So I was browsing through the games' database, and I noticed that all games that have been awarded something have that nifty "Winner of an AGS award" (of whatever the actual text is) next to it. All of them. Including games that only won the p3n1s award.
Isn't that a bit unfair? When people browse through the database, they usually don't read the review page before they download the game - actually, I believe the average passer-by doesn't at all. WHat do they see? They see a game that won a legitimate award and a game that got the p3n15 award, and because they don't know which is which, they'll compare them, put them on a similar lever.
Imagine someone playing a p3n15 game before all others because it had an award and then judging the quality of the AGS awards because of that, not knowing what kind of award it was. Well yes, it IS a mistake one would have to be unfairly single-minded to make, but all the same...
My suggestion - either change the shape or color (maybe make it black) of the award icon of games that win that infamous award, or change the text to reflect which award it won.
the p3n15 award is a proper award!
imo what you are suggesting makes it more of a demerit which is not how it is intended.. I mean, they aren't _that_ elitest ::)
It's not? I was always under the impression it went to the worst games of the year...
Yes, but not to the extent that its marked as bad on the thingy, I mean, the award is a bit of fun but you really wouldnt like it if your game had a black icon on pretty much saying 'dont download this, its utter poo'
edit: I just would like to add that I see your point about this, but I dont think the solution is really correct
Hmmm, then maybe the icon could be changed... instead of the oscar, myabe... ah, I don't know, a smaller oscar, or a different icon... still keeping it "light" in tone, so to speak, but still making obvious that the award that game won is different from the others. And everyone who wants to know why can just open the "review" page.
How about this?
What's the purpose really? Do you think they give AGS a bad name?
Judging from the never-ending stream of newcomers here, I don't believe we have any promotional problems with the engine, or what it's capable of.
Well I think games deserved the p3n15 award were mostly legendary games, so, what's the problem of tricking attracting more people to download them and try them out for the glory of the AGS throne ?
I actually agree about differentiating but for a different reason. If I'm going through the games list (in particular, the award winners list), I'm likely to get the games with the most awards and I probably wouldn't bother until later about the games with one award. If I saw a game had, specifically, a p3n15 award, I'd get it straight away! ^_^ "Wow, legendary crap". That's me, though.
I do sort of agree with redrum in the sense that it is a tad unfair to the real award winners and that it -might- make a new user really question AGS' game making ability if they get a p3n15 award game first and think that's as good as it gets. It might not happen often but I don't think it's such a bad idea to differentiate in some way. Like I said before though, I think it's be great for games to have "p3n15 Award" associated with them :)
Do some of you have p3n1s envy??? ;D
As for the whole awards thing, I haven't heard of any complaints from any of the winners. I mean, It's not the sort of thing to be taken seriously and I don't think any of the winners take it THAT seriously. The AGS Awards are meant to be a bit of fun. Sure, they might indicate positive games, but it's not like spending 5 minutes playing a crappy game with ruin your life forever. Plus, some humourous games have been p3n1s winners and nominees, such as (my favs): Flashbax, Davey Jones C'est Mort, Warrior of Might, A Cup of Coffee is Worth a Thousand Bathroom Breaks, and Tikkle-Me-Andy & Andy Penis's Big Adventure :)
Also, I find people who spend time looking for games only winning AGS Awards are limiting themselves. It's good to throw a curveball every now and then just to keep people on their toes. That's kind of why I feel the p3n1s award is just as a legitimate award as any other. It shows the opposite end of the spectrum, which is never a bad thing.
And keep in mind that the Awards are just popular opinion anyway. The opposite end is just popular opinion, just the same as the award winners. Popular opinion doesn't always mean the same as quality. For example, I was honestly scratching my head as to why people nominated the very-playable Flashbax. Oh well, the people speaketh.
QuoteIt shows the opposite end of the spectrum
then shouldn't the icon reflect that? That's all I'm asking.
EDIT - I do know that what I'm asking for can be taken to extremity, like demanding that each award be specified (Best what?)... but really, it's all about, this ONE award is legendary crap, while the others are legendary good stuff. That should show, right?
How about "This game won a ½ award, because a Andy Penis happened to be operating a chainsaw in the backstage at the time of the award ceremony" ??
::)
Personally I think the any game that is awarded the p3n15 award was intended to be overly crappy. If not, then I'm sure the author is aware of the crappiness of the game.. So there are no hurt feelings.
Hehehe, this actaully happened a couple days ago. My brother was over at his girlfriend's place, and they were looking for adventure games to download. He came to the AGS site, because I'd shown him tons of good good games for AGS. They saw that "Smokin' Weed" had won an award, and downloaded it not knowing what award it had won.
Luckily my brother was able to save the day by remembering the Robert Redford Trilogy, and downloading that shortly after.
This is an interesting point -- I presume that most people who arrive at the site unaware of AGS games will go straight for the Award Winners, and perhaps they should attempt to reflect the best games.
