The P3N1S award????????????

[Nikolas]

Well...

The skypecast was fun, between the dinner of my family, the yellings and everything else. I missed most part! I was happy with the awards (except the BJ5 case... :'(), but I was quite shocked with the P3N1S award!

Now I still have a hope that maybe there is a mix up and the worst game is El Ammo, and not Al Emmo! Could be the case... Dunno...

But if indeed people (and most people as it appears, since only 2 games were nominated) voted for Al Emmo truly as the worst game, to stand agains "are we there yet?", then obviously (for me, as this is personal) there is something wrong with AGS community!

Sorry to say it, and sorry that it sounds so insulting, but it actually is! To take a game with a budget, a commercial release, so much into it, even if you didn't like it, and promote it as the "worst game"! What was it that was the worst game of 2006? The BGs? Cause I thought that they were in the 10% of the best. Animation? Same! Music? yup! Length? It was quite big! Voice acting? Ok annoying for many, but still it was done pretty well. It had bugs? Few, none of which I've found!

You didn't like the attitude of Himalaya studios? I can certainly understand that, but... this is completly different to voting it for the "worst game".

What is actually the difference between Al Emmo and the Shivah, or Blackwell, or SJM? (Or the Zone, lats year!). I can't really compair any element of these 4 games and say one was better or worst! So? Why is the first nominated for the P3N1S award and not the othe 3?

Is there a problem with commercial games from AGS? Cause I do remember that SJM also had some posts about being commercial... :-/

Anyways, Al Emmo atm is taking negative advertising from the AGS awards. I have no idea how small or large the awards truly are, and I've not idea if any other person outside this community will know about the awards, but after seeing the link to mobygames where there were games with 4.80/5 and Al Emmo had something around 1.70/5...

Then again maybe exactly that fact with mobygames means that I'm not unbiased. That Al Emmo is truly a bad game. And that I should just shut up...

Sorry for the rant. This is nothing personal to any member, but a point towards the community as a whole!

[SSH]

Here are some points:

1. That award had a very wide distribution of votes across many games, including some of the other ones you have mentioned. There wasn't many votes between not being nominated (i.e. only getting 2 votes) and being nominated...

2. Al Emmo was also nominated for Documentation and Backgrounds

3. I think that some people got annoyed at the rhetoric from the himalaya people in the completed games thread

4. Al's voice.....

5. They themselves said that the demo isn't the best part of the game and was a bit of an afterthought, and I think the demo is what most people's opinions will be based on

6. It might be time to expunge this award from future years...

[LimpingFish]

I think a number of factors resulted in Al Emmo being nominated for the P3N1S, and SSH has mentioned most of them.

I think most damning was the attitude and hyping of the game by Himalaya (which, of course, they are entitled to do), and the resulting product turning out more like a weak LSL clone, that annoyed most people.

I can only speculate on its quality from what I experienced while playing the demo, though.

The casting of Al's voice was a big mistake, and smacks a little of ego on the part of Chris Warren, and immediately made me despise the character. That might be a little harsh on my part, but that's what I felt at the time.

The P3NIS is only a bit of fun anyway, but I do admit it can seem a little mean-spirited.

[Redwall]

6. It might be time to expunge this award from future years...

AGS needs its Raspberry awards, but perhaps not as part of the official AGS Awards.

[GarageGothic]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I voted for Al Emmo in the P3N1S category. The thing is, sure you can't compare Al Emmo to Are We There Yet, but the fact that it's a commercial game puts in in a whole other league when it comes to criticism. Hell, I didn't even pay for the game because I wrote a magazine review of it, but if I had spent almost the price of a brand new game - which it cost with overseas postage included - I would be even more harsh. I also see how people can be very disappointed with such a sub-standard game from a team who should be able to do so much better.

