In post 3, zoraster wrote:I don't think Best Role Claim is likely to come back. It's such a specific award that focuses on one very narrow element of playing when we don't do the same for other actions that are equally as worthy,
As I said, a role claim is a special action in the way it exerts a much bigger influence on the game than any other action. When a game makes a 180, there is almost always a role claim or a results claim involved.
it doesn't get much nomination love, it's extreeeemly context specific (whether someone wins the award or not depends heavily upon game elements), and it may negatively influence game behavior (though I doubt this).
That said, we are looking into adding an award that captures some of what we like about Best Role Claim: namely that it recognizes good play in an individual thread that doesn't require being good year round. We're still discussing what the best way to implement this is, however.
Best Gambit has been suggested before, but it's just not a good award. While I don't really believe Best Role Claim causes bad behavior, Best Gambit may well do so.
That holds for a bunch of awards; as of now, we have five categories without nominations and seven with just one, every award depends heavily on game elements, other players and the like, and I don't think "playing for the Scummies" is a real problem. Otherwise every Theme game would be full of odd roles to be taken into consideration for the "Best Role" award.
I understand your concern with Smooth Operator. That's one of the reasons we've made a few changes to the award. First, we changed the name it's being called in the award to Excellent Moderation. This isn't a true change as it's always been its "official" name, but I think that puts a broader look at moderation policies. Second, we changed it to a body of work award. While doing good vote counts, etc. in any individual game isn't all that special, being a consistently good moderator who acts swiftly, fairly, etc. is something we should want to celebrate.
It's not something we should celebrate. It's something we should
expect
.
I don't think we'll do shared scummies except where it makes sense. This is an awards show, not a participation trophy.
I'm thinking of cases where there are two people equally worthy of the award.
For instance, I could imagine two players in the Rising Star award category:
- A newbie playing very good in four or five games.
- A formerly mostly unknown player becomes a good and prolific player, a star mod, and a frequent and constructive contributor to discussion.
I see why you suggest the body of work award that you do (sort of a best rounded player), but I don't think it's a practical idea, and I like that we recognize the very different functions that scum and town players do.
Why wouldn't that be a practical idea? I agree it's a little more work to judge because you need to consider their entire oeuvre, but I don't see it as an unsolvable problem.