Link here

A Few Highlights:

• Aaron Allston's Strikeforce won the overall Gamer's Choice Poll (with Masks: A New Generation as a close 2nd place)


• The Awesome Powers Series (for BASH) received a Judge's Award from Steve Trustrum


• Super-Powered Legends from Rogue Genius Press received a Judge's Award from Steve Kenson


• The Template Tome from Purple Prose (and written by new M&M dev Crystal Frasier) received a Judge's Award from Jacob Blackmon.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Gamer's Choice poll (had a great turnout this year) and congratulations to all the winners. Full details/awards are here

I got nominated for a Bamfsie once. Didn't even find out until several months afterward. It was for a 3PP supplement for Worlds in Peril. I would never have expected to get it, as the game it supplemented got nominated in the same year.

It isn't a fair set of awards. When one of the judges was a contributor to one of the products up for nomination.

Total conflict of interest.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;952479It isn't a fair set of awards. When one of the judges was a contributor to one of the products up for nomination.

Total conflict of interest.

Man -especially with the massive cash prizes involved. Scandal

Anyway - yeah - it's not optimal. But I gather the judges panel months in advance and they send in their picks independently of each other.

Steve thought Jacob had a good product and called it out. Jacob just happened to also be a judge this year.

Quote from: DiscoSoup;952478I got nominated for a Bamfsie once. Didn't even find out until several months afterward. It was for a 3PP supplement for Worlds in Peril. I would never have expected to get it, as the game it supplemented got nominated in the same year.

Technically- everyone who releases a superhero RPG product is eligible for the Gamer's Choice Bamfsie that is awarded by popular vote on an open poll.

We have tried our best to be as thorough as possible so that everyone who's been working in the field on the ballot for a given year. The point of the award is to drawn attention to all the great work being done in the superhero RPG genre (which unfortunately can get overlooked at the bigger awards)

Quote from: mikelaff;952703Steve thought Jacob had a good product and called it out. Jacob just happened to also be a judge this year.

Jacob wasn't the only contributor to one of the products involved.

Less than optimal doesn't even remotely describe this. When you have judges commenting on products they helped produce. The conflict of interest is laid bare.

Your awards were rigged from the outset.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;952713Jacob wasn't the only contributor to one of the products involved.

Less than optimal doesn't even remotely describe this. When you have judges commenting on products they helped produce. The conflict of interest is laid bare.

Your awards were rigged from the outset.

Speaking as a guy who was a judge the first couple of years, I never even knew who the other judges were going in, much less communicated with them.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;952720Speaking as a guy who was a judge the first couple of years, I never even knew who the other judges were going in, much less communicated with them.

It's up to those holding the awards to check for conflicts of interest amongst its judges beforehand. The judges should all have nothing to do with the items getting the awards for it to be seen as fair.

There are also questions about the legal side of it.

Jesus Christ, dude, what the fucking hell is WRONG with you?

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;952723It's up to those holding the awards to check for conflicts of interest amongst its judges beforehand. The judges should all have nothing to do with the items getting the awards for it to be seen as fair.

There are also questions about the legal side of it.

Well, there are no prizes, other than bragging rights, so I'm not sure about the legalities of anything. I recall Mike specifically asked us not to pick anything his company put out, because of the appearance of impropriety.

If it was the fan vote, then that's entirely independent of a judge. If it was a judge picking a product that another judge worked on, I don't think it's a big deal unless that judge was hitting up the other judge and asking for the push.

If it was a judge picking something they had worked on themselves...then yeah, that's bad.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;952727Well, there are no prizes, other than bragging rights, so I'm not sure about the legalities of anything. I recall Mike specifically asked us not to pick anything his company put out, because of the appearance of impropriety.

If it was the fan vote, then that's entirely independent of a judge. If it was a judge picking a product that another judge worked on, I don't think it's a big deal unless that judge was hitting up the other judge and asking for the push.

If it was a judge picking something they had worked on themselves...then yeah, that's bad.

Every state in the United States has laws regarding contests or awards. It's best to be aware of them.

This doesn't look good, and appearances are important.

If its all based on an independent poll by voters, that's cool. 1 person, 1 vote, etc.

The addition of "judges" is an issue if the judges have some involvement in the products. But this isn't uncommon whatsoever, even with very "notable" awards such as the Nobel and Oscars - lots of scandal and drama in the background there too - and some of its unintentional too.

Again, there probably is ZERO impropriety here. It's just appearances vs. the suspicious nature of our modern age.

As for US laws, there isn't any issue since there are no prizes. There is nothing of tangible, provable value at stake. Does a BAMFSIES award winner sell measurably better after winning the award? If that could be tracked and the dollar amounts notable (aka $1000 is usually the base threshold), then perhaps there is a discussion that the prize does come with a level of financial reward.

Darrin, you could certainly go to DriveThruRPG / OneBookShelf and look at how BAMFSIES products rank before and after the award. If they go from Copper to Gold sellers swiftly, then maybe there is something to discuss and for the contest organizers to consider seriously in the future.

Transparency - especially in a tiny niche hobby - is always a good thing.

SpinachCat: Thanks for the reference.

I honestly didn't check that on DriveThruRPG. I just didn't know that aspect of it before I posted in this thread.

And that's what I was really pushing for. A transparent process,

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;952724Jesus Christ, dude, what the fucking hell is WRONG with you?

And here we go again.

Who wants popcorn?