The exterior background art is mostly great, which is why a lot of people, me included nominated the game for best backgrounds. And the voices seem to be something people have to get used to. Even when I no longer shivered from the sound of Al's squaky voice, the narrator's lame puns and Al's reaction to them still got on my nerves. Then there's the embarrasingly predictable and unfunny jokes, horrible 3D cutscenes, awkward interface, characters who are either dull or annoying, random puzzles with little story relevance. Oh, and the story itself feels like it's being made up as we go along. Why, for the love of god, am I spending a whole act on creating a bottle of sunscreen for a Pamela Anderson clone? And wasn't this supposed to be a treasure hunt? Instead I'm running around the entire desert, searching for the single cactus whose thorns can be used as a fishing hook.

The Tierra fanboys love it. Just Adventure gave it an A. (There's no accounting for taste - I mean, there are people out there calling Runaway 2 the game of the year). Yeah, I can see that a lot of work was put into the game, and that's admirable. But that doesn't mean I have to like a game that tries so hard to be like the games of yesteryear but fails in almost every aspect. Most of what I consider the game's flaws aren't even in the costly part of production (except the 3D scenes, which should just have been left out), but should have been caught in the design document.

It may not objectively be the worst AGS game of the year, but considering that you're likely to avoid the most amateurish games just from reading their threads, and that you don't waste many minutes on a plainly boring freeware game, the fact that this is commercial does make a difference. You want your money's worth and are not likely to give up before the end - and as such, this is among the least entertaining game experiences I had all year.

P3N1S factor = (expectation*price)/(production quality+gameplay value)

[Blackthorne]

Seems a tad harsh.

Sure, you may not have liked it... but worst AGS game?  I think it's a bit mean spirited.


Bt

[Nikolas]

Why do the criteria change because it's a commercial game exactly? Everyone is completly different and different age and all. You can't really compair the art/music/game of a 14 year old and a 30 year old...

Of course the awards are just for fun, and nothing serious. But it's just this hatred with Himalaya studios and Al Emmo that has me thinking... It's not that the "are we there yet" is the aboslutely worst game I could think of, but the repeated attacks on Al Emmo... :-/

[MashPotato]

Perhaps this award should only be open to games that are nominated by their authors... many people have a sense of humour about it and openly petition for the P3N1S award, and that's in good fun; however, it does seem kind of mean to nominate people who try to make their game as good as they can.

[Kweepa]

This award isn't "worst game." It's the P3N1S award. What constitutes a candidate is debatable. Just because you don't like what was nominated, you're going to "expunge" the category (from future years)? Sounds somewhat reactionary.

The community has spoken.

PS I didn't nominate the game - I didn't nominate anything. I didn't think much of it (my opinion is much like GG's, except that I rather liked what the narrator had to say and wasn't a big fan of the backgrounds). However, Himalaya were well aware of some of the faults, e.g. the god-awful 3d cutscenes, and released it anyway.

PPS RE Mash's idea. That could work. I think it's a bit timid, but it's a good compromise.

[MillsJROSS]

I would like to mention this award is called the P3N1S award. I rest my case? As a past and, hopefully, future recepient of this award, I hope this community never gets too mature to get rid of it.

-MillsJRoSS

[esper]

I was always of the understanding that the p3n1s award wasn't for the worst AGS game, but... you know.... the n00biest, or the crappiest on purpose... You know, like "I Am Spartacus." It was shit, but it was supposed to be. I agree that criteria shouldn't change because the game is commercial, and I was always of the understanding (I guess now that I was wrong) that EVERY AGS game nominated for anything was nominated by a member of the team that made it.

Then again, I've been away for a while. Can someone catch me up to speed on this Al Emmo thing? It doesn't LOOk like it deserved the p3n1s, but...

[DGMacphee]

How I envisioned the PEN1S Award...

The award is partially supposed to be a bit of fun but also to be the kind of award to help people put more effort. Way, way back in the good ol' days of AGS there were a lot of people who were phone in their "games" usually they'd be one room pieces of crap using the default anims and sprites.

Oddly enough, I made a parody of this kind of crap called "Andy Penis' Big Adventure", which won the first ever PEN1S award. However, there have been nominations I think are justified such as squalman's garbage. Nice kid but he made shitty games.

