I was going to say that the Ennies need to remove the public vote element to gain more credibility. May be add a Public Vote award. However, I am not sure that's enough. Especially as this year saw Judges platform for votes with a promise to vote for certain games: http://forums.cubicle7.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2015

When you combine this with a single Judge able to ban one of the industries more popular RPGs from being nominated last year as it used unusual dice, and I think the Ennies time is done.

Quote from: Skywalker;780831When you combine this with a single Judge able to ban one of the industries more popular RPGs from being nominated last year as it used unusual dice, and I think the Ennies time is done.

Which was that?

Quote from: Opaopajr;780826Well, FATE works for everything, don'cha know. Including the entirety of space and time.

No, no it doesn't.  And I say that as someone that *likes* Fate.

I recognize there are (pretty annoying) people that automatically think you should use Fate for every game, but, really, any good analysis of game design recognizes that games make tradeoffs in their design, and those tradeoffs necessarily make them good at some things, and poor at others.

I've gotten some crap before, when people asked how to make Fate do "D&D" (which is so ambiguous anyway, but that's another discussion), and I suggested "uh, if you want D&D, why not just run D&D?"

Most of the 'serious' Fate guys I know actually agree with this.  It's just the newcomers that get all starry-eyed and everything.  Even some of the game designers get pissed off at that attitude, because it kind of devalues the choices that they make.

Quote from: brettmb;780833Which was that?

Edge of the Empire, I think?  Or am I wrong there?

The EotE Beginner Box was denied entry based on its dice, according to this Ennie Judge here http://irontavern.com/2013/07/24/ennies-expose/

QuoteAnother more alarming example from this year is the exclusion of Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Box.  It was submitted but left off all the nominations.  It was not left off because most of the judges don’t like Star Wars or felt that other products were just better.  It was left off because one judge didn’t like the special dice the game uses and refused to let it get nominated for anything. It is fine that a judge didn’t like the product but no one judge should be able to influence the nominations and have their opinion override the others.

Its seems a safe bet that this may be the reason FFG didn't submit any of its RPGs this year.

Quote from: 3rik;780827Well, there's the Arty Hipster Circle Jerk erm... I mean the Indie RPG Awards...

Heh heh. Yeah...

I guess an indie awards organization wouldn't put OSR publishers side by side with * World hackers.

Quote from: Skywalker;780836The EotE Beginner Box was denied entry based on its dice, according to this Ennie Judge here http://irontavern.com/2013/07/24/ennies-expose/



Its seems a safe bet that this may be the reason FFG didn't submit any of its RPGs this year.

Funny dice? What the hell are Fudge/Fate dice then? What a hypocrite.

Quote from: Necrozius;780838Funny dice? What the hell are Fudge/Fate dice then? What a hypocrite.

Yes. The fact that FATE dice won an Ennie award this year is somewhat ironic. Leaving that aside, it seem clear that the judicial process behind the Ennies is pretty muddled and open to abuse.

Quote from: Skywalker;780839Yes. The fact that FATE dice won an Ennie award this year is somewhat ironic. Leaving that aside, it seem clear that the judicial process behind the Ennies is pretty muddled and open to abuse.

Are we sure that's why EotE Beginner Box was cut off?

Quote from: Ladybird;780825Do you count "quality of writing" under art or mechanics?

Good question. What are the benchmarks for "quality of writing" ?

Quote from: brettmb;780841Are we sure that's why EotE Beginner Box was cut off?

Right now, hard to say.  The post listed above had a comment section that turned into a he said/she said series, with nobody presenting e-mails or hard evidence either way.

I will note that a couple of people got really defensive in the comments, but aside from that I'd like to see the evidence either way.

If the head of the NCAA can get on national television (in the US) to "defend" the selections of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the least the ENnies' judges could do is provide some defense of their nominations.  The one comment by a developer who'd submitted stuff to the judges called the judges out on just what the criteria were for nominations.

Quote from: brettmb;780841Are we sure that's why EotE Beginner Box was cut off?

No absolute proof, no. Just the word of a fellow Ennie judge and FFG's odd follow-up action of not submitting its games for nomination.

