AGS Awards - categories discussion [results!]

[Snarky]

Thanks for doing this, bicilotti! Haskell looks like a bit of an odd language, eh?

I'm not a hundred percent thrilled with all parts of the outcome (at least the one I was most worried about came out how I hoped), but I guess that's democracy for you, and no one can say it wasn't a fair process. Seems like the Fewer Awards Party have the upper hand for now, and we in the As Many Prizes as Possible Party have to think about our campaign strategy for the next election.

[Radiant]

I interpreted that last "Leave things as they are." as the answer to question 2.V (which otherwise would have been left blank). The vote *is* indeed significant though, so I PM'd our cultured Man of Mystery to shed light on the matter!

Very well. For the same reason, I think it would be a good idea to ask Snarky, Dactylopus, and Selmiak what exactly they meant. This is because in several cases they wrote down only their favorite option, but they added a commentary from which it is apparent that they don't consider the other three options to be equal.

It is good to have chosen this method of voting (rather than straight majority, which doesn't work well for questions like these); and given that the AGS Awards are an important part of the community, we should verify that next year's awards reflect what the community wants even if they specified their 2nd/3rd choice in writing instead of as a ticked box.

[Snarky]

Speaking for myself, I think my votes reflect my intention, except that I might add "no change" as second preference for 2.iv (which wouldn't make a difference in the voting).

Also, if we're making corrections, maybe we should clarify this response:

        ...merge ________ into Best Artwork:
         
            Backgrounds/Character-Art into Best Artwork (leave Animation alone).
        I think there should be one Backgrounds and one Sprites/animations, basically.           

The bolded comment sounds like Andail actually intended to vote for option (c), "replace BGs/CA/Ani with Best Sprite Art plus Best Artwork" (which of course ended up winning).

I would also comment that "Best Sprite Art" and "Best Artwork" sound so overlapping that I assumed it had to be a mistake, and that the latter was meant to remain "Best Background Art". Surely the intention of option (c) was to combine "Best Character Art" and "Best Animation" as "Best Sprite Art"; what would then be the purpose of renaming "Best Background Art" to something else?

[dactylopus]

I feel I was fairly well represented, although I do have a couple of suggestions and clarifications:

I was under the impression that Best Artwork was only to combine it all under one heading, a default term used for the question.  I would not have voted C for this question.  There was no appropriate response for me, since I wanted to see the Art category rendered as Sprite Art and Background Art, merging Sprites and Animation and leaving Backgrounds alone.  I thought comments were going to be taken into consideration.  With a lack of a choice for me, I'd choose D - Leave things as they are.  I think Andail intended the same result I hoped for, but we'll let him speak for himself.

I'm personally disappointed by the combining of Puzzles, Gameplay and Programming, all unique and not deserving of combination.  If I had a second pick, I'd choose B - Gameplay/Puzzles into Best Game Design (leave Programming alone).  Not sure if that would change anything.

Also, maybe we could lower the threshold on adding categories.  50% is a steep goal.

Thanks for the time and effort, bicilotti!  This is a good community service.

[Andail]

I definitely didn't want best puzzle to go, since that's one of the fundaments upon which our games rest! So in case I wasn't clear - keep best puzzle!

[Radiant]

I was under the impression that Best Artwork was only to combine it all under one heading, a default term used for the question.  I would not have voted C for this question.  There was no appropriate response for me, since I wanted to see the Art category rendered as Sprite Art and Background Art, merging Sprites and Animation and leaving Backgrounds alone.  I thought comments were going to be taken into consideration.  With a lack of a choice for me, I'd choose D - Leave things as they are.  I think Andail intended the same result I hoped for, but we'll let him speak for himself.

So what you're saying is that you'd like to have two categories (Sprites and Backgrounds) instead of the three we have now (Sprites, Character, Background), is that correct? Because if I'm interpreting things correctly, that's precisely what option C says. This is certainly why I voted C, and based on his comments I believe Snarky did the same.

Based on discussion in this thread, it strikes me that if we're going to keep the traid of sprites/backgrounds/character art, at least we ought to rename 'best character art'. It is clear that people have different opinions on what it means; several think it's more-or-less the same as sprite art, several people think it's more-or-less the same as background art, and several people think something else again. We should get agreement on what it's for, and then it needs a clearer name.

Also, maybe we could lower the threshold on adding categories.  50% is a steep goal.

I think 50% is fair. What the answer to this question shows us is that (a) most people do want to have more categories, but (b) there is not really any agreement which ones to add. Indeed, ten different proposed questions got five votes, and I'm pretty sure most of us don't want to add all ten of those to the awards for next year, which would almost double the amount of categories. But, perhaps we could consider a runoff out of these ten, asking "if we could have one more award, which one would it be" (with "none of the above" being one of the possible answers, of course).

[dactylopus]

Well the wording of C threw me off.  I'd like to see Sprite / Character Art (Sprites & Sprite Animations) and Background Art (Backgrounds and Background Animations).  I would not support this if it became 'Best Sprite Art' and 'Best Artwork' because I don't think it's clear enough what each category implies.  If there is no UI Category, UI Sprites should be part of Sprite / Character Art.

[Snarky]

Yes, it sounds like we're many of us in agreement on the Best Artwork/Background Art point. I really have no idea what "Best Artwork" means when there's also a "Best Sprite Art" category.

What the answer to this question shows us is that (a) most people do want to have more categories ... perhaps we could consider a runoff out of these ten

Actually, 6 people explicitly rejected the idea of adding any categories at all (well, Esseb didn't outright say so, and wasn't counted, but that seems very much to be the implication of his post), so the voters were about evenly split just on the principle. Therefore, although it's not the decision I hoped for, I think we should respect the outcome of the vote.

[Radiant]

What the answer to this question shows us is that (a) most people do want to have more categories ... perhaps we could consider a runoff out of these ten

Actually, 6 people explicitly rejected the idea of adding any categories at all (well, Esseb didn't outright say so, and wasn't counted, but that seems very much to be the implication of his post), so the voters were about evenly split just on the principle. Therefore, although it's not the decision I hoped for, I think we should respect the outcome of the vote.

Hm, that's a good point. I saw a lot of votes for extra categories, but it turns out that most of these are from the same people. So yeah, let's drop that proposal for now; we have one extra award already in the form of "best freeware game".

[bicilotti]

Also, if we're making corrections, maybe we should clarify this response:

        ...merge ________ into Best Artwork:
         
            Backgrounds/Character-Art into Best Artwork (leave Animation alone).
        I think there should be one Backgrounds and one Sprites/animations, basically.           

Well, I guess this (and other clarifications) will not arrive in the end
Check upated result post! Thanks again for voting!