Oh... to the frustrated masses... let me mend your wounds... or not.
Okay folks, so I made the changes last night, and I am sticking with them.. however here are a few concerns that have popped up overnight...
- The four character category thing: Yes it does seem pretty limited, however every community will have up to 3 nominations to make per category. Now when I say EVERY community I mean EVERY community. So take your character, if you play them in 5 games you have 5 opportunities for your community to nominate you in that months round.
We thought of this for a few reasons, the first is to completely seperate ourselves from the other award communities out there. If people want to try to win Best "Character Name Here" then there are at least 5 other communities to do that in. The second is because we know that plots in games are ever evolving, and with our monthly format we are hoping to really put the spotlight on the plots that are currently going on in games, as well as individual characters that are making a difference in that game.
For example if you win Best Cordelia it feels good, however if you win...
"Best Lead Actress in a Buffy Casting for ... My Oh My My Migraines, in... Cordys_World" I think that would feel a lot more special to you. It would be based on the writing for that one scene, not based against someone elses Cordelia. Which I think is one thing that makes these award things a bit more complex. It is hard to judge one persons choice or direction with a character over another, let alone pick the better one. Most people read the post and pick the best writing. (at least that is what some have told me)
Some have raised eyebrows about the Songfic Category, and how it can be called Score.
This is actually more of a test category. We were trying to "adapt" as many of the actual categories to ones that fit the RPG-verse. I suppose it could be seen better as Best Song - Songfic post, but I think when you make a song-fic post you are using that song to "score" your scene, and make it have more impact. Now if this category takes off we will be taking suggestions for additional categories, like for cinematography, maybe it would be best scene with no dialogue, or best 3rd person scene, but that is just me rambling while I am writing.
This new competition style being equated to a popularity contest
Okay, so I realized this ahead of time. That people are going to be all, "oh that is from that game, and I don't like that game because this person plays in it." (Which already happens in all the award communities no matter what we try to do people are always biased)
Here are my thoughts on it.
First off, by not having actual character categories, I think a lot of the cliques will be broken up. You can't vote for yourself, but we are hoping that you will still vote in every category. Also since potentially we could have Andrew competing against Angel, people can't be shoved into their normal habits of voting for their friends since a lot of their friends will now be competing against each other in a more open format.
Also, we are going to be doing something a bit extreme. Peer votes will count as 50% of the vote. The other 50% of the vote will come from a panel of peers, sort of like a judging committee like for the real Oscars. I am making a panel of judges, along with the peer voting. There will be a panel of 20-30 (or more) "judges" that will have a weighted vote. We will be posting a post in Josscar_mods (today) for people to apply for the panel. They will have to list the games they are in, the games they mod, the players they play, and answer a few questions. I am hoping to get at least one person from every game to commit to being non-biased for their vote, and give their vote a weighted amount. Like their one vote = 2 votes. That way the peer voting still has an affect on the outcome, but the panel of peers will promise to be non-biased. Their names will be posted for everyone to see who is on the panel, and hopefully it will avoid the need for people to worry that just because someone is nominated that they won't win because all their friends will vote for them.
By having a panel of peers, I am hoping that this will help people realize that we are trying to make every effort to make this fair. We are not taking away your right to chose, in fact if you can prove to me that you are willing to commit to picking your choices through some actual method then I will make your vote count more.
In order to be approved for the panel, you will have to be approved by 3 out of the 5 mods, but I am hoping that the number of people on the panel will be larger than 20-30, because I actually have faith (imagine that) in the voters we have here at the Josscars.
Some people wondered why we abandoned the newest method:
I personally tried, really I did, but it was getting dismal. There were people posting their nominations, however it was not enough of some characters, and then when I would go to the samples from the posts some would be great, and have "meat" to them, and I could pick out a selection easily, while others were chats that were transcripted, or short taggers, and I just didn't think it could work taking 4 sentences from a persons scene and actually expect someone to vote on that. I also really don't like it when there are only 2 people competing charcter vs. character. When you lose at that.. it just makes you doubt something about your writing.
I honestly think that this method is something unique and hopefully will make this more about the games we are in instead of the characters we play.
Here is my vision....
A community starts an AIM Chat.. they call it... "Josscar Nominations".... the whole community (or as many as possible) start discussing their current plot, and how much they think that their Cordelia has helped the game right now, that her vision of the big slimey thing has given them all something to do, and then... whats that.. someone loved that Warren brought her the aspirin and the cool clothe to put on her head? Oh! Yes.. I loved that scene too... oh that broke my heart when she slapped him...
Then the community as a whole is making the nominations, the community as a whole is saying look at our writers we are proud of them. This way the nomination itself means something... instead of friends nominating each other all over the place.
Oh, and if the AIM chat doesn't work a thread in the OOC works just as well.... ;)
I really hope that you all give this a try. I know it must seem frustrating that things changed so suddenly here, but I was about to choke if I saw another category for Best Buffy...
