AGS Awards Nominees Announced!

Pesty · Sun 13/03/2005 22:24:02

The nominees are tallied and the list is in! Voting isn't quite ready to begin, but you can look at the list and maybe play some of the games you haven't played yet!

http://www.sylpher.com/AGSAwards/Prelim.htm

Congratulations to all the nominees! Once voting starts, you'll have two weeks to get your votes in, so start thinking about who you want to vote.Once voting is over, there will be an awards ceremony on IRC to announce the winners.

Edit: Voting has begun! Go here to vote: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/awards.php?action=dovote

Snarky · Sun 13/03/2005 23:48:07

Hmmm... I guess this means I will finally have to play No-Action Jackson. Goddammit! That game is so freaking buggy.

Why didn't development move beyond beta? And how did people think to nominate it for best scripting?

MrColossal · Sun 13/03/2005 23:58:29

I played it all the way through without any bugginess... I wonder what other people did

edmundito · Mon 14/03/2005 03:13:35

I wanted to help with the awards somehow, and I always thought that the nominations page could have all the download links and stuff, so that people (like me) don't make up excuses that they can't find the games or feel pressured on the voting page, so I did this:

<link removed - see first post>

Enjoy!
(feel free to replace it with the real nominations page and I'll edit this topic respectively)

Pesty · Mon 14/03/2005 03:36:34

Thanks, Netmonkey. It's been replaced. The original one was messy anyway, so this works better for a few reasons.

MichaelJackson · Mon 14/03/2005 03:59:01

Votes in, pity Other Worlds only got in for Best Documentation, but I suppose I should have bothered to nominate games.

Oh well, some great games all the same! Good luck to all of you.

Andail · Mon 14/03/2005 11:30:01

Hehe, I think this year shows more evidently than ever before what I have always said about people's ability to nominate and vote.
The problem is that as soon as a person finds a game good, they nominate it for whichever category possible, not caring what the category actually stands for.

I have a hard time understanding how the top-games of this year all can be found in each category, when they are fundamentally different in terms of design and style.

Last year wasn't much better. 6-days assassin (an excellent display in style and puzzle ingenuity) was nominated for best story. What story?

I think next time a jury should make the nominations, and let people cast the final votes.

Potch · Mon 14/03/2005 21:40:52

I'm really surprised as well that Other Worlds wasn't nominated for more awards. That was one of the best games I played all year! Oh well.... guess I should have participated in the nominations too.

fovmester · Thu 17/03/2005 08:13:21

Quote from: Andail on Mon 14/03/2005 11:30:01
Hehe, I think this year shows more evidently than ever before what I have always said about people's ability to nominate and vote.
The problem is that as soon as a person finds a game good, they nominate it for whichever category possible, not caring what the category actually stands for.

I have a hard time understanding how the top-games of this year all can be found in each category, when they are fundamentally different in terms of design and style.

Last year wasn't much better. 6-days assassin (an excellent display in style and puzzle ingenuity) was nominated for best story. What story?

I think next time a jury should make the nominations, and let people cast the final votes.

I second that!!

Snarky · Sun 20/03/2005 04:00:31

Quote from: MrColossal on Sun 13/03/2005 23:58:29
I played it all the way through without any bugginess... I wonder what other people did

I gave No-Action Jackson another try today, and it wasn't as buggy as I had thought.

I think the issues I had with it the first time around were:

No shortcut keys for actions
A hotspot glitch in the first room which shows a "light fixture" on the floor next to the desk
A number of graphical glitches (showing the wrong animation, often with pieces of a different background)
The ambient sounds disappearing if you do certain things
Dialog topics appearing and disappearing in a confusing fashion
The text following you as you move. I didn't like that

Now these are fairly minor bugs. Indeed, some aren't bugs at all, just deficiencies in my subjective view. However, I encountered them all in the first five minutes of playing the game, which was a bit overwhelming. Being under the impression that it was very buggy, I decided to hope for a post-beta release which never arrived.

rtf · Mon 21/03/2005 01:08:58

Wow, now I realize how long I've been gone. I need to play these games!

voh · Wed 23/03/2005 02:00:12

It's not fair, almost all my votes went to No Action Jackson and Ben Jordan 3... One went to 7 days a skeptic (which I didn't enjoy even half as much as 5 days a stranger...)

I find the nominations, as was mentioned before, quite lacking in diversity. Maybe it'd be a good idea that next time nominations were made both by both the public and a judging panel.