However, at the same time the P3N1S games did win awards, so I think they deserve to be shown. Perhaps the text should say "Winner of P3N1S Booby Prize" rather than "Winner of 1 AGS Award" though.
Also, should Pick of the Month games be given more prominence(ie. should the game entries have a "This was pick of the month in August 2002" type thing in them)?
Well, there's a list of Picks of the Month, do they need any more proeminence?
That's assuming you go to the Pick of the month section to see them. I, for one, like browsing all the game lists alphabetically (btw, is there an option to view all games alphabetically or by release date without the sorting into small/medium/full/demo/etc categories?). On the other hand I also tend to download anything just to try it out, if I've decided to browse for games, so in my case it doesn't matter much.
CJ's way sounds good to me ;)
QuoteThat's assuming you go to the Pick of the month section to see them.
Yeah, but it's there. If people don't want to use it, that's their own choice. With the awards, it's a bit more complicated, because as we've seen, what registers is "The game got an award". Few people bother to see which award.
Quote from: redruM on Fri 20/08/2004 20:28:10
With the awards, it's a bit more complicated, because as we've seen, what registers is "The game got an award". Few people bother to see which award.
Yeah, but it's there. If people don't want to use it, that's their own choice. ;D
hehe ;D
What I really meant, redruM, was that if people browse the games looking for a good medium length game for example, the ones that have been selected as Pick of the Month (and thus must be good games ;)) should have something written on them that brings that to player's attention. :)
Edit: Slightly off-topic, I just had a look at the website's games page, and tried clicking the add a game link, just to see the form as I've never seen it before (never added a game to the list :P I should really). That resulted in a message saying I need to be logged into the forums. I followed the link to the forums from the site instead of going right here like I usually do and logged in again, but returning to the 'add a game' page had the same result. Could it be that the website doesn't recognise me being logged in, or is it a cookie thing on my PC?
Edit2: I tried changing my settings to allow all cookies, and only that lowest security setting allowed me to get to the add a game form. Would there be a way for this part of the site to check forum login-ness? :D
Haha, beat you to it, Hotspot!
Anyway, I see what you mean, Ginny. Good point. And, yes, I think you can browse the games by date or alphabetically.
I quoted you Redrum :D
Maybe you should read it again :)
Aw, how sweet of you. And I didn't even notice!
Anyway, back to the real world... Ginny, I haven't had trouble with that yet, but I do think that other people have experienced the problem. Wait until one of those reads the thread...
I got to the form just by being logged in the forum, I typed www.agsforums.com at the address bar, clicked on the games page, on the add game link, and the form showed up. I've got a customized security level, appearantly, which uses automatic cookie handling... I have no idea of any of this, tis winME, I'm used to the slider that's in 2000 and 98 and all...
Hmm. Interesting. With medium security/cookie settings, but using the www.agsforums.com link, I was able to use the form. What i did before was click on the banner, which takes me to www.adventuregamestudio.com, where it doesn't work. Could this have something to do with it? Not being the same site, in a way?
Quote from: redruM on Fri 20/08/2004 17:07:47
QuoteIt shows the opposite end of the spectrum
Then shouldn't the icon reflect that? That's all I'm asking.
EDIT - I do know that what I'm asking for can be taken to extremity, like demanding that each award be specified (Best what?)... but really, it's all about, this ONE award is legendary crap, while the others are legendary good stuff. That should show, right?
Well, like I said, it's one of those things that isn't really a big deal, so I'm happy either way. To be honest, my previous post for the P3N1S Award was a little half-hearted. It's just that it's a brilliant award that has a rotten reputation and I felt that those P3N1S-winning games deserve to shine with the other awards. Oh well. Poor P3N1S!
If you go via www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk then IE thinks the Games page is using a third-party cookie and blocks it under default settings.
I might remove the framing for the domain name and just redirect to agsforums.com instead because this problem is affecting lots of people now since IE6 was released.
What do you mean by framing? Do you mean to redirect to www.agsforums.com from www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk?
Of course, it's not really a problem to just use agsforums.com, for me. :)
At the moment, the site is hosted on agsforums.com, but if you go via the .co.uk, "www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk" stays in the title bar while you browse the site - this is what causes the cookie blocking problem.
So instead, I could change it so that when you go to www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk it immedialtely just redirects to agsforums.com in the title bar... I don't want to because agsforums is only a temporary domain name, but it's probably the best solution for now.
Anyway, my opnion on the P3N1S award is that we need to nominate these games. The majority of these games are ones that we love to hate so to speak. They may have been poorly done, but they made us laugh. Maybe that should be what it says.
Note: The "P3N1S" award is an anual award that we give more as a booby prize. We found these games more or less fun even if they are poorly made with crapy graphics. Even so, they still made us laugh.
(http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/Smileys/default/lvsmiley.gif)
I think it's more of a question of how they're listed on CJ's website.