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AARlander
Jun 12, 2003
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Welcome to the AARland Choice AwAARds! This is the first AARland Choice AwAARds, well, ever, so it will be restricted only to the Vicky forums.

What AARe the AARland Choice AwAARds, you AARsk? Well, it is an awAARd system that is voted upon by the public, i.e. you, that occupies a spot below the OscAAR/ReadAAR's Choice AwAARd/VictAARian Cross and...well...nothing, because the OscAARs/ReadAAR's Choice AwAARds/VictAARian Crosses are the only voted-upon awAARd system. This AARland Choice AwAARd will differ from those due to its lack of nomination process, and its blinding regularity. If all goes as planned, an AARland Choice AwAARds will be held at the beginning of every quarter of the year. Oct 1 is the beginning of the 4th Quarter of 2005.

The voting will last until Oct 31, when the votes will be tallied and a winner declared in each category. Voting can be either public, by posting your vote in this very thread, or private, by sending a PM to me with your vote. One poster, one vote.

The categories to vote upon are:

Best AAR, Victoria
Best Comedy AAR, Victoria (Note: For this quarter, this category will not be offered)
Best Expositional AAR, Victoria
Best Narrative AAR, Victoria
Special Category: Best Character in an AAR, Victoria

Category Explanations:

Best AAR: What defines 'Best' is completely up to you. Completely. The 'Best' AAR need not even be your favourite for the other 4 categories. Just what you think is the 'Best'. Could be serious. Could be funny. Could be dramatic. Could be light-hearted. All up to you.

Comedy AAR: Self-explanatory. Any AAR that is intentionally or unintentionally humourous.

Examples of Comedy AARs:

Haba's Take London - A Swiss AAR (The great thing about the Comedy Category is that AARs that they are darned difficult to classify on the Narrative-Expositional scale sometimes, due to them 'breaking the rules' as it were of conventional writing. This AAR might qualify as a Narrative AAR, but its humour qualities so far surpass its mere meeting the requirements of narrativeness that you should only consider this for the comedy category)

Expositional AAR: 'Tell', not 'Show'. Included in this category are as diverse genres as non-fanfic AARs that bury the gameplay only lightly (i.e., 'I did this, then I conquered that, then I did this' format) and history-book style AARs where the gameplay is buried and the alternate world is fleshed out, but the AAR keeps its distance from the characters by not 'going in more closely')

Examples of Expositional AARs:

Peter Ebbeson's Blood to the Ankles - And Rising (While written with the great wit of Peter Ebbesen, the gameplay is too thinly buried to make it a 'Narrative' AAR. This AAR would also count for comedy.)

Syt's All quiet on the Western Front - Germany 1914 (Fairly straightforward expository style. While it does include little paragraphs of quotes, they are not large enough to make it count as a 'Narrative' AAR.)

IEX Totalview's Greek Empire: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (Very straightforward non-fanfic style)

Narrative AAR: 'Tell', not 'Show'. Into this would fall the novel-like AARs with characterisation, plot, and all that good stuff. But the AAR need not be 'novel-like' itself.

Examples of Narrative AARs:

Estonianzulu's War Without End (Most excellent. Very clearly is a narrative-style AAR, no question.)

Examples of AARs that are both 'Narrative' and 'Expositional':

coz1's For the Glory of Persia (Literally contains elements of both, as there are history-book segments and narrative segments alike.)

Special Category: Best Character in an AAR Basically, the best character in an AAR. Your favourite character, the most well-developed character, whatever. However, this category will be counted a bit differently than the others, due to its oddity.

If voting for an AAR that can fit into more than one category, please vote according to the AAR's strength in the category you're placing it in. For example, if I vote for The Glory of Persia in the Narrative section, that means that I think that its narrative sections are excellent enough to beat out all of its competitors (which I do :cool:) but its expository sections need not be the best.

Also, remember, the category is in the eye of the beholder. You may disagree with me in my classification. But I hope my words have gotten across the gist of what these categories are supposed to represent, and that you readers will make wise choices when classifying the AARs you consider.


Also, I ask voters not to vote on a category if they feel that they have not read enough, or indeed any at all, AARs in that category to make a good judgment. Any AAR that has been updated within the 3rd Quarter, that is between July 1 and Sep 30 2005, will be eligible. However, if the AAR in question is updated only once or twice in that period, it is up to your judgment if you really think that the work during that period is worthy of your vote.