Or maybe it'd be a good idea to limit nominations to 3 or 4 per game or something.

I dunno. It just seems that this isn't really fair to other great games that were released, but weren't as wildly popular..

jetxl · Tue 05/04/2005 11:05:44

So when are the winners anounced. Date? Time? Place?

Reptile · Tue 05/04/2005 11:11:00

The same handful of games wins almost every award. lol

Snarky · Tue 12/04/2005 00:52:40

Bump, because really it's about time to announce the winners.

jetxl · Tue 12/04/2005 13:08:32

Yes, another week has passed.

Pesty · Wed 13/04/2005 01:46:33

Well here's the deal. I have the winners all ready to announce, but I've been very sick with bronchitis since the Sunday before last, and haven't been able to set up the awards ceremony. I would really like to just announce the winners, but people don't seem to like that idea and want a ceremony. I still can't do it, so if someone is willing to, let me know.

Vel · Wed 13/04/2005 11:50:23

I gladly would, but I am very inconvenient presently, my plans change every single day. I sure hope someone reliable would host the ceremony though.

Ishmael · Wed 13/04/2005 14:49:05

I would gladly assist in the ceremony, but probably not host it. But the date should be set early enough so I can confirm that I have nothing else planned for that day. Nothing too special is bound to turn up, apart from what I already have planned.

Phemar · Wed 13/04/2005 16:32:03

Why not on IRC?

DragonRose · Wed 13/04/2005 17:57:04

The ceremony IS on IRC. However, you need presenters, you need the chatting room set up, you need enough ops to deal with all the extra people,etc.

And a CATERER! The one last year sucked.

MrColossal · Wed 13/04/2005 18:06:46

Quote from: DragonRose on Wed 13/04/2005 17:57:04
And a CATERER! The one last year sucked.

* MrColossal cries quietly in his kitchen...

DragonRose · Thu 14/04/2005 05:33:45

Sorry, Eric, but last year's banquet was, well... an acquired taste. Not everyone likes saurkraut flavoured ice cream on top of their grilled sushi kebabs.

AGA · Thu 14/04/2005 15:44:05

Okay, I've agreed to take over the IRC ceremony on Pesty's behalf. It will probably take place sometime early next week. I'll keep you informed...

EDIT: okay, we've decided on 20:00 GMT this coming Sunday (17th April). #AGSAwards2004 on QuakeNet. I will post details soon as to how to use IRC for those who don't know. It's definitely in your best interests to come if you've been nominated for an Award, so you can be there if and when you're announced as a winner.

BerserkerTails · Fri 15/04/2005 01:55:40

DAMN! The one weekend my girlfriend comes to visit is the weekend of the AGS Awards Ceremony...

Hahaha, oh well. Guess I'll miss it this year. Hope I don't win anything, hehe.

Erwin_Br · Fri 15/04/2005 11:12:17

Vel, are you going to cover the awards in your ezine?

--Erwin

Vel · Fri 15/04/2005 12:41:48

You bet I am.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Fri 15/04/2005 12:48:27

All right! At last something I can come to (I think)!

Kinoko · Fri 15/04/2005 16:17:31

Because I suck so bad at this sort of thing, can someone tell me when the time will be for someone in the eastern states of Australia? ^_^

AGA · Fri 15/04/2005 16:52:32

A ridiculously early hour. 5am if you're in Brisbane, I think.

Pumaman · Thu 21/04/2005 22:32:08

Well, the votes have been cast, the ceremony held, the winners announced, and the games page updated. So, now's probably a good time to discuss this while it's still in people's minds:

Quote from: Andail on Mon 14/03/2005 11:30:01
Hehe, I think this year shows more evidently than ever before what I have always said about people's ability to nominate and vote.
The problem is that as soon as a person finds a game good, they nominate it for whichever category possible, not caring what the category actually stands for.

I think next time a jury should make the nominations, and let people cast the final votes.

We do seem to have the same problem each year, where a few games get nominated in all the categories. Is the solution jury nominations, or would it work making people give a reason for each their nominations? Perhaps limiting nominations to 2 per category rather than 10 would help, because at the moment we're probably getting almost everyone nominating the famous games, whereas perhaps less people nominate the less "famous", but just as good, games.

Thanks to Pesty for organising the awards this year, by the way -- good work!

