Sunday 15 February 2015

The Erins: 2014 - Results!

The results of the 2014 Erins can now be announced! 

The top three places are listed below, along with honourable mentions (listed alphabetically) for anyone else who got a significant number of votes. 

Game of the Year 
1st - Emily: Sister Attraction by Palmer
2nd - Magician's Nephew by Mister Flibble
3rd - Master of the House by Minterlint

Honourable mention: Circles of Desire by Cassgames; Study Date by Karrek 

Best New Author 
1st - Palmer
2nd - Mister Flibble
3rd - Minterlint

Honourable mention: BrokenKnightX, Cassgames

Congratulations to Palmer, Mister Flibble, and Minterlint, not to mention everyone else who released a game in 2014. Also, a big thank you to the 147 people who took the time to vote. 

In a year that was as dominated by new authors as 2014 was, it's not too surprising that the results for Game of the Year and Best New Author match up so closely. What did surprise me a little was how many people chose to split their votes. I would guess that's due to new authors not just being judged on what they've done this year, but also on what they might do in the future. 

On the subject of what categories could be added to the 2015 Erins, nearly everyone who made a suggestion mentioned either Best Character or Best Scene. We'll be looking at how we can implement those suggestions closer to the time. 

Now you have a couple of weeks to catch your breath before the voting starts for the 2010-13 Erins. I'm giving serious thought to doing multiple years at once, since I don't want to exhaust everyone by sending out poll after poll for the next four months.

14 comments:

  1. Though it didn't match my own votes exactly, it did turn out as I had expected, which isn't a bad thing! ;) Good job, and congrats to the winners!

    I also want to extend my thanks to all those who created works for us to enjoy, as well as those continuing their work now. Though it isn't often said enough, us players really get a lot of enjoyment from the various stories you all come up with, and we appreciate all the hard work you put into it. Even a 'simple' game can take a lot of commitment and time, so again, thanks.

    As for how the voting goes, I am fine either way. I can think of some ways it may be bad or good either way we go, so I'm not exactly sure which would be the better bet, honestly.

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  2. I have been surprised how many promising new author have published in 2014. In 2014 even being in the first 3 is a great result, I think that even after those places there are promising authors (and in other years would have had better positions) . Naturally like the usual who knows who of them wil publish other games.

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  3. Yes congratulations to Palmer, even if I would lie if I said that I'm surprised, it was palpable that he had already won many fans.
    I was more curious on the second and third place, seen that minterlint and mr. Flibble had done two great games.
    I think that Minterlint has chosen well to begin with a linear game (even if he added several extra) but Magician's nephew was a more complex game (and i think that Mr. Flibble probably needed many hours more than Minterlint to create it).
    In any case this awards had me clear that in the 2014 we have seen many new authors very capable, some of them would have been in the first threes in other years.
    I haven't seen the numbers but I can believe that the votes splitted, when voting I think that people have surely decided to bet on the future.
    Palmer is working in a sequel (but lastly has updated little his blog), Mr. Flibble don't think has communicated that is working on other and Minterlint even if has showed the will to produce some ambitious game has vanished since october (frankly seen his past incident I only hope he is good, the games are secondary).
    Under the podium Karrek hasn't speaked on anything new, instead cassgames are promising something interesting and Brokenknight has already published a second game and has been very active on his future works, so I expect him to have had several votes more on the "new author" that in the "best game".

    XXX

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  4. I'm having second thoughts about holding the voting for the four missing years of the Erins one after the other. My feeling is that people would be sick to death of polls by the end of six consecutive months of voting. There would also be a risk of conflict with the Minicomp, which is usually held in June/July.

    My thinking at the moment is that 2013 should be voted on alongside (or immediately after) 2015, and so on until the gaps have been filled in.

    Your thoughts?

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    1. Personally, I was just expecting one big poll for the gap years, since that would still just be two awards per year. Sure it's quite a few games if you feel you have to play them all again for the poll, but the games have been around a while and I assume are pretty well played. I don't see people having a lot of enthusiasm for separate polls for each year, and pairing them up in twos seems excessively drawn out.

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  5. I don't see an optimal solution, but if I have understood your last idea the 2010 years will be voted in 2018 and this seems a bit too late.
    At this point I prefer to vote 2 years at once, maybe giving a whole month to play.
    Maybe we can hold 2013-2012 in April (so there will be a month of pause after 2014 poll and 2 or 3 months before aif minicomp).
    The last 2011- 2010 poll could be in November, so in 2016 we will have only 2015 poll and minicomp and we will do those in the best way.
    My other advice is to add new categories (best scene,...) only for future polls (2015,..), recuperating missing years is a good thing but it's already complicated , we have to keep this simpler possible.

    XXX

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    1. This sounds like a decent plan if we're not going to have one big vote. I also agree that if other categories are going to be added it might be better for practicality purposes to leave them out for the back years.

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    2. We have even to consider that 2013 (and maybe 2012) isn't so distant in time for now (indeed we have new authors still actives), so a poll for them has meaning almost the 2014 poll, but if we wait too much this will be lost.

      XXX

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    3. Just to clarify, new categories were only going to be added to the 2015 (and future) Erins. I agree that there's no point in doing that for past years (especially since you'd have to go through some sort of nomination period first).

      Of the alternatives suggested, having one big poll for the missing four years makes the most sense to me, since it avoids drawing things out too much.

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    4. Frankly even for me the idea of a big poll is better than my alternatives.

      XXX

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  6. The more I think about it, the more BBBen's suggestion of having one big vote makes sense to me. The 2015 Erins will include the Lifetime Achievement Award, and possibly extra categories. Having a second poll running in parallel to that, would be an unnecessary complication.

    With that in mind, I've started doing the set up work. I was thinking that voting could start on 1 March and run for three weeks, which should hopefully give people the chance to replay games if they need to.

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  7. Speaking of the Lifetime Achievement Award, it's crossed my mind that it would be nice to have a dedicated page listing all of the past winners. Perhaps people could contribute descriptions of why they deserved to win (like the comments from last year's voting).

    Thoughts?

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    1. That sounds good, kind a hall of fame. I don't know how it would be best to organise it, though. (as in, where to put it)

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