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Discussion for 2014 year end awards and ACAs

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Avindian

Avindian

People's Commissar of the Navy
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Jan 3, 2010
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The Q3 ACAs are over now, but a TsAAR's work is never done.

I'm eager to hear any and all feedback you might have, but there are a couple of things I'd like to point out in particular.

First, I'm considering doing weighted voting for the Q4 ACAs in an effort to break up the number of ties. Each ballot would be ranked, with the #1 entry earning four points, #2 earning three points, #3 earning two points, and #4 earning one point.

Second, regarding the Year End Awards, we'll be doing the EUIV OscAARs, the CrusadAAR's Chalice, the Iron HeAARt, the Darkest HeAARt, and the VictAARian Cross, as in the past. We'll also continue our new awards, for NewcomAAR of the YeAAR and WritAAR of the Year.

I definitely want to do a year end award for Best intAARactive AAR this year. I know we've discussed category awAARds (for gameplay, narrative, and possibly comedy), but I'm hesitant on those without clear definitions of what those categories mean.

I appreciate your thoughts in advance!
 
I for one am happy to see the increase to the other category.
 
Avindian said:
First, I'm considering doing weighted voting for the Q4 ACAs in an effort to break up the number of ties. Each ballot would be ranked, with the #1 entry earning four points, #2 earning three points, #3 earning two points, and #4 earning one point.
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Why penalise those who vote for multiple AARs and reward those who only vote for one? Weighted voting means that the opinion of people who read a wide variety of AARs in any given fora and vote accordingly is worth less than people who might've read only one and voted accordingly. I don't think that's fair.
 
Tanzhang (譚張) said:
Why penalise those who vote for multiple AARs and reward those who only vote for one? Weighted voting means that the opinion of people who read a wide variety of AARs in any given fora and vote accordingly is worth less than people who might've read only one and voted accordingly. I don't think that's fair.
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That's a good point, and one that I hadn't considered.
 
I can't say I'm too enamoured with the idea of weighted voting, either. On top of Tanzhang's points, one of the great things about the ACAs, for me, is that their nature is reasonably egalitarian – i.e., one can celebrate simply liking an AAR rather than having to worry about which is more deserving. Frankly, I'd be loth to submit a ranked ballot purely because I'd feel as if I were saying to an author: "yes, I like your AAR, but I feel that X author's work is more deserving of my four points", which I wouldn't do.

It would probably also make voting somewhat more drawn out for me, as I'd have to be sure that I had got my ballot right, and that I wouldn't feel I'd dished out my points incorrectly a few days down the line. With the current system, this isn't something I have to worry about as my reading patterns mean that I can generally just support all of the AARs I read – something which also means that I can vote quickly and with little thought (bad as that sounds.)

I for one don't see ties as too great a problem. The ACAs are, after all, all about AARlanders' favourite AARs. If some are equally well supported, then I don't think we should be aiming to do something to change that. At the very least, if we do want to definitely decide ties, then I'd rather it were via some way other than a quirk of the voting system. :)
 
I don't really have a problem with ties either, even really ridiculous eleven-way ones. The best and fairest way to reduce ties is to increase participation IMO.
 
Tanzhang (譚張) said:
I don't really have a problem with ties either, even really ridiculous eleven-way ones. The best and fairest way to reduce ties is to increase participation IMO.
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Any ideas on that front?
 
Avindian said:
Any ideas on that front?
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God no. Any Ideas I may have had I would have already shared and possibly implemented the previous twenty times I've been asked that question. :p
 
What if we just PM everyone on the forum, all at once, asking them all to vote in the ACAs? Or, if that is too ambitious, we just PM the active users.
 
Dr.Livingstone said:
What if we just PM everyone on the forum, all at once, asking them all to vote in the ACAs? Or, if that is too ambitious, we just PM the active users.
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Gen M. used to do that rather often; Tanzhang was not amused.
 
PMing people to bug them to vote is a way to increase voting, but I'd rather not do it because it's incredibly irritating to most people.
 
Mr. Capiatlist said:
Avindian and I can dress up in neat, matching outfits and go door to door. :p
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If you want to pay for it with your rich engineer's salary, I'm all for it. ;)
 
Avindian said:
Any ideas on that front?
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AARlands needs a revival, better AARs, more comments, more voters... Ck2 and Eu4 AARs are in my opinion pale newer versions of what the best CK and Eu3 AARs once were. But that is just my opinion. Which of the new AARs is the Timelines of our era, and which one Roma AARisen? pwnstars crazy conquests, Rensslaers ever lasting AARs, Alfred Packets Crovan series, trashing mads stunning graphics, Knut Knytling, Kurtish petiful kraziness, Rembles insane 1944 AARs...

Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy, but I also hope that AARland will outdo its Golden Age somewhere in the future.
 
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Apologies Avindian for not voting this time around...

Unfortunately I have no idea how to increase turnout
 
Or, you know, you could actually write your own AAR, Enewald. :p
 
Tanzhang (譚張) said:
Or, you know, you could actually write your own AAR, Enewald. :p
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Anything I write eventually turns into a Libertarian Manifesto, so no point in even trying to write an AAR of some game when it is bound to go off the rails fast.
And having read too many high quality AARs, I just would never fit into the shoes of the true masters of writing.

But seriously, what happened to the grand dramas and the long sagas?
 
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Enewald said:
Anything I write eventually turns into a Libertarian Manifesto, so no point in even trying to write an AAR of some game when it is bound to go off the rails fast.
And having read too many high quality AARs, I just would never fit into the shoes of the true masters of writing.

But seriously, what happened to the grand dramas and the long sagas?
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There are still some dramas. I especially enjoy Teivel's "One and Indivisible" AAR. My hope is that with the coming of HOI4 we may see an influx of new writers to the forums.
 
Enewald said:
Anything I write eventually turns into a Libertarian Manifesto, so no point in even trying to write an AAR of some game when it is bound to go off the rails fast.
And having read too many high quality AARs, I just would never fit into the shoes of the true masters of writing.

But seriously, what happened to the grand dramas and the long sagas?
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I think a lot of it comes down to patience. But there are long sagas out there, of course nothing to rival the old ones but there are some floating about.
 
So... besides Enewald remarking/whining about how things were so much better in the Good Old DaysTM, I think AARland is just fine where quality is concerned. Victoria II and CKII regularly produce great AARS, as does HOI3. I'm sure the EUs have... nice things, I guess. I'm more or less a foreigner to those parts. I think a major part of making sure ACAs go off well is making sure that authors get in the mix. If those who write AARs get more involved in plugging the ACAs, we might see more participation.

As for the end of the year awards... I really want to see The Forgotten (Rome, Sengoku, March of the Eagles et al.) either get their own awards, preferably, or one overall award such as the "Other" section for the ACAs. Having become an avid fan of MotE and having in the past no small affection for Rome, I think it is quite honestly a shame that they are left to rot in such a fashion.
 
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