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My company just announced no raises this year. And they're reducing our potential  bonuses by 30%. And they've hamstrung their share discount scheme to make it pointless for UK employees. 

If someone asks how to read the manual, can we say RTFHTRTFMM?

The database already knows the games from 2008. Trawling through a thread is more work than a database query. Also, what happens if someone else submits a game in the FYC thread?

Sorry, I don't actually want answers to these questions. I am doing it the same way as before. The AGS Awards are for all AGS games no matter how involved ppl are in the forums. I'm not going to exclude anyone just becuase they maybe didn't read the right forum threads or stopped coming to the forums or any number of reasons why they might not submit to FYC. It sounds like some people have a vendetta against some individuals who they guess are not going to enter their games. If their game is good enough to get the votes, it will win. Being part of the community will get more voters to vote for you, no doubt, so therefore community members already have an advantage.

Anyone got an idea of how to TELL who put it in the DB? I think another level of nomination is unworkable unnecessary red tape. Its hard enough getting enough people to vote or nominate as it is. Lets see if we can get either into triple figures this year for the first time!

At any rate, I'm not going to pursue a circular discussion without any reasonable resolution, much like 90% of internet disagreements where everyone thinks they are absolutely right and everyone else is wrong...

Indeed, and in the end its only my opinion that matters  

So, technically speaking, if Yahtzee's later games hadn't been added to the database by a minion, he never could have won an award?  :o

Yes, in the same way that if all the Catholics in the world stopped believing then the Pope would be out of a job... it just doesnt seem likely.

This requirement for the awards has been around for 3 years and is mentioned usually 3 months in advance. And if you don't get your game in in time, you can add it later and be eligible for an award a different year (as happened with Automation).

I often play games with the sound off and only later realise that it would have been handy to have the sound on...

Each one of us is only a matter of an accident, illness or, say, 50 years of aging away from having deafness ourselves. Or any other disability, for that matter. Therefore I think it is vital to bear disabilities in mind when creating games. It would be very hard to cater for all disabilities, but similarly its very easy to cater for some... take the colour-blind version of Colourwise or the batman-style sound effects described in this thread as an example...

Why do you think having the game in OUR database is a requirement?  Just to establish a date of release?  I don't think so  .

DGMacphee used to trawl the CGA forum for any games that weren't in the DB, which was an arduous task and not one I'm prepared to undertake. Also, the games DB establishes a date of release. Games need to be in the DB for CJ's final voting script to work, too (in fact, when I submit Pick of the Month I see the possibility of nominating the dummy entries CJ has to make in the DB for the Best Character awards, etc. )

So, actually, they need to be in the DB for convenience's sake, mainly.

-The huge Nelly was fun last year, but I think in the future I'd prefer that the in-game awards run in a high resolution and the low-res sprites get scaled up, to maintain roughly consistent proportions between characters.

They were. Even with that, Nelly is still waaaay bigger.

I recommend talking to the local Citizen's Advice Bureuax who will be able to offer factual rather than anecdotal advice and can spell their own name correctly, too.

Similar things have happened to others here at my office and most people thought that challenging it wasn't worth the bother and that they'd rather spend their time trying to find a new job rather than preparing for Industrial Tribunals.

[really]

I like the "Parody/Remake" idea in theory, since it's often very hard to decide how to treat them compared to other entries, but there's not much point if there aren't enough eligible games.

Well, there's at least 3 top quality ones: QFG2VGA, Quest for Yrolg and Little Girl in Underland.

I really dislike the idea of creators having to submit their games for nomination. For one thing, I think it's unfair to players and voters: If I feel that some game by a non-forum member was the best AGS game of the year, I should be allowed to vote for it.

People have been confused by the two-step process already, so a three-step process doesn't seem to have a point.

I also kind of miss the P3N15 award. In the discussions at the time, the consensus seemed to be to keep it, and the unilateral decision to eliminate it kind of rubs me the wrong way.

You don't want to rub your P3N15 the wrong way, thats for sure.


My current feeling from the debate is that we try having these extra awards out this year and see how it goes. If the Debut and Remake/Parody awards fall flat or just duplicate other awards then we can drop them again. After all, I dropped the best resource award after the time when it only had one nominee...

Hopefully, myself, IndieBoy, Sylvr and Dualnames will produce an entry...

One thing that's honestly bothered me about the awards for some time now is people being nominated who don't even give a piss about winning the award or being a part of the ceremony/community.  I'd really like to see the authors themselves have to put up their game(s) for consideration, and I know from some discussions I've had with other members of the forum I'm not the only one who feels this way.  It shows a genuine interest on the part of the game creators to involve themselves in the awards rather than random fanboys/girls recommending their games, and modesty should have/has nothing to do with it.   I'm really against the award by proxy concept.

But Yahtzee hasn't made any AGS stuff this year anyway...

Programming is something that a lot of people who play these games, and vote, may not be familiar with - in a large enough capacity, that is, to differentiate between the pros and cons of a particular game's scripting. I suspect a number of people simply put the game they may be nominating as "Best Game" into this category also, regardless of any outstanding technical achievements in said game.

