unforum

[Rolerbe]

[SirQuady]

Thanks rollerbe!

here, have a

[MageSteff]

[SirQuady]

Perhaps we could count from when the trailhead was first posted on Unfiction or IU? Any games started before July 1, 2005 don't count, but games on or after that date do?

Or, as long as it was running at least by July 1, 2005, it counts (so Perplex City would count for both this and last year?)

[rose]

Maybe it would help if you made a list of the games you were considering to include and some of the categories? Would you,for example, have a category of favorite character - just among LCP, PerplexCity, CTW2, and Orbital Colony -that would be a huge list to choose from. Only people that have played those games would be informed enough to vote.

I basically agree with Ehsan's concerns. Using his Academy Award analogy - a big difference between ARGs and films is that all members of the academy get free entrance to screenings of the movies or copies of DVDs so they can watch and evaluate the nominees. I don't know how we could duplicate that.

Shad0's clever and fun ilb awards(full disclosure as to possible bias: one of which (Best Spec) I was a proud co-winner with xnbomb) worked well because they were all based on one game. I am not sure how this will work with game v. game given that the number of active players varies greatly from one game to the next. I am curious as to how you would propose to address that disparity?

[krystyn]

During the years when they were active, I volunteered a few times to be on the panel for the Diarist Awards.

You really haven't lived until you've sat down at your computer with an excel sheet showcasing dozens of personal websites and thrice as many individual entries, all needing to be read, comprehended, and judged within two or three weeks.

It's a LOT of hard work, and I often felt as though I couldn't be as fair to some journals, because I was either too familiar with them, or had never heard of them before.

It can be done, but it would probably have to be an openly-admitted flawed process. Many normal people can barely hang onto their personal lives whilst immersing in one ARG. I have trouble imagining being an informed voter on several ARGs at once - especially when they're ostensibly in post-mortem mode, which is often not similar at all to the actual playing experience.

[MageSteff]

Not to mention PM bias... Many games the PMs do come out from behind the curtain either before or after a game, but it is the PM's right to not seek to be recognized. How can I vote on a game I ran rather than played? That creates a bias because now I either must completely disregard my own work that I put so much of myself into or I end up using it as a yardstick for other games. There is a completely different vibe going on if you are the PM rather than the Player.

Plus ... while you wouldn't need to go back and have awards for previous years, there were a LOT of games that are still talked about and loved by fans. You end up leaving out some of the MOST groundbreaking games out of the competition. The Beast, Lockjaw, Change Agents, MU, ILB.

Do you separate marketing games into their own catagory (ILB, LCP, WIBS?) from the grassroots?

Do you separate games based oin how much time the PM's put into the game? By How much money the PM's could afford to spend (note that even among grass roots there can be a lot of disparity in what various PM teams could afford to spend, and did spend)?

Money may not make a big load in grooundbreaking work, but it can make a difference in how players perceive the game universe. Grassroots do not have the bank accounts of the mega corporations they often portray. While that may not be a big issue for portraying a web search company (Google has a huge presence on the web, but the "Search engine" page is very simple in terms of graphics (a colorfull banner of the name and lots of space filled with text - ads and search results), portraing something like a Car Manufacturer could be. How can you evaluate which one is portrayed to the best of the available resources?


I would have an easier time if there were voting within the individual game: each game having a Favorite Character, Biggest "Aha!" moment, funniest slip up by the PMs, etc. While leaving the technical issues to be the ones where people can compare easily - Groundbreaking, Best designed individual website, Most interesting use of technology, Best face to face meeting (even within a game they can vary by how much information can be recovered and most of the players must make do with "reported" happenings since they were not present - although LCP managed to include a LARGE number of players at each face to face meeting).


I do not want to see any catagory that would directly compare PM teams because that is just wrong IMO. We all have our favorites there, plus as newer PMs get experience they get better, and I would hate to have them feel discouraged from even trying another game...

[Rolerbe]

Been thinking about this off and on. Here are some concrete suggestions. Call the awards the Unfiction Awards to avoid the issue discussed above of overstating our 'turf'. More humorous/amusing would be better, but I think the humor will mostly be in the specific reasons why the winner was awarded a given award.

Categories:

Short subjects -- (non-implode) Arg's less than 2 (4?) weeks in duration
Arglettes -- Arg's from 1 to 3 mos duration
Epic Arg's -- Long run args (e.g. PPC)

Some suggested awards (repeating many previous suggestions in this thread)
Player awards

Most paranoid spec
Spec farthest from the mark
Most believable spec that turned out untrue
Least believable spec that turned out true
Most erudite poster
Most 'Meta' player

PM Awards

Most professional grass roots arg
Most creative launch
Most creative conclusion
Notable first effort
Smoothest recovery from 'unexpected events'

Moderator Awards

Best player therapist
The Locky award (for the moderator needing it most often)

Game awards

Longest running arg
shortest 'complete' arg (i.e. non-implode, sufficiently satisfying conclusion)
Most popular arg (per category as judged by count of unique posters or similar -- not votes)
Most intriguing character
Widest range of media used
Groundbreaking use of media
Groundbreaking live event
Groundbreaking thing we never thought of before

[creatureattack]

we should move this thing forward

[konamouse]

Maybe this is something that can be reviewed, discussed, voted and then awarded at the next ARGFest?

Nothing is "Best", it's all just "Favorites".

[creatureattack]

i think the "best" vs. "favorite" point is excellent. even if we gave out multiple "favorites" in a catagory, that would be great. it seems so counter-intuitive to try and be too scientific and definitive when discussing things like grassroots games or clever player solves, so why not just go with the flow and use the opportunitiy to discuss and highlight, rather than deside.

[SirQuady]

I was hoping to not do this at ARGfest, because many people, myself included can't be there. Unless, of course, this becomes a yearly event, in which case i'm fine with it happening at ARGfest because i'll go to one soon, i hope!

As for the best vs. favourites topic. I agree that favourites is the way to go.

[imbri]

I don't see why announcing awards at ARGfest would take away from the announcement being made on-line. It's not an either/or proposition. And, in fact, if they were made together - then it's a way for non ARGfest goers to share an experience with those at ARGfest.

[konamouse]

We did a live netcast from ARGFest in NYC, can't see why we can't do a live feed from SF. I'm sure plenty of folks can offer webcams to work off laptops. And I'll bet dollars-to- donuts pie strudel that any hotel we pick as "headquarters" will have high speed access.

[Rolerbe]

My votes:

I really like the "Favorites" idea. Avoids many sticky wickets. 'Favorite Launches', Favorite player therapist, etc. Has a good feel and makes for simple survey oriented voting mechanics (accessed by login name, probably with a "joined on" filter to avoid ballot stuffing).

I also don't have any problem with the awards being anounced at argfest even though I'm unlikely to make to make it to one soon, as long as it would be simul-posted on ARGN.