Snarky · Thu 21/04/2005 22:58:51

Is this actually a problem, though? Maybe the same five-six games really are best in every way? Compare the nominations to the (jury-selected) nominees for the 2004 Adventure Gamers Underground Awards, and you'll see they aren't that different (if you look only at the games made with AGS). They liked Project Xenophobe, and that's about it (7 Days was removed from consideration since Yahtzee was on the jury).

If we're going to change it, I thought I had a pretty good proposal:

QuoteOne way to do the awards next year would be to set up an open thread for nominations. That way, any forum member can nominate any game for any category. The committee then has to consider all the games that have been nominated, and no others, and pick a list of finalists for each category. Then we all vote to determine the winners.

The first step would make the list of games for the committee to play more manageable. If people are disciplined in their nominations, only games with a reasonable chance at winning need to be considered. But it also means that if at least one person on the forums has played a game and wants it to win, it will get its shot.

Kinoko · Fri 22/04/2005 02:12:00

I quite like that idea of an open thread -> committee -> nominees. Limiting the number of nominees would be unfair if someone really has created a game that deserves al the awards.

fovmester · Fri 22/04/2005 05:44:45

I agree with you, Kinoko.

Many people like one game really much and just nominate it in all categories without consideration.
I mean a game can be ugly as hell and still be a great game, but then it shouldn't win the best graphics award!

dgunpluggered · Fri 22/04/2005 05:56:56

I'm with CJ. One of the things I was planning for the awards before I gave it up was to limit the nominations from 10 to 5 (or 3 in some cases). With 10, the field gets wide open and people nominate a game even if they only liked it a little. Thus it scores more votes, and shuts out other nominees that are probably more deserving. It's one of the faults I made with the nominations process.

I think people should nominate only the maximum amount of nominees per category. For example, for Best Game they should nominate 5. For Best Music, 3. This way people get to submit what their ideal nominees would look like. The totals can be counted and it'll be fairer. And it'll make tallying the nominations easier.

But 10 is way too many.

Oh I was a fool to think 10 would work! Why?? WHY!?!?!

*breaks down sobbing*

Pesty · Fri 22/04/2005 06:15:39

Quote from: fovmester on Fri 22/04/2005 05:44:45
I agree with you, Kinoko.

Many people like one game really much and just nominate it in all categories without consideration.
I mean a game can be ugly as hell and still be a great game, but then it shouldn't win the best graphics award!

You wouldn't believe how many people would do this. It's absurd to look at the list of nominees and see someone that's voted Apprentice 2 in every category...including the p3n1s award. It's like they don't even bother looking at the categories, they just copy and paste into every field. If we don't get a committee or something similar set up before next year, anyone who does that will get their nominations disqualified. I would've done that this year, but I felt it was unfair to do so without warning everyone that it would happen. Not that the people who've done it care about being fair...

Kinoko · Fri 22/04/2005 11:19:04

Oh, whoops, I misread your comment, CJ. Yes, I think limiting the amount of nominations each person can make per catagory is a great idea.

jetxl · Fri 22/04/2005 11:58:02

Having jury members that have to chose games and explain why it should be in the best game catagory and not in the best graphics catagory is a good idea. It would stop the copy paste voting.

On the other hand it's just a silly award ceremony. Nothing of importance in real life.

Miez · Fri 22/04/2005 14:22:48

Quote from: Pesty on Fri 22/04/2005 06:15:39
Quote from: fovmester on Fri 22/04/2005 05:44:45
I agree with you, Kinoko.

Many people like one game really much and just nominate it in all categories without consideration.
I mean a game can be ugly as hell and still be a great game, but then it shouldn't win the best graphics award!

You wouldn't believe how many people would do this. It's absurd to look at the list of nominees and see someone that's voted Apprentice 2 in every category...including the p3n1s award. It's like they don't even bother looking at the categories, they just copy and paste into every field. If we don't get a committee or something similar set up before next year, anyone who does that will get their nominations disqualified. I would've done that this year, but I felt it was unfair to do so without warning everyone that it would happen. Not that the people who've done it care about being fair...

Why not set up a system whereby people have only - say - three votes to give away? This would work, even if you have lots and lots of categories ...

fovmester · Fri 22/04/2005 18:00:59

Quote from: jetxl on Fri 22/04/2005 11:58:02
On the other hand it's just a silly award ceremony. Nothing of importance in real life.

Well if it's of no importance then why bother having it at all?

No but seriously: If you're having an award cermony it should be done fair and properly, so I think this discussion is more than justified.

AGS Awards Nominees Announced!

dgunpluggered