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I am shocked - shocked! - that an award founded by James Wallis turns out to be astonishingly clueless and disorganised. But more shocked to learn that the Ennies are auctioning off the freebie reviewer copies they got donated (the thread by Jessica Price that Wallis links to is worth reading). Warthur fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 4, 2020 |
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Aug 4, 2020 16:13
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I've said this elsewhere, but the DJAs have, over time, been a secret club of one's peers, to being an open secret you could get on the guest list of by asking James on Google+, to being the all-comers, pre-Gencon, post-booth setup Wednesday night freelancer networking party. The actual award takes up less and less of the night; sometimes it's hard to get the party to be quiet for a couple of minutes so that the Perspex Pyramid can get handed over to the next lucky abstract concept. If I were to put a finger on when it went from an Inside-Baseball recognition nod from one's peers to A Real Serious Award, it'd be when the Ennies became a ballot-stuffed joke. For every action... Dave Brookshaw fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Aug 4, 2020 |
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Aug 4, 2020 17:48
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Warthur posted:I am shocked - shocked! - that an award founded by James Wallis turns out to be astonishingly clueless and disorganised. They say they do that, it’s in their rules that they do that with their archival copy and any the judges feel,like donating to the auction. The real issue is that the review copies are unopened, and their auction stuff is buried deep in FAQs and bylaws.
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Aug 4, 2020 19:48
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That Old Tree posted:The DJA was even more of a shitshow behind the scenes. This is frustrating, why is this industry so full of people who are great at making games but utter poo poo at basically everything else. Like if you suck at running an awards show then fuckin bring in someone who is good there's probably a lot of people out there who can do it.
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Aug 4, 2020 20:14
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That would require paying someone to put on the awards show, though.
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Aug 4, 2020 20:56
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Tsilkani posted:That would require paying someone to put on the awards show, though. Gen Con used to do it, but then decided to make the Ennies "official."
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Aug 4, 2020 22:09
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Fifteen haggard serfs dressed in rags stand in the middle of a mud-soaked village commons in a downpour, staring at one another morosely. "This social club sucks" says one. The others nod sagely.
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Aug 4, 2020 22:13
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Deleting for the moment, pending clarification
Eastmabl fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Aug 4, 2020 |
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Aug 4, 2020 22:52
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Tsilkani posted:That would require paying someone to put on the awards show, though. Just fund it by selling the new-in-box unopened games that you get sent free to review that your friends didn't make.
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Aug 4, 2020 23:48
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Elendil004 posted:Just fund it by selling the new-in-box unopened games that you get sent free to review that your friends didn't make. I would hope if the show is going to be any good, they could maybe not extort all the nominees for free games.
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Aug 5, 2020 04:13
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dwarf74 posted:Yeah, the only reason the Ennies are even a thing is because nobody else has bothered. There's the Origins/Gama awards Voted on by the people at the convention Yeah, let's go with no one else having bothered, it's easier than trying to explain.
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Aug 5, 2020 16:30
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PST posted:There's the Origins/Gama awards Or it could be we're talking about RPG-focused awards, and the Origins are a general games award, with RPGs getting two categories only? Best roleplaying game and best supplement is doing a disservice to the variety of output the industry makes, and it almost always going to end with indie publishers getting edged out in favor of the big boys. The only winner in the past 10 years that wasn't a big name or licensed property was something called Arcanis.
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Aug 5, 2020 16:40
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Elendil004 posted:why is this industry so full of people who are great at making games let's not say things we don't mean
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Aug 5, 2020 17:21
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Arivia posted:I’m going to ask a stupid question because I think I’m missing something really obvious. The poo poo Khelil went through is horrible but I’m not seeing how it’s racist? Like he keeps mentioning that it’s motivated by white privilege and racism and I’m not seeing how this weird idea McElroy has of Khelil criticizing OPP on Twitter gets turned into that. Was it a bunch of criticism of bad racialized portrayals in OPP products? Racist internal politics? It's all about context. Maybe there's no other, maybe there's some things he missed out, subtle things he didn't mention that still led into him feeling it. It's a super complicated subject. Like, for context. McElroy has a history of sexual harassment. That has nothing to do with this but does speak to him being a lovely person. Freelancers have criticised Dawkins and McElroy before for caring more about/paying more attention to popularity than product (let's be honest, some names sell more books, but none of these people get their name on the cover so...). Could that also be down to racism, or misogyny or just sales factor or star-loving? It's, again, a complicated subject. It's entirely possible that yes McElroy (and by extent Dawkins) poo poo on this writer because they dared to complain about the rumour that OPP would re-hire McFarland (which is not a new idea, it's been around for years). And that it had nothing to do with racism. Or that the reason they went extra-hard on criticising this writer was because of racism. There's not enough context, no actual quoted emails to pick apart etc. EDIT: Ohh, and considering what products and subjects he was being considered to be hired for. I forgot that, yeah... However, whether it was racist or not, there was a whole lot of unprofessionalism going on throughout the company, as evidenced by Rich Thomas' defence which was riddled with it. I mean to put into context, Rich Thomas, who is definitely on the list of 'should never speak to customers' spent more words on this, than he did the sexual harassment allegations about the same Matt McElroy by a former staff member. PST fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Aug 5, 2020 |
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Aug 5, 2020 18:14
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In good news, apparently: https://twitter.com/schwalb_ent/status/1291045597093466114?s=19 I had no idea this was even a discussion, but I'm glad they listened. Of course, you can scroll down to see a good half of the responses bemoaning
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Aug 6, 2020 01:57
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Twitter is broken for me, does he explain why the change?
