AGS Awards Nominees Announced!

[DragonRose]

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]

And a CATERER! The one last year sucked.

* MrColossal cries quietly in his kitchen...

[DragonRose]

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]

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]

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]

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

--Erwin

[Vel]

You bet I am.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

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

[Kinoko]

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]

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

[Pumaman]

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:

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]

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:

One 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.