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AARland Choice AwAARds 2006 Q2 Final Round

  • Empire of Fu Manchu by The Yogi

    Votes: 18 27,3%
  • The Tower of Fear by MacRaith

    Votes: 9 13,6%
  • Fire Warms the Northern Lands by Rensslaer

    Votes: 16 24,2%
  • The Eagles of Avalon by Mettermrck

    Votes: 23 34,8%

  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .
anonymous4401 said:
The race is pretty close!
Truly incredible! I shouldn't be doing so well. :p But thank you to those who are supporting Fire Warms!

I haven't made my choice yet... still reading.

Rensslaer
 
EDIT: And we have Fire Warms the Northern Land neck to neck with EOFM and Eagles of Avalon in close pursuit!

Rensslaer said:
Truly incredible! I shouldn't be doing so well. :p
And why the Hell not?! :rolleyes: I might be partial to novel-style narratives, but I can still recognise a Great AAR when I see one and yours is it! ;)
 
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WOW: as of right now we have a 3 way tie between The Eagles of Avalon, Fu Manchu, and Fire Warms the Northern Lands. :wacko:
 
Fulcrumvale said:
WOW: as of right now we have a 3 way tie between The Eagles of Avalon, Fu Manchu, and Fire Warms the Northern Lands. :wacko:
Maybe if we tie, we can ALL take the award -- We'll call it the "Triple Crown"! :p

(for non-Americans, in the USA the Triple Crown is given to a horse that wins three pre-eminent horse-races)

By rights, Tower of Fear should be doing better... I'm still reading through it, like the others, but it's very well written, and conceived. I really like it! And it's well-integrated with more familiar myths.

I think, perhaps, there are not as many CKers around this Gen. Disc. Board, as has been noted before.

Rensslaer
 
Rensslaer said:
I think, perhaps, there are not as many CKers around this Gen. Disc. Board, as has been noted before.

Rensslaer
That might be the depressing truth, because there has to be some explanation. CK is every bit as well written as the other candidates. One would think that the game "of origin" so to speak should not matter that much.
 
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Indeed, and I told everyone to read all four AARs before making their decision! If some haven't been doing that, then it's entirely possible that that is the reason why Tower of Fear is so behind the rest...
 
Well that and the other authors being more well known both inside and outside of their respective games I'd presume.
 
coz1 said:
Well that and the other authors being more well known both inside and outside of their respective games I'd presume.

Although CK readership being less, I think this particularly knocks it on the head. Renss, although he only writes in one forum, cross-posts pretty much everywhere. Mett writes in two forums. The Yogi also writes in two forums, and his HoI AAR will also draw upon that large crowd. By comparison MacRaith is rather isolated, but also, of course, he has been absent for a while and his AAR thus languishes, while Fire Warms is now completed, and the others are being updated.

All in all the only true surprise thus far is that there remains stiff competition between three of the entrants.
 
The point was that the popularity and well-knownness of the author should ideally have not mattered at all, and that the four works were to be held directly against each other. Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...
 
anonymous4401 said:
The point was that the popularity and well-knownness of the author should ideally have not mattered at all, and that the four works were to be held directly against each other. Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...
I think this is one of the limitations of a final round for something like this. Ultimately, I don't know if finding a winner will tell us anything more than we already knew -- tremendous talent in each forum. ;)

Rensslaer
 
Rensslaer said:
I think this is one of the limitations of a final round for something like this. Ultimately, I don't know if finding a winner will tell us anything more than we already knew -- tremendous talent in each forum. ;)

Rensslaer

Well, on the plus side, it's oft been said that the following of the HOI2 forum dwarfs that of the others, and yet the Victoria and EU2 AARs have as many votes (or more) than the HOI2 AAR, so maybe it's just CK that has a malus.
 
The Yogi said:
Well, on the plus side, it's oft been said that the following of the HOI2 forum dwarfs that of the others, and yet the Victoria and EU2 AARs have as many votes (or more) than the HOI2 AAR, so maybe it's just CK that has a malus.
Actually, I think all four of us have a deep and loyal following.

I think it would be a far more fascinating exercise to review the votes of those who came in truly uncommitted! :)

As for MacRaith, I know he has quite a following, too. His story has received many votes from CKers in the earlier round. I just think not as many CKers are showing up here. Probably because he's not around (apparently) to encourage people to come vote.

Rensslaer
 
I think that's basically it.

