding "funniest game" etc is just adding more un-necessary gimmicks. One award, P3N15, that covers "joke" games, "crap" games, "weird" games, is all we ever needed. And it IS fun to poke some fun at the games that get nominated. I mean seriously, if we're going to turn into a completely pussy middle-of-the-road on every subject community then I'm out, because it's just no fun.

[Ghost]

I'd love to see some "non-serious" awards, and preferrably ones in l33tsp34k.

Cuppit Award doesn't sound too bad either 

[Dave Gilbert]

I think the p3n1s award is a fun, non-serious idea that worked well in the past.

It got abused last year, and people were right to be upset.  I certainly was.  I nearly withdrew my games from the awards in protest. 

I thought the final decision was to keep the award, but have the award committee step in if it was obviously abused in the same way again?  I was surprised to see the award dropped entirely.

[Pumaman]

As for the P3N1S award, I think perhaps the big mistake was that we never really defined what it was meant to be. People were voting for an award, and everyone had a different idea of what the P3N1S was supposed to represent. That culminated in the 2006 Awards with it being called "The P3N1S (Worst Game) Award", which was probably a mistake, so then when Al Emmo was nominated it seemed too harsh.

I think the P3N1S could make a comeback, so long as we declared what exactly it was meant to be, and perhaps with the requirement that people had to nominate their own game for it. That way, deliberate joke games like the Crackwell Legacy would be eligible.

[Radiant]

Perhaps we should redefine it as the "silliest game" award, or something like that. I'd be much more interested in seeing an award for intentionally-joke games, than for random games by some novice that just happen to be crappy.

Crackwell is certainly silly


(edit) looking back over the previous years, as near as I can tell every recipient of the penis award in the past was just some amateuristic simple piece by a newbie who didn't know any better. Of course, half of them aren't available for download so I'm not sure. But still, it would be more interesting to have given it to funny games, but then it shouldn't be called the "worst game" award.

(edit again) perhaps it should simply be open to only games in the Joke category.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I personally think the Al Emmo votes were a result of the discussion in the Al Emmo thread (and how the authors were responding to criticism) than the actual game, which isn't what the award is about, anyway.  People were basically trying to give a p3n1s award for the author(s) but not the game or its content.

I don't really care about the p3n1s award, personally.  It always seemed like a throw-away and I didn't really care to vote for it since I don't really think bad games deserve any recognition at all (good or bad).  As far as turning it into a 'Jokey Smurf' award, again, I don't really see a point but that doesn't mean it can't happen.  Why not alter some of the existing categories or add some new ones instead to reflect humor in games or parodies?  Could also have a best game by a first time author award, since there are plenty of those each year to make quite a list on their own!

[Emerald]

Maybe you should start your own awards, The AGS 'Red Cup' awards for crappiest, funniest, weirdest and most cliched games... Kinda like how the raspberries themselves are done independently of the Academy Awards, but are always sort of related...

[LimpingFish]

I agree, the P3n1s for Al Emmo was definitely aimed at Himalaya itself. I'm not sure it warranted a boycott of the awards, personally speaking, but I can see why people might be upset.

Paraphrasing what Emerald said, something like the "Red Mug" awards would be funny. It could even include elements of the FOREGOs.

We don't have resort to calling games the "crappiest", as such, but a humorous list of awards like:

Best Tuneless Music
Best Use of Roger
Best Confusing Walkareas
Best Animation Containing Less Than Two Frames

Or such...

[Nostradamus]

I think an awards set in the spirit of the PEN1S award and what was suggested in the original post should be done, but not in part of the AGS Awards like until this year but as a separate entity. And like the Oscar parody awards mentioned are presented before of course, these PEN1S Awards should be awarded like a week or 3-4 days before the AGS Awards.
And I guess instead of only having people nominating their own games, you could leave the nominations open for anybody but give all game makers the option to veto their game's nomination if they're offended by it (they would be contacted in private by award managers, be informed that their game is in the list of final nominees and ask if they agree or veto it).

Ideas for awards:
Most Blatant Use of Rip-offed Resources (ripped art and music etc from other games)
The Sleepy Award (most boring Dialogues\story)
The Game with the shortest playing time you gave it (this one is a good idea but the title can be phrased better)
Best Graphics a 4 Year Old Could Draw award

[Layabout]

I believe the p3n15h award has a place. It needs to be clearly defined though, which I guess with the massive growth of the community, it now should be. Initially it was devised as an award for the most visually impaired, incoherently plotted(if it even had a plot) and least effort put in to making a game. Something flukeblake could win basically. It should be bought back, with a strict criteria that must be adhered to.

[SSH]

Best Graphics a 4 Year Old Could Draw award

PMXI for teh win... it was drawn by a 3 and 5 year old!


The ERGOs and FOREGOs used to be entirely separate from the AGS Awards. When I ran both FOREGOs and Awards, they got kinda merged, but the  takeup on the FOREGOs wasn't great, so I couldn't be bothered doing them too. So a separate set of awards is fine and if anyone want them, go organise them...

[ThreeOhFour]

Best Tuneless Music
Best Use of Roger
Best Confusing Walkareas
Best Animation Containing Less Than Two Frames

Loving these award ideas right here. "Best use of Roger" - hilarious.

[m0ds]

Cool beans! I was pretty up tight about the p3n155h award earlier, my apologies - but what you guys have said about "silliest game" defines it just fine. And if all it needs is a bit of 'hatred' moderation then it's a shame that wasn't put in place for the awards this year. But I'm sure 2007 will be known in many years in good manner as the year no-one got any penis. award.

In the past, we had the Foregos (http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/FOREGOs_2003) which was an extra bit of fun. Maybe even some raspbery awards of our own would be cool, with such crazy titles as LimpingFish says :p It'd be fun to donate an award each - though that could lead to 1000 awards for 17 games hehehe... I understand there was some kind of fan-hatred toward the Ill Emo game, but as long as unfairness like that can be spotted in nominations then there shouldn't be a problem finding the "sillyest" gayme and having a fair contest of sillyness. So it's all good, I guess we can say we'll see you next year p3n15 award!1

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I nominate Dance 'Til You Drop! for best use of an ambiguously gay exercise fanatic. 

And only use of an ambiguously gay exercise fanatic.

[ThreeOhFour]

I nominate Dance 'Til You Drop! for best use of an ambiguously gay exercise fanatic. 

And only use of an ambiguously gay exercise fanatic.

What about best use of the word "Frabjous".

And only use of the word "Frabjous".

[Babar]

I think an actual, separate 'competition' involving such things as "Best Tuneless Music", and "Sleepy Award" could very easily be taken the wrong way, and be considered insulting by some (unless you have it so that only the author's themselves can nominate their games). I think the P3N1S award was okay, if perhaps requiring some clarification on what it is for.