Having seen 3 years of individual nominations and votes, I can assure you this isn't true. Don't underestimate the voters. Most "I think people vote in stupid way X" are misapprehensions.

I'm not so sure about the whole "for you consideration" situation, nor whether all games that happen to be eligible should be automatically eligible. Perhaps a thread where a game has to be officially submitted before a second cut-off point? Although this would result in a nominate the nominees for nomination-type situation, which seems even worse.

All games that are eligible ARE automatically eligible. The FYC has no bearing on anything: it's just an advertising thread.


Finally, no matter how many people or who they are ask, I am not reinstating the booby prize. Someone else is quite welcome to have their own "Golden Raspberries" awards, but I don't want it as part of the AGS awards:

1) It makes the awards and AGS in general look unprofessional, silly, jokey and puerile to outsiders.
2) It means that some of the award winners in the games DB are crap
3) It can offend people who didnt want to be nominated
4) It doesn't add anything to the awards by having it in

So, as with the IRC ceremony, someone is welcome to do their own awards (like the Foregos and Ergos in times past)

As any parent of small children knows, when your kid gets hurt you don't just lecture them on how they shouldn't have been playing with steak knifes or whatever, you take them to the hospital. The attitude of some in the US and UK is "they made this mess, let the bankers suffer" but of course its not that simple.

The font looks horrible to read, though the rest looks fab...

OK, so here's my current thinking on the category list: All games must be added to DB during 2008.

Lifetime Achievement, Best Innovation and Best Game by a Newcomer are chosen by committee

Games in the DB as "Demos" are eligible for:

Best Demo

Games in the DB as "Non-adventures" are eligible for:

Best Non-adventure, Best non-adv programming, and all the main categories except Best Game, Best Short Game and Best Programming

Games in the DB as "Joke games, MAGS games or Short games" are eligible for all the main categories plus Best Short Game

Games in the DB as Commercial are eligible for Best Commercial Game as well as the main categories

Games in the DB as medium or full length games are eligible for the main categories:

Overall: Best Game, Best Remake or Parody
Design/writing: Best Gameplay, Best Story, Best Dialogue, Best Puzzles, Best Tutorial or Documentation
Art: Best Character Art, Best Background Art, Best Animation
Sound: Best Voice Acting, Best Effects, Best Music

Nostalgia threads ain't what they used to be...


On the other hand, all the best posts in my blog are the old ones

A find-in-any-script woudl be handy, as well as searching for a string in char names, etc too

Thanks for the input, peeps, this is all helpful.

Some points:

a) I may well prepare an EXE as well as m0ds's IRC ceremony, planned to be released after it. Those who couldn't attend the IRC ceremony can have some fun, then. (Anyone want to do some better backgrounds for the stage, theatre, etc?) and also its a backup in case the ceremony takes as long to happen as Fountain of Youth

b) I was discussing the Best Programming on Stickam. Perhaps the way to handle it is to have Best Non-adventure Programming and Best Adventure Programming as two separate categories. Like the Golden Globes Comedy/Drama split.

c) Best Remake or Parody has a dual-purpose. Firstly it is to recognise the huge effort that can sometimes go into a remake or parody, but it isn't really fair  (or likely) for a rehash to win any story awards, etc. and secondly it will maybe allow the other categories to concentrate on original material and not feel obliged to reward a game based on 15-year-old ideas just becuase it took a long to time to make (no games in particular in mind here, honest!) I would say that, for example, Little Girl in Underland maybe isn't going to win in any of the old categories given the stiff competition in other short games, but on the other hand, many may think that its the best parody of the year.

d) AS you edited, Nik, experience shows that commercial games have had less players (at least amongst the AGS community) and hence get less votes, despite their potentially higher production values. Perhaps, though, as with remakes,  a Best Commercial Game category could give them recognition and yet also not make people feel obliged to vote for them in "normal" categories unless they truly deserve it. However, I'm only aware of one commerical release this year...

e) Yes, its hard to define Best Atmosphere for the reasons bluskirt says. And while one may have a particular game in mind when one thinks of awards, that doesn't mean everyone else does too. And the silver medal in the AGS Awards is that I usually use the "nearly winners" as an easy source of picks-of-the-month...

f) Best Innovation is decided by committee and it usually comes down to what the committee decides it tro mean based on common sense and obvious candidates. The two winners so far have been Linus Bruckmann and _access which I think are both fair.

g) Best Game by a Newcomer also seems popular and I'll see if the committee can come up with a sensible choice. Question: Last year, would you have said that Nelly Cootalot was a newcomer's game?

h) Should there be some kind of nomination-announcing event? Sounds like it was popular (although once again, I'm only getting that feedback 2 years later...  : )

i)  Any suggestions by PM of good people for the Lifetime Achievement/ Innovation/Newbie awards committee are welcome. Anyone who suggests themself is automatically excluded