I'm not sure where I read it...it may have been earlier on this thread...but I distinctly remember someone saying they'd considered 'Tower', but didn't like that it was effectively on hold.

Fair or not, that affects votes. I know when coz asked for nominations for the 2003 EU2 OscAARs, I paid much closer attention to authors I knew were active. We can probably agree that's not the intent of the award, but a part of me wanted to be sure the author was around to appreciate and enjoy his new prize.

I think CK DOES have a loyal following. I do think part of it may be that CK is so unlike the other members of the 'big 4.' EU2 and Vicky have a lot in common. Less so between EU2 and HOI2 (Vicky and HOI2 have more in common I think), but at least the three of us are all nation-level strategic games.

CK is an RPG. One of the major play factors is keeping an eye on your family, watching their traits develop, etc. History dies pretty quickly and horribly in that game, whereas in EU2/Vicky/HOI2 history at least puts up a bit of a fight.

Don't get me wrong: I LOVE CK. But it is different, and though again it really shouldn't matter....it does. People tend to vote for what makes them comfortable.

Instead of being concerned about possible inequities that are, frankly, part of human nature and cannot be weeded out without doing far more harm to the voting procedure.....I think we should be VERY pleased we have a three-way dogfight going here. It shows the immense popularity and viability of all three genres, and certainly hints that people ARE leaving their home 'game' to take a good look around.
 
I DO appreciate the value of this -- that it seems to be getting folks (including myself) to spend a great deal more time reading these long and involved stories!

I've been meaning to read all of Avalon for quite some time, but was doing a poor job of more than poking in to see if I could catch on to what was up.

Interestingly, I would not likely have fallen into the Fu Manchu story nearly so easily -- I've been a follower of Yogi's Eagle and Lion, and had meant to read Iron Crosses, etc., but had never seriously considered Fu Manchu (perhaps because it's not as serious, and I tend to prefer serious works). But now I find that Fu Manchu is right down my alley -- I love tributes to the old classic pop culture. If I hadn't first been introduced to it by The Yogi's character poll, I'd have first found it now! Hopefully I'm not the only one so pleasantly surprised.

And I'm finding that I like Tower of Fear more and more as I read it. It's a masterful work of art. Perhaps I'll post more on this in the spinoff thread.

Rensslaer

p.s. And I'm finding the hidden advantage of having my AAR complete... I have time to read other stuff!!! :D
 
CatKnight said:
I think CK DOES have a loyal following

It does, the problem is, based on what you posted here, for whatever reason CK does not have as big a following as the other games. The active CK AAR there with the most views has about 33,000 views. This is dwarfed by HOI AARs and to a lesser degree EU and Vicky AARs.

I started my CK AAR about two months ago has about 2,800 views now. Deo Vindice: A CSA AAR by RossN was started two weeks ago and has about 2,000 views already. Getting that many people reading my AAR in that space of time would make me very happy, but only a few writers in the CK subforum can get that kind of following. (Don't worry RossN, I am just using you as an example. Don't take offence. I am enjoying the AAR, by the way.)

Knud Knytling, Prince of Denmark seems to be one of those AARs that draws people from other forums. I see people posting there that you usualy posting in any other CK AARs. Some people also come over to read CK AARs if they see an author they particularly like writing a CK AAR. Most of these people don't seem to leave these threds to read and post in the other AARs, though.

Back in June, Kasakka posted in a dead CK AAR here. Most people are probably like him before he read the AAR, not even considering reading CK AARs. More people ought to check us CK WritARRs out, you might be pleasantly surprised.
 
It seems VJs advertisment in the Eagles thread has paid off...good going, Mett!
 
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Eagles seems to be pulling ahead. I'm still reading Eagles, by the way.
 
I must say that all of the AAR's here are great, but for me it came down to The Eagles of Avalon, and Fire Warms the Northern Lands. It was a very hard desicion but I picked Fire Warms the Northern Lands because of all the work Rennsaler put into it. The Eagles of Avalon was great so I would have voted for it if Fire Warms the Northern Lands wasn't here.
 
Well, I finally found this one. Unfortunately, I love all four AARs, and so, this was a difficult choice. :(

And so, I must go with Tower of Fear, as the thought of a horror AAR on a Paradox game is brilliant. That was the tiebreaker. All four AARs were excellent, and I only wish I had four votes to spread between them. Great work The Yogi, MacRaith, Rensslaer, and Mettermrck! :)