And that is a wrap, folks! The 2018 Yearly AAR Year-end AwAARds are complete and we have our full list of winners. If you have somehow missed the announcement threads, please check the first post of this thread which lists them and will give you links to both these works and the announcement of each. I was quite pleased to find that we had no repeat winners this year (although
@Gamer_1745 won the LP category again, it was for a different AAR.) I think that is a good sign of forum health and diversity of opinion. As well, the appreciation was fairly well spread around between the various games. Really only Vickie 2 was shut out (for possible reasons I will mention below.) HoI and CK were certainly well represented, but we saw wins for EU4 and Stellaris included. I think this also shows that one subforum does not necessarily have a lock on AARs even if CK2 seems more active at times.
The voting numbers were slightly lower than last year which is a little disappointing. I'm not quite sure how to rectify this as I put stickies in each of the major games that are active and bumped them a few times throughout the process. As well, I ran the vote for longer than originally planned so we might get a large enough sample size to make an effect. CK and HoI saw plenty of voters as well as fans of Stellaris, however few EU and Vic players/writers ventured over to add their voice which I believe does skew the vote a bit. I'd love to raise awareness of this by next year's contest somehow. I know we discussed possibly doing the reveal in the podcast but the timing just did not work. We will certainly discuss it the next time we meet but then many months will go by so who knows if it will remain in people's mind. I would encourage all, the next time, to please let your readers know about it and give them a link. Every eye helps as that means another potential voter and the larger the vote, the more accurate the result. And it is not campaigning if you simply ask them to vote. I always say - you don't have to vote for mine, but please vote.
That said, the sheer number of works suggested and nominated remain astounding. For AAR of the year, 52 different AARs were mentioned! For most other categories as well, a good many AARs were listed which means that we continue to have a thriving community for writAARs and the readAARs who love them. Individuals who worked on multiple AARs throughout the year saw most if not all of them mentioned, which may have helped split their vote at times, but even there they found some reward when it came time to vote for WritAAR of the Year -
@Bullfilter won it,
@Eurasia placed a strong 3rd and
@mackwolfe showed a very strong placement. These are just a few.
Of the categories that did not find a heavy vote - MP/Interactive and Let's Play - while we did find winners here, the lack of voters was somewhat telling. I include them because I consider them as worthy as any other attempt at creating an AAR (and I know that a certain subsection enjoys them quite a lot) but if people are skipping that category then we likely need to find a different way to do it. I don't want to take them out of the consideration so I can only think of a couple of ways going forward:
- combine them into one category
or
- create some "other" category
A suggestion was made to offer a brief idea of what each category is looking at and while definitions are often different between each member, I will do that the next time around. However, if LPers (for example) are not getting into the fun of the vote, I don't see how it will improve that number. And with the 2nd option of the above, I see a lot of hybrid AARs possible getting voted on which is really what AAR of the Year represents. I certainly will appreciate and consider any suggestions offered as to how to improve this.
More to that, I am curious if there are any other categories that we might miss? I sometimes think a Fan of the Year might be good, but then we all know that
@stnylan will win it every year so we might as well crown him now and do away with the formalities.
On a personal note, I hope that no one is bothered or disconcerted that twice now I am found myself winner in these awAARds. Having won writAAR last year and a few in this year's vote, it is always a bit uncomfortable when the result comes out that way because I started this to help foster community spirit and reward deserving AARs from all over (and in truth, I would still like an award for completed AARs as we used to do because it is such an achievement.) I promise you that I take the accounting for this very seriously and hope that I have developed the best way to consider the nominations. That said, I am very receptive if anyone has a better idea of how to do it. I want it fair at all times with each nomination given full worth. Is six slots too many? I'd ask if not enough, but I cannot handle more than that in the counting. It takes a while to tally (and especially when I have to go search for the link...I plead again, please provide the link!
)
Overall I think this year has been a success. I believe the process of going back and looking for and at works done throughout the year rewarding for both voter and nominee alike. Whether completed or ongoing (even if just brief), having an AAR mentioned here hopefully makes one feel invited and appreciated which is really the true goal. The (non-existent) statue is just something to put on a shelf.
As I have said throughout the reveal process, I want to thank everyone that took the time to offer their vote and help make this a thing worth doing every year. Traditions must start somewhere and 2 years in...not bad at all. I look forward to our 3rd annual "ceremony" so start keeping an eye on works you might wish to include come next year. Congratulations to all the winners and everyone mentioned and once again...well done, AARland!