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Aug 6, 2020 02:30
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moths posted:Twitter is broken for me, does he explain why the change? I presume because “mad” is no longer considered broadly okay.
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Aug 6, 2020 02:51
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Rand Brittain posted:I presume because “mad” is no longer considered broadly okay. Specifically this, but also generally because equating "mentally ill" with "evil" has always been questionable. It's also kind of a generic, crap title.
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Aug 6, 2020 02:55
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moths posted:Twitter is broken for me, does he explain why the change? Someone mentioned that the wizard was specifically angry, not mad.
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Aug 6, 2020 03:19
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to be fair I'd likely ignore 'shadow of the mad wizard' as just some generic D&D stuff, but if I saw 'shadow of the pissed off wizard' I'd consider buying it. 'why are we going in this tower full of traps and monsters?' 'this wizard's so fuckin angry at the town, he keeps just incoherently lobbing spells at us, honestly it's not even that bad it just sucks'
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Aug 6, 2020 03:50
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It's definitely a dumb title, but I figured it had to be a callback to Waterdeep. Which got a lot less subtle when 5e beat him to the punch and redid it. Now his system is a reference to an in-print competitor's module, which he can't admit without acknowledging its roots. E: hard agree that angry wizards are way more interesting. There's an automatic hook, ie: What's got the Seething Sorcerer so pissed off this time? moths fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Aug 6, 2020 |
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Aug 6, 2020 03:57
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moths posted:It's definitely a dumb title, but I figured it had to be a callback to Waterdeep. Age of the Rage Mage
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Aug 6, 2020 04:05
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Yeah the "Mad Wizard" was already mentioned in one of the supplements for Shadow of the Demon Lord, with artwork that's... literally Rob smoking a cigar while in a magical bubble. I personally think the name change wasn't necessary, and am now unsure of what exactly he'll change it to. The WIP name was Free Companies of the Four Towers.
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Aug 6, 2020 04:07
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Expostulations of the Irate Thaumaturge
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Aug 6, 2020 04:20
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Rob Schwalb and Schwalb Entertainment Present: That loving Wizard.
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Aug 6, 2020 04:41
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Wizards: No Sense of Right and Wrong
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Aug 6, 2020 05:21
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Shadow of the Whizzard: Dare you enter my magical realm?
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Aug 6, 2020 09:02
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Shadow of the Poop: ahahahaha poop
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Aug 6, 2020 11:42
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Shadow of the
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Aug 6, 2020 12:18
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Ultiville posted:Age of the Rage Mage I needed this laugh today.
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Aug 6, 2020 13:47
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"Shadow of the Mad Wizard" is a really boring and unappealing name and tbh I initially assumed that was why he decided to change it
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Aug 6, 2020 14:39
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Ultiville posted:Age of the Rage Mage Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards oh wait
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Aug 6, 2020 16:15
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Shadow of the Demon Lord 2: FINE I'll take out all the poop stuff ARE YOU HAPPY
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Aug 6, 2020 16:25
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Just Jerkin' It: A Wizards Tale.
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Aug 6, 2020 16:28
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My incredibly tall tower of magic and wizardry is getting a lot of questions already answered by my incredibly tall tower of magic and wizardry.
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Aug 6, 2020 16:43
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"Shadow of the Rad Wizard" is right there.
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Aug 6, 2020 16:53
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If you want an Actual Play that isn't rppr or a D&D game, Occultists Anonymous is the least MageChat Mage: the Awakening game I've seen.
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Aug 6, 2020 17:39
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If the Wizard Sees His Shadow the Game Won't Come Out for Another Six Months
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Aug 6, 2020 22:17
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I had a minor (but not actually happy) update on getting my group to switch systems. My DM and I were in agreement and were discussing new systems and figured we'd discuss it with the whole rest of the group and they'd be fine with it. That ended up... not happening. I presented my evidence, went over the history of issues, my own discomfort, and then it was everyone else in the group (not the DM) defending D&D because of it's personal meaning and that it was important to show up in those spaces as POC, women, etc (it's a diverse group). The DM ended up not saying much of anything and we decided to put it up to a vote, and my argument lost. After our poll closed for it, I posted a notice saying that I understood everyone's POV but that I couldn't continue to play a WotC related product, so I was leaving the group. The DM asked if I'd be around for other system one shots, and I said sure but I'm still pretty crushed over it (I went HARD on going over the whole history of how this has been building up and this isn't just one or two events), so I'm not feeling much of it at all anymore.  I know a lot of folks here have said people don't want to switch off D&D and now I experienced it first hand. I really hadn't thought it was as ingrained as it was. Market share is a helluva thing, but maybe I'm being cynical and missing the magic connection D&D has for some folks
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Aug 10, 2020 04:28
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That sounds like a really lovely experience, and I'm sorry you went through it.
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