Ideas for improving our year-end awards thingy

[Jaicee]

Machina said:

Mnementh said:

Was there really that much quarreling? Can't remember, although I followed the thread.

I am generally not a big fan of an elite group having more power to decide than the community, but it seems in this case the result is pretty close. Probably as staff is still part of the community. Also we have a purely community decided thingy.

I like your idea for two awards per category, I just see a problem in the definition of Indie and AAA. This will inevitably lead to discussion, but maybe we can agree on something.

Anyways, the genre categories for the games were often odd. That is due to the fact, that VGC don't want one game getting most of the awards. That is something I applaud. But the result of one game only fitting into one genre category made it difficult, as genre often is fluid. How about this: every game can be nominated for each fitting category, but it will be eliminated in all genre categories except the one it gained the most votes. That way not one game dominates all categories, but the community is also the one deciding via it's votes which category is the most fitting.

Yeah, I can see the definition of Indie and determining whether games x, y, and z qualify as one as being a point of heated debate. It's the main reason I'm not 100% sold on the category. Plus there'll probably be AAA games made by what are technically Indie developers, which would qualify, while an AA game made by a technically non-Indie company wouldn't qualify, and that I can see annoying people.

I hadn't thought about that idea for genre categories! It's actually pretty good. The main downside is that it will probably mean a lot of votes basically going to waste across a number of categories. It would certianly make my life easier though, because picking a single genre for all these games is a huge pain in the ass - each year I get so many 'but xxxx doesn't bleong in this genre' posts. Man, I try my best, but there are hundreds of games and most I haven't played myself, so I usually go by the Wikipedia description, which can often list 3+ genres :/

That does sound like a good suggestion on the genre picks!

Anyway, yeah, I know that exactly what constitutes and indie game would be the subject of debate, but most people have a basic concept of what an indie game is and subjectivity really only exists at the margins. So I wouldn't figure it would be any more than subjectivity or debate around the categorization of a given title as "indie" than there is surrounding any given title's genre classification anyway. Anyway, I would favor a broad definition of "indie" that includes both games that are self-published by their creators (the traditional definition) and also those that are published by outside companies or institutions that afford total creative freedom to their developers (a more expansive, modern definition that also makes sense in that the player's experience with the game is unaffected by the distinction). I would be in favor of defining everything from as pixelated as Kamiko to as 3D as The Medium or Hellblade as an indie game. Oh well, the idea has been rejected anyway, so whatever. Just wanted to clarify what my thoughts had been.