Quote from: Opaopajr;780826Well, FATE works for everything, don'cha know. Including the entirety of space and time.

Maybe on TBP it does...

Quote from: Necrozius;780837Heh heh. Yeah...

I guess an indie awards organization wouldn't put OSR publishers side by side with * World hackers.

For a couple of years there seemed to be a tendency for more "traditional" - for lack of a better term - independently produced (= indie) RPGs showing up among the submissions, but this year it's apparently gone all the way back to pretentious storytelling / literature and drama emulation. I guess "trad" independent (= indie) publishers just didn't bother submitting their stuff anymore?

There's also the Diana Jones Award but, I don't even want to go there...

In 1994, the jury of the Spiel des Jahres (the most prestigious board game award in Germany) didn't nominate Magic: The Gathering because they took issue with the way the game was sold (in randomised packs of boosters) and aimed at a collector market (by making certain cards more rare, and limiting the print runs and distribution to the stores).

That was despite the fact that MTG was on of the rarest events in the history of gaming - the advent of a completely new game format.
The last time something of a similar scale happened was D&D... and the jury completely ignored the German premiere of Dungeons & Dragons and Das Schwarze Auge, too. But they did award Rubik's Cube (1980, "Best Solitaire Game"), and 3D Krimi Puzzle (1995, "Best Puzzle"), two award categories that they invented for those years and that were never awarded again...

But having been in a RPG award jury, I know that categorizing eligibility criteria can be difficult. And it will become more difficult in the future as media and technological platforms merge.
Will a table role playing game still be valid to enter when it starts to incorporate board game bits (à la WH3e), or apps (like the DCC dice crawler), or electronic character sheets (like the D&D4 builder)?
This year we went a step backwards and awarded a 1300+ paragraphs solo game book the "Best RPG Ruleset 2014".
(But Reiter der Schwarzen Sonne is a very nice book, with some neat rules and layout ideas that were "better" and more innovative than, say, Midgard 5th edition. And we were not alone: It was the second award the book received.)

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;780897In 1994, the jury of the Spiel des Jahres (the most prestigious board game award in Germany) didn't nominate Magic: The Gathering because they took issue with the way the game was sold (in randomised packs of boosters) and aimed at a collector market (by making certain cards more rare, and limiting the print runs and distribution to the stores).

That was despite the fact that MTG was on of the rarest events in the history of gaming - the advent of a completely new game format.
The last time something of a similar scale happened was D&D... and the jury completely ignored the German premiere of Dungeons & Dragons and Das Schwarze Auge, too. But they did award Rubik's Cube (1980, "Best Solitaire Game"), and 3D Krimi Puzzle (1995, "Best Puzzle"), two award categories that they invented for those years and that were never awarded again...

To be fair, if it was easy to recognize a new thing for what it was, then it would be easier to create new things.  But new things are better to identify by their effects on people than their effects on awards.

Awards are fun - but their significance pales when you realize how many of them depend on the people who win them for support.  I worked at a company a few years back that had won a shelf-ful of fancy awards, all of which had to be paid for by my boss for us to get them.  (Well, to get the physical trophy, not just words on a page.) And the place went out of business anyway.

This reply is to address the continued propagation of an inaccurate report from last year.

No judge blocked the nomination of any product, despite the story that a prior judge ran with after misunderstanding a communication with a current (at the time) judge. Whether or not a judge likes a product, they are one of five and do not have the unilateral authority to approve/deny the nomination of any product. If that means that at least 3 judges from that year were fools in the eyes of others, so be it.

In addition, FFG did not hold back entries due to that report, but due to an unrelated company decision that prevented them from submitting any products to the ENnies.

I realize that the ENnie Awards are not perfect (I know I had more than my share of screw-ups during my first year), and I know that they are not for everybody, but I am a fan and am committed to continuing their growth. With that said, you will also find that I am more than willing to listen to and consider other folks' ideas.

Gabriel Whitehead
Business Manager
ENnie Awards

gabriel@ennie-awards.com

608.293.2064