Also, you cannot vote for your own AARs.
That means you, Sir Humphrey

Example of voting post:

Best AAR: For the Glory of Persia by coz1

Best Comedy AAR: Take London - A Swiss AAR by Haba

Best Expositional AAR: Greek Empire: The Anti-Industrial Revolution by IEX Totalview

Best Narrative AAR: War Without End by Estonianzulu

Best Character in an AAR: For the Glory of Persia by coz1 - Henry Strachen

(Note: All AARs were completed before 2005 Q3, so they are not eligible anyways)

So get out and vote. I also encourage authors to advertise this in their AARs and whatnot. Please advertise this in your AARs.
 
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Woh! This is great. I read the thread where you want to start this Award. Created quite a lot of stir. Well I have miss the boat to comment on this issue (last post 1 week ago) but let me assure you Anonymous 4401, I think this is a great idea. If readers want to vote and gives out awards, let them be. I am glad you decided to start this award in this Vicky forum. I am sure most readers here will support and appreciate your effort.

Well know if you will excuse me while I go and read some more....
 
I got to tell you, anonymous, I'm still not convinced how this differs from a glorified popularity contest. Or, for that matter (despite the lack of nomination period) the VictAARian Cross. I truly applaud the initiative, but I just don't see how this brings us something new. Sorry - don't mean to be a downer or anything, but thems my thoughts. Did you pass this by LD, by the way?
 
I'll be interested in seeing how this pans out. I think before nominating I will have to catch up on my reading, though.
 
coz1 said:
I got to tell you, anonymous, I'm still not convinced how this differs from a glorified popularity contest. Or, for that matter (despite the lack of nomination period) the VictAARian Cross. I truly applaud the initiative, but I just don't see how this brings us something new. Sorry - don't mean to be a downer or anything, but thems my thoughts. Did you pass this by LD, by the way?

Yes. I did pass it by LD. Several times. That is why this is a trial test.

Also, in the end, all awards are a glorified popularity contest, if the nominations depend on the voters themselves. The only way it could not be a popularity contest is if there were some sort of panel of elite AARlanders that selected what they thought were 'good' enough to be considered for the award.

It also brings us something new by having this contest regularly at every three months. I explained this and more several times already to different people. Should I send you the 2-PM FAQ I sent to Lord Durham?
 
I think your first post (on this thread) answered some of my concerns, anonymous. Clearly you've given this some thought and it's good to see your idea taking form from its earlier well...forms. :)

Certainly it's worth a try and I wish you luck with this!
 
No, anonymous. That's not necessary. I read the thread on the main page. I'm just not convinced. Why not hold the VictAARian Cross more often? In effect, it seems that this would take over for that. So when and why would we even hold those?

But if this is what the group wants, then it's fine with me. It's not as though I have any power to say yes or no. I just want to see something that is both useful and longstanding. Further, I want to make sure, as much as possible, that it is simply not (as I suggested) a glorified popularity contest. But I agree, every award is to some extant. Good luck, anonymous. I meant it when I said it before - not trying to be a downer, just sharing my concerns. I applaud the effort you are putting forth.
 
Not a single vote yet?

Should I post my own vote now, or will that lead to some sort of unfortunate undue influence?
 
****
 
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anonymous4401 said:
Also, you cannot vote for your own AARs.


Maybe I should bold this part.

EDIT: There we are.

Also, your vote was not in the proper form. While it would be fine to just post your votes that way, it just makes the job harder.

Not only that, but the AAR you voted on is not qualified. The last update was on the 29th of June, just barely missing the 1st of July beginning of the quarter. Now that we have gone past the end of the quarter, well, sorry.
 
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Here are my votes, I consider myself pretty AAR savy so if you are looking for the learned old man of AAR's I am it :cool:

Best AAR - Fire warms the Northern Lands - Rennslaer
Sheer class, enthralling at every point, great character development and is able to draw the reader into the story. If only it was updated more regularly. ;)

Best Comedy - N/A
Not really sure of one, ther have been few comedy AAR's on the Vicky boards and not one in recent (last quarter) memory

Best Expositional - Sick Man of Europe: A Turkish AAR - Clamp2004
Despite corruption of save file, was a great AAR that should how to play a difficult (in my books) country and succeed. Great use of screenies, while still developing the AAR.

Best Narrative - Chronological Influences II: An American AAR - TC Pilot
Was a hard choice between Renss and TC for best, this AAR has it all. Often spending 5 or 6 updates fleshing out the characters and the situation. Always interesting and growing the story. A must read.

