Pookie (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} pwca) wrote,@ 2009-06-28 13:00:00 |
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Critical Hits has the results of the 2009 Origins Awards.
The website for http://www.originsgamefair.com/ -- where the awards are held, does not.
Nor does the page devoted to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design.
No other website does. No gaming news site does. The Mouseguard website does.
I have three thoughts on this situations. The first is that the award went to a deserving title. I am sorry that Trail of Cthulhu did not win, it was a worthy nominee, as was Mouseguard. Of the other loser, I am not surprised that it did not win, and would have been dismayed had it actually won. Others may feel very different, but Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition is not an RPG. It is at best, half an RPG, a hybrid with too heavy an emphasis on self-contained combat encounters, and too many constrictions that leave it inflexible when compared to its forebears. I can play it, I can get a good game out of it, but to call it an RPG? No.
My second thought is to wonder if this means that the industry has recognised or co-opted the indie RPG or at least accepted it? After all, this is Luke Crane's second win -- he won in 2007 for Burning Empires. It is more likely that Luke is producing something more commercial and more mainstream, and thus more acceptable, because since the rise of the Indie RPG, there have been better and more interesting games appearing from the pens of the "little" designer than from the major publishers. But it took five years for the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design to recognise that fact.
My third thought is this. The Origins Awards are the gaming hobby's equivalent of the Oscar Awards. Why are they not being reported upon by the industry?
I contend that it is a sad state of affairs when the industry is so small that it cannot support anything other then amateur journalism devoted to itself. The advantage of there being only amateur journalism is that any comment made has neither legitimacy nor authority, and is easily dismissed by those being commented upon.
The website for http://www.originsgamefair.com/ -- where the awards are held, does not.
Nor does the page devoted to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design.
No other website does. No gaming news site does. The Mouseguard website does.
I have three thoughts on this situations. The first is that the award went to a deserving title. I am sorry that Trail of Cthulhu did not win, it was a worthy nominee, as was Mouseguard. Of the other loser, I am not surprised that it did not win, and would have been dismayed had it actually won. Others may feel very different, but Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition is not an RPG. It is at best, half an RPG, a hybrid with too heavy an emphasis on self-contained combat encounters, and too many constrictions that leave it inflexible when compared to its forebears. I can play it, I can get a good game out of it, but to call it an RPG? No.
My second thought is to wonder if this means that the industry has recognised or co-opted the indie RPG or at least accepted it? After all, this is Luke Crane's second win -- he won in 2007 for Burning Empires. It is more likely that Luke is producing something more commercial and more mainstream, and thus more acceptable, because since the rise of the Indie RPG, there have been better and more interesting games appearing from the pens of the "little" designer than from the major publishers. But it took five years for the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design to recognise that fact.
My third thought is this. The Origins Awards are the gaming hobby's equivalent of the Oscar Awards. Why are they not being reported upon by the industry?
I contend that it is a sad state of affairs when the industry is so small that it cannot support anything other then amateur journalism devoted to itself. The advantage of there being only amateur journalism is that any comment made has neither legitimacy nor authority, and is easily dismissed by those being commented upon.