[eta] comments NOT screened here...
- The four character category thing: Yes it does seem pretty limited, however every community will have up to 3 nominations to make per category. Now when I say EVERY community I mean EVERY community. So take your character, if you play them in 5 games you have 5 opportunities for your community to nominate you in that months round.
We thought of this for a few reasons, the first is to completely seperate ourselves from the other award communities out there. If people want to try to win Best "Character Name Here" then there are at least 5 other communities to do that in. The second is because we know that plots in games are ever evolving, and with our monthly format we are hoping to really put the spotlight on the plots that are currently going on in games, as well as individual characters that are making a difference in that game.
For example if you win Best Cordelia it feels good, however if you win...
"Best Lead Actress in a Buffy Casting for ... My Oh My My Migraines, in... Cordys_World" I think that would feel a lot more special to you. It would be based on the writing for that one scene, not based against someone elses Cordelia. Which I think is one thing that makes these award things a bit more complex. It is hard to judge one persons choice or direction with a character over another, let alone pick the better one. Most people read the post and pick the best writing. (at least that is what some have told me)
Some have raised eyebrows about the Songfic Category, and how it can be called Score.
This is actually more of a test category. We were trying to "adapt" as many of the actual categories to ones that fit the RPG-verse. I suppose it could be seen better as Best Song - Songfic post, but I think when you make a song-fic post you are using that song to "score" your scene, and make it have more impact. Now if this category takes off we will be taking suggestions for additional categories, like for cinematography, maybe it would be best scene with no dialogue, or best 3rd person scene, but that is just me rambling while I am writing.
This new competition style being equated to a popularity contest
Okay, so I realized this ahead of time. That people are going to be all, "oh that is from that game, and I don't like that game because this person plays in it." (Which already happens in all the award communities no matter what we try to do people are always biased)
Here are my thoughts on it.
First off, by not having actual character categories, I think a lot of the cliques will be broken up. You can't vote for yourself, but we are hoping that you will still vote in every category. Also since potentially we could have Andrew competing against Angel, people can't be shoved into their normal habits of voting for their friends since a lot of their friends will now be competing against each other in a more open format.
Also, we are going to be doing something a bit extreme. Peer votes will count as 50% of the vote. The other 50% of the vote will come from a panel of peers, sort of like a judging committee like for the real Oscars. I am making a panel of judges, along with the peer voting. There will be a panel of 20-30 (or more) "judges" that will have a weighted vote. We will be posting a post in Josscar_mods (today) for people to apply for the panel. They will have to list the games they are in, the games they mod, the players they play, and answer a few questions. I am hoping to get at least one person from every game to commit to being non-biased for their vote, and give their vote a weighted amount. Like their one vote = 2 votes. That way the peer voting still has an affect on the outcome, but the panel of peers will promise to be non-biased. Their names will be posted for everyone to see who is on the panel, and hopefully it will avoid the need for people to worry that just because someone is nominated that they won't win because all their friends will vote for them.
By having a panel of peers, I am hoping that this will help people realize that we are trying to make every effort to make this fair. We are not taking away your right to chose, in fact if you can prove to me that you are willing to commit to picking your choices through some actual method then I will make your vote count more.
In order to be approved for the panel, you will have to be approved by 3 out of the 5 mods, but I am hoping that the number of people on the panel will be larger than 20-30, because I actually have faith (imagine that) in the voters we have here at the Josscars.
Some people wondered why we abandoned the newest method:
I personally tried, really I did, but it was getting dismal. There were people posting their nominations, however it was not enough of some characters, and then when I would go to the samples from the posts some would be great, and have "meat" to them, and I could pick out a selection easily, while others were chats that were transcripted, or short taggers, and I just didn't think it could work taking 4 sentences from a persons scene and actually expect someone to vote on that. I also really don't like it when there are only 2 people competing charcter vs. character. When you lose at that.. it just makes you doubt something about your writing.
I honestly think that this method is something unique and hopefully will make this more about the games we are in instead of the characters we play.
Here is my vision....
A community starts an AIM Chat.. they call it... "Josscar Nominations".... the whole community (or as many as possible) start discussing their current plot, and how much they think that their Cordelia has helped the game right now, that her vision of the big slimey thing has given them all something to do, and then... whats that.. someone loved that Warren brought her the aspirin and the cool clothe to put on her head? Oh! Yes.. I loved that scene too... oh that broke my heart when she slapped him...
Then the community as a whole is making the nominations, the community as a whole is saying look at our writers we are proud of them. This way the nomination itself means something... instead of friends nominating each other all over the place.
Oh, and if the AIM chat doesn't work a thread in the OOC works just as well.... ;)
I really hope that you all give this a try. I know it must seem frustrating that things changed so suddenly here, but I was about to choke if I saw another category for Best Buffy...
[eta] comments NOT screened here...