Best Character - Stukov - TC Pilot
A time travelling, dictator with penace and style. Truely an AAR character for the ages, is always interesting. You could put him in multiple situations for any number of countries in any Paradox game and it would work. Truely a work of greatness.

Those are my choices, some many more that I would have liked to add and was certainly a tough choice, especially Best and Narrative. Perhaps we will see a few more comedy AAR's in this quarter.
 
Thanks, BBBD! I feel safe to post my own vote now.

Best AAR: Fire Warms the Northern Lands -- A Prussian AAR by Rensslaer

Quite amazing. First-class. Top-notch, all that, and more. Every update is like a jewel. Reminds me of my writing, or at least what my writing strives to become.

Best Comedy AAR:

You're right, BBBD. Come to think of it, there haven't been any comedy AARs at all this quarter. Most tragic. I thought this category would have had a good number of AARs in it, but I was wrong in my estimates. Seems like everyone's going the serious route these days. :(

Best Expositional AAR: The Bride of my Constant Desire: The Birth of Modern Arabia by Mike von Bek

On the in-depth side of the Expositional scale, and I like it that way. Mike von Bek really pulled this off well, and it reads exactly like a history text. Except that it's even better, because it's not boring!

Best Narrative AAR: Fire Warms the Northern Lands -- A Prussian AAR by Rensslaer

It came down to this and Chronological Influences, but I opted for Rensslaer's awesome AAR.

Best Character in an AAR: Chronological Influences II: An American AAR by TC Pilot - Alexei Stukov

What can I say? I enjoyed TCPilot's Chronological Influences, and the characters as well.

The month is only a third over and I've already found several problems with the current proposed system, one of them the Comedy category. As stated before, there seems to be a dearth of them recently. Maybe they're more of an EUII thing, or maybe it is selective memory on my part. Another problem is the Expositional/Narrative split, which I guess will always be a problem.
 
Best AAR: The Bride of my Constant Desire: The Birth of Modern Arabia by Mike von Bek

Best Character AAR: Castles in the Sky (or The Wild, Wild West) – A Colorado AAR by Rensslaer

Best expose` AAR: Rule Britannia, The United Kingdom 1836 to 1920 by Globe and Mail.
 
Best AAR : Fire Warms The Northern Lands

Best Expositional : Rule Britannia, The United Kingdom 1836-1920

Best Narrative : The Patriot's Sword

There you have it.
 
Looking around to try and think of who I might select, but one thing anonymous - could you explain to me again how to differentiate between the expositional and the narrative? They seem the same to me (which you mention yourself above, sort of.) So I'm not sure which AARs fit into which catagories.
 
Best AAR: Chronological Influences II by TC Pilot.

Best Expositional AAR: "The Patriot's Sword" - The Republic of Canada by RossN

Best Narrative AAR: Chronological Influences II by TC Pilot.

Best Character in an AAR: Got to go with Alexei Stukov. He's pretty awesome.
 
coz1 said:
Looking around to try and think of who I might select, but one thing anonymous - could you explain to me again how to differentiate between the expositional and the narrative? They seem the same to me (which you mention yourself above, sort of.) So I'm not sure which AARs fit into which catagories.

Well, I guess the names themselves are confusing, as 'narrative' and 'expository' both mean something else than what I have categorised them as. 'Expository' is tell, not show, from the dispassionate (or passionate) view of a historian or a gamer recounting his exploits in log form. 'Narrative' is show, not tell, and has characterisations and an actual viewpoint.

Indeed, some AARs are both 'show' and 'tell'. Rensslaer's Prussia AAR actually qualifies for both, as he has history book sections interspersed with his character-viewpoint sections.

Harder to place is the first-person AAR. Some are simply recountings of the events that occurred in the game, with little burying. (i.e., 'I then built 4 tank divisions because I knew that Barbarossa had to succeed') Those are confusing, because there's a fine line between Expository and Narrative there. At what point does the author begin describing his exploits 'deeply' enough for it to be considered Narrative?

Hard to say, really. I think the Narrative/Expository split is not the optimal one, but it is better than the Fanfic/Non-Fanfic split, and I don't want to split hairs by making a Non-Fanfic/History-Book/Novel-like split. I just don't think there are enough History-Book-like AARs for the latter, for one.
 
Hmm........same with fifty pence

Best AAR: Chronological Influences II by TC Pilot.

Best Expositional AAR: "The Patriot's Sword" - The Republic of Canada by RossN

Best Narrative AAR: Chronological Influences II by TC Pilot.

Best Character in an AAR: Who else but Stukov, Alexander