Award Fever

[rob_donoghue]

Awards are in the air. Voting is open for the Ennies, and the Diana Jones awards shortlist has been announced. In large part this has been greeted with enthusiasm, because both slates are filled to bursting with fantastic products. This has been a really wonderful year for gaming and it is telling how many fantastic games did not make any final

Comments

[jesshartley]

Thank you, Rob. Just... Thank you.

[debela]

...

Boom goats is going to be the phrase I use the next time I want to alarm folks at work. I will credit you once they stop staring.

[debela]

Mostly, I was planning to use it on my engineers, as a threat.

"Deliver by this arbitrary date, or boom goats."
"What now?"
"She's finally lost it."
"Is this a Microsoft thing?"
"Boom. Goats. Goats with explosives. Deliver, or boom. Goats."

[rechan]

What inspired this? Have folks been trashing Mouseguard or something?

[rob_donoghue]

There's been stuff from a number of different directions. Nothing I would want to call out, but enough to slowly build up.

[macklinr]

I have to admit, I have been uncomfortable in my pandering for the award. Mainly because I feel an escalation has happened -- others are shamelessly doing so, but if I don't, does that mean I look like I don't want it? It's a weird social dynamic that I'm not sure I'd engage in if it wasn't for the fact that I don't want to let Paul or Brennan down.

If any of that makes sense.

[rob_donoghue]

The pandering actually bothers me not at all. This is a great year, and there are precious few nominees that don't excite me (and only one that upsets me). So long as "We are awesome! Vote for us!" does not become "Those other guys suck!" or "Those other guys don't even deserve to be here" then it's all good fun.

[drcpunk]

Okay, I'm working on convincing myself I can legitimately vote in the Ennies when the only category where I'm familiar with all entries is Cover Art.

I don't think I can legitimately vote in the Diana Jones awards. 5 entries ranging all over the map. I'm familiar with one and a half -- Dominion and Mouseguard (the half).

[benlehman]

This rubs me the wrong way.

I mean, yes, this is all true. Games are made by people, as an act of deep love. I'm not sure that that should stop one from, say, posting "Sweet Agatha is totally crap and shouldn't be seen within 10 miles of anyone shortlist except for maybe 'shortlist of games to wipe my ass with*.'"

Every creative product is done by a person. Nearly every creative product is done as act of deep love. And yet ... most creative products suck. There's nothing inherently wrong with saying that** out loud or in public.

Maybe I'm missing what you're saying, though.

yrs--
--Ben

* I have purposefully picked the game of the DJA shortlist that I'm least likely to actually say this about, so please do not misleadingly quote me on this one.

** I say this as someone who doesn't publicly criticize RPGs, as a matter of personal choice. But I'm pretty sure that there's not anything inherently wrong with it.

[zoatebix]

Even if you ignore the people stuff, paying attention to bullet number 1 is plenty to think about. It's not inherently wrong, but it's often (always?) unhelpful and valueless to *merely* say "most creative products suck" -- Theodore Sturgeon said it already; say something more, please.

[rob_donoghue]

Quite the opposite - I consider this an endorsement for more and better criticism.

But if there is a difference between how you would criticize a book by someone you know and how you would criticize a book that you view as produced by some abstraction (WW, The Forge, WOTC or whatever) then think about why that is.

When we remember that there are people involved, we are less likely to be useless ("It's Crap") or assholes ("I wouldn't fuck this game with a stolen dick"). That sort of 'criticism' is selfish - it is ultimately us talking about ourselves. But when we remember that there's another person involved, that's when we have a chance to step outside our little bubble and maybe say something useful.