Hey folks!
Before I announce the next winner I want to chat for a post about this award and what it means...and what it costs.
Personally I've enjoyed watching the award passed from veteran to newcomer and back to veteran, recognizing novelizations as well as history texts, humor as well as hard core game play. I think it speaks well of the variety of tastes and wonderful talent to be found AARing all of Paradox's games. I want to thank the readers and writers who's keep this thread going, helped point out AARs that deserve attention, and ..sure.. made these hard working authors feel a little more secure in their work.
There's a price to an award like this, though. If I understand correctly, the original Showcase..indeed, all of the older awards.. faded because interest waned and those administering the awards simply ran out of time or tired of the effort. Even an award that's supposed to run itself....takes a lot of effort when it fails. Waiting. PMs. Messages in games. More waiting. And, in three cases so far it came to naught, once because an author 'didn't have time.'
Perhaps that's not surprising - I have it on good authority that glitches happen ... and if there's no response to an award, then one can certainly wonder if it's fulfilling its purpose .... or if AARland has slipped to the point where multiple awards are no longer viable.
I don't know. I have no answers, and the only question I have is whether this award really does serve a purpose, or if it's taking up space. I do know one way to find out, and that's to scale back my own efforts and see if we fly...or sink. I'll keep updating the front page, but otherwise I'll watch.
An award winner has a responsibility to pick a successor. It took me five minutes to find one in a game I never check, that's reasonable. A reader really should hit 'reply' and congratulate him/her.
Is it fair that this is thrust on us, innocent bystanders who happened across the thread or got nominated without warning? Maybe not.... But being there for your fellow writers isn't about fairness, it's about what's right.
Now then, before we go too far down this path....I do want to repeat my congratulations to the past winners. If you're new to this thread, feel free to check page 1 for a list with links. I also want to thank the readers who made this Showcase work.
Play on!
