MMO Developer Awards
by Jonathon Stevens · 02/11/2010 (12:03 pm) · 5 comments
After a ton of research into award shows and the seriousness of creating something that will be taken seriously, I've formed the MMO Developer Awards which will take place at the Looking For Group Expo this June.
The MMO Developer Awards will honor and recognize individuals in the MMO industry for excellence and achivements. There will be a number of awards, being announced at different times starting with:
- MMO of the Year
- Best Game Design
- Best Artistic Design
- Outstanding New Content
- Best Sound Design
- Best Cinematic
- Best Costume Design
- Independent Game of the Year
There will be 5 nominees in each category chosen by fans starting in the coming 2 weeks. Last Straw Productions has partnered with MMORPG.com to allow fans to go to MMORPG.com and vote for nominees in each of the categories.
Once voting has finished, the MMODA awards committee, made up of industry veterans and media partners, will choose winners. Nominated games will be announced at the LOGIN conference in May and the winners will be announced at the MMODA's during LFGX.
For more information on the MMODAs or LFGX, please visit the official LFGX website
About the author
With a few casual games under his belt as CEO of Last Straw Productions, Jonathon created the increasingly popular Indie MMO Game Developers Conference which. Following the success of IMGDC a new MMOG fan event called LFG Expo will debut in June of 2010.
#2
The problem with allowing fans to vote for games, is indie games and games with small budgets aren't widely known, so by pure popularity won't get as much attention, therefore indie games would rarely make the nominations (outside of cases such as puzzle pirates) which is why there is an indie category.
Since this is a fan event, it made sense to let the fans determine at least who should be in the running for the awards and then have a committee of industry professionals and media partners choose the final winners.
A typical indie mentality is that since they did it themselves or with a small team using very little money, their game 'means more' or deserves more attention. This simply isn't the case and that's coming from an indie. That's why indies tend to have seperate awards than others and also why indie movies sometimes creep into the mainstream awards shows, just like indie games do at times.
This event is put on by an indie and has indie sponsorship options to allow any indie to attend, but is an all-MMO event, not an indie-MMO event.
Is this the absolute best possible scenerio for the award show? No, but it's a good start to get the ball rolling and turn this into an award show that gets international attention and popularity. We would love nothing more than to make the Oscars of the MMO world, but that's just not realistic or even possible in our first few years.
We also need to have a good number of people actually play each game that would be a possibility and doing so while including every possible indie MMO on top of AAA MMOs would take years, which is why we're doing the solution of having fans pick nominees for the first show.
The key for indies is to get their game exposure and tell their fans to nominate them.
02/11/2010 (1:41 pm)
I don't really agree that the categories are stereotypical or have anything to do with the amount of money spent. Best articstic design doesn't mean you had the best graphics or gaming engine, it means the artistic design of the game is unique and stands out from teh rest. Best Sound Design, again, doesn't mean you had the most money, it means the sound design your sound designer came up with was unique and captivating.The problem with allowing fans to vote for games, is indie games and games with small budgets aren't widely known, so by pure popularity won't get as much attention, therefore indie games would rarely make the nominations (outside of cases such as puzzle pirates) which is why there is an indie category.
Since this is a fan event, it made sense to let the fans determine at least who should be in the running for the awards and then have a committee of industry professionals and media partners choose the final winners.
A typical indie mentality is that since they did it themselves or with a small team using very little money, their game 'means more' or deserves more attention. This simply isn't the case and that's coming from an indie. That's why indies tend to have seperate awards than others and also why indie movies sometimes creep into the mainstream awards shows, just like indie games do at times.
This event is put on by an indie and has indie sponsorship options to allow any indie to attend, but is an all-MMO event, not an indie-MMO event.
Is this the absolute best possible scenerio for the award show? No, but it's a good start to get the ball rolling and turn this into an award show that gets international attention and popularity. We would love nothing more than to make the Oscars of the MMO world, but that's just not realistic or even possible in our first few years.
We also need to have a good number of people actually play each game that would be a possibility and doing so while including every possible indie MMO on top of AAA MMOs would take years, which is why we're doing the solution of having fans pick nominees for the first show.
The key for indies is to get their game exposure and tell their fans to nominate them.
#3
I would like to remark though, that my opinion is nothing around any "Indie Condescendence" as you try to impply.
This is an Indie game developers community, you should expect some opinions on that regard.
02/12/2010 (2:16 pm)
Quote:I don't really agree that the categories are stereotypical or have anything to do with the amount of money spent.I dont think we have much more to discuss then; I dont even see something to debate there, the categories I read are absolutely stereotypical to me.
I would like to remark though, that my opinion is nothing around any "Indie Condescendence" as you try to impply.
This is an Indie game developers community, you should expect some opinions on that regard.
#4
I think having fans nominate is fine, though I'm personally a bit cool to some of the categories listed. I think a "Best Game Design" is very much subjective and fad-driven, and introducing a pair of categories such as "Best Game" and "Most Original Game Design" can help take some of the subjectivity away (after all, the most original game might not be the best, and the best may not be all that original).
I'm also curious as to whether you're considering starting up IMGDC again, or folding sessions into the LFGX?
02/12/2010 (2:40 pm)
Time to throw in my 2 cents here...I think having fans nominate is fine, though I'm personally a bit cool to some of the categories listed. I think a "Best Game Design" is very much subjective and fad-driven, and introducing a pair of categories such as "Best Game" and "Most Original Game Design" can help take some of the subjectivity away (after all, the most original game might not be the best, and the best may not be all that original).
I'm also curious as to whether you're considering starting up IMGDC again, or folding sessions into the LFGX?
#5
IMGDC will happen, just not in 2010, we've had to postpone it until 2011.
02/12/2010 (4:39 pm)
I agree completely about 'most original doesn't mean it's any good to play' and so forth. That's why I don't get what stereotype the awards listed above even have? They seem straight forward and cover major areas of an MMO's design. We also, to be honest, can't afford 20 different awards our first year out the door, so had to choose what we felt would be a good base set of awards.IMGDC will happen, just not in 2010, we've had to postpone it until 2011.
Torque 3D Owner Novack
CyberianSoftware
More genuine factors could be in consideration, than those delineated by the amount of money the developer had on its pockets.
Couple of examples:
* Gameplay Innovation
* Original Story
* Original Idea
You get the picture.