But like I said, it's about effort. I don't think a game deserves a PEN1S award if the author has clearly demonstrated a certain level of effort. For example, I thought Flashbax didn't deserve a PEN1S nomination. If I remember correctly, there was a fuss was over a severed hand in the game. Great, but at least the author tried hard to made a solid adventure.

So yeah, give the award to people who put very little effort in their games. But don't knock the people who are actually trying their best.

[Grapefruitologist]

Hmmm. Well, this is an interesting debate.
I guess I'd have to imagine if it was my game that got this award-a game I've been working on for literally years, on and off. I'd be somewhat disappointed, I guess, but you know, life's tough. We get rejected, and we can either give up, or we can keep trying. It's the people who keep trying that will probably eventually succeed. To get this award would just be an experience that I could look back on in the future, and learn from. Eventually you're going to lose at something, somewhere, and be rejected by somebody. You might as well get it over with so you can be better in the future. I'd have to say that the PEN1S Award isn't doing much harm. If somebody's really serious about adventure games and really putting their effort into making a good game, they're going to see it as something, well, good. It's not good to keep your head buried in the sand all your life and always wondering why you never succeeded in life. On one hand, they can shake off the shame and keep trying, or they can just say "to heck with y'all" and give up. If they give up, they're not putting enough effort into succeeding. Sure it's a bit mean, but people have got to learn to get over this type of stuff.
I say-keep the award. People need "tough love" sometimes. It's more mean to just ignore it when somebody makes a crappy game and pretend you never played it/liked it. If people don't learn stuff like this early on, they'll never learn to grow up.
And then, of course, everyone has different opinions, some people might like the game, some might not. Just because a game gets the award, doesn't actually neccessarily mean the game is hopeless. Anybody who makes a game, should also realize this.
EDIT: Though I'd just like to point out that I've never actually played Al Emmo, so I can't really say if it deserved it or not. But I don't really appreciate people complaining about how expensive it is.

[Blackthorne]

So yeah, give the award to people who put very little effort in their games. But don't knock the people who are actually trying their best.

Absolutely.  I always saw the p3n1sh award as a humorous kick in the ass - not some spiteful thing.

Bt

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

To be honest, I'd quite forgotten about Al Emmo and his quirky adventures and didn't nominate it for anything.  I will also say that when it comes to the ags awards, the nominations and voting do not surprise me.  I also don't see why people make threads every time something that happens bothers them/makes them question something.  It's like watching Family Ties all over again, and that leads to the madness!

[Buckethead]

I shall make a game so bad it must be called the 'worst game ever' and recieve this award 

[SSH]

Yes please, we haven't got enough dumb joke games.

[Akatosh]

I'm baffled. Where's the extended version of "A walk in da tomb"? Did my votes get counted via the "flordia system" or what?

[Nikolas]

Worst AGS Game (The P3N1S Award)

More detail on the nominated games for Worst AGS Game (The P3N1S Award):

It is the p3n1s award, next to the Worst AGS Game, noted everywhere...

I certainly understand the reason d'etre of the p3n1s award, and do not wish at all to see it cancel! I do have some games in my mind that could earn the p3n1s award over the years... "Spartacus..." etc...

The point is that putting Al emmo up for nomination for such an award seems to be proving that some people in here really hate that game so hard. There was the El Ammo parody a couple of days before release! There was a message in the completed games page. Then there is the rating in mobygames, with 2 votes (1.90/5 where The Uncertainty Machine got 4.80/5 and SJM 4.60/5 much deserved the last two. But honestly if you show the 1.90/5, would you expect that game, or some shity little bullshit?). Then it is the p3n1s award.

All individually, of course are a bit a fun! Heck if nothing else had happened, of the above, I wouldn't mind having Al Emmo in the p3n1s award, if not only for that awful voice casting. But now it seems the attacks to the game keep coming and coming, every chance there is.

Do keep in mind that with all of these, there could be some harm to the sales, or the living of some people. It may be a little "Himalaya are shit and deserved this because of their rhetoric!" for you, but maybe again not...

[Peder 🚀]

How many votes did a game need anyway to get nominated??
I remember voting on other games that did not get nominated.


And I agree with Nikolas on this....


Thats all I got to say..