Scummies Ideas, Suggestions and Comments Thread

[IceGuy]

Obviously.

[UberNinja]

Player of the Year

or

Mr(s). Mafiascum

come to mind...

But

Jack of all Trades

is the best for colloquiality ;D

[Faraday]

Not against it. Judging would be an absolute nightmare, admittedly.

[Faraday]

So basically people who are kind of on the fringe in every other award but not quite there? Or maybe even nommed for paragon but also have strong scum games, setup design skills and etc? (I don't think excluding someone nommed in say 1 of them is a good idea)

[zoraster]

I think he's saying basically a "Best Overall" award. It's not a bad idea theoretically, but I think practically it would be very difficult to differentiate from paragon and don corleone. Also, I kind of like that there are two "major awards" so to speak, and this would basically take its place.

[IceGuy]

So basically people who are kind of on the fringe in every other award but not quite there?

Exactly. That's why "Jack of all trades" with the implied "master of none" fits perfectly. You aren't the best in any one category, but really good across categories.

[zoraster]

I think it's kind of weird to have an award where the explicit requirement is to not be particularly good in any one category. We have Rising Star, but that's about trajectory.

[IceGuy]

I think it's kind of weird to have an award where the explicit requirement is to not be particularly good in any one category.

It's about being good over several categories.

[Faraday]

I think being good, if not 'the best' (tm) in every category is still an achievment. Specifically since it seems to incorporate both modding and playing. I kinda get the feeling in practise it might just have the same nominees as Don/Paragon, as I'm skeptical about how many people truly nominate for the body of work (even if the eventual winner does tend to have a very good body of work)

[zoraster]

It's not that I don't like the idea, and I really like the name for the award, but I am a bit wary of it in practice.

[Mr. Flay]

It's not that I don't like the idea, and I really like the name for the award, but I am a bit wary of it in practice.

[Untrod Tripod]

do I note correctly that we've fixed smooth operator?

[zoraster]

that we are planning on fixing it, not that we have fixed yet.

[xRECKONERx]

I'm against this Best Overall category because I think it's too broad and thus too hard to judge. We have best mafia player, best town player, best third party, best moderator, best setup design, best MD contributor, best community contributor...this new award is basically all of those combined.

Speaking of which, I like Mr. Mafiascum for Community Contributor.

[zoraster]

Gendered.

[Mina]

To be honest, I

really

don't like the JOAT award. It's so subjective, vague, and based on so many criteria (that each judge would weight differently) that I think it would just come down to a popularity contest. Besides, do you really think it's feasible for Scummies judges to read every single post that at least a half-dozen nominees have made in a year all over the site, as well as every single game these players have moderated or played in? The winner will just be who's high profile and calls the most attention to him/herself, not who's most deserving.

At least the GD award would only recognize one aspect of a poster's mafiascum reputation, so it's more objective and concrete.

Speaking of which, what about an award for the best discussion

thread

--or even better, an award for a one-time contribution to the discussion forums (since often a thread develops in interesting ways through no fault of the creator)? This way, it would

let me nominate Dripping Goofball's kindergarten thread

still reward insightful and clever posting, but be much easier to evaluate. It would be similar to Professor Mafia, but for GD.

[xRECKONERx]

Eh, it feels unnecessary due to how many niche awards exist already. I dislike the idea of adding a GD-based award because what makes good content there is so subjective.

[Scummies]

Scummies Writers Needed!

If you've got a knack for writing and want to help out on this year's Scummies, shoot us a line and let us know! Judging will be wrapping up soon and we want to get a head start on the writing.

[Faraday]

Eh, it feels unnecessary due to how many niche awards exist already. I dislike the idea of adding a GD-based award because what makes good content there is so subjective.

IIRC a GD discussion award was actually an award but was undernommed a few years ago, I think. It's not something I'm against - a few non mafia awards are probably okay.

[UberNinja]

I think he's saying basically a "Best Overall" award. It's not a bad idea theoretically, but I think practically it would be very difficult to differentiate from paragon and don corleone. Also, I kind of like that there are two "major awards" so to speak, and this would basically take its place.

Except I'm badass at both finding scum

and

being scum, and am I gonna win a scummy for either of those?

Welllll, all things considered, probably not, because relatively speaking I haven't been around as long as some other nominees and they probably have more friends on the scummy steering committee and judges and such.

It'd be -way- cool to win that award though, over two other fictional guys: one who's more badass at scumhunting, but not so badass at manipulating, and the other vice versa. I'd treasure that win. And then again, there's nothing to say someone can't win both Paragon and Jack in the same year. But if both of the players winning Paragon and Don sucked at the other category, a dark horse could take away Jack, and that'd be awesome.

It'd also be awesome if both players were strong in both areas, and both were nominated for both, and one won one, and the other won the other, and then it'd be a nail-biting contest until the final winner of the Jack of All Trades was announced at the very end. Because fuuuuck yeah, that's what I'd like to see in a scummies contest!

[zoraster]

Well, for a moment let's assume you're right about biases, friends, etc., which I think is mostly but not entirely unfair.

Do you really think that an overall award that would likely be seen at least as high on the scummy hierarchy as Paragon and Don Corleone if not higher would really make it so that those things aren't problems?

It's possible that such an award benefits you because you're really good at both sides of the game, but it does not do so because it isn't subject to the whims of judges while the others are.

[Mr. Flay]

I agree entirely with zor. niche awards are a LOT easier to judge, also.

[RichardGHP]

So... Grace period for cross-year games?

Discuss.

[Faraday]

I'd say no. The year they end in is just a clearer cut off point. The judging's already started, the only real reason there's a grace period for noms is that people are lazy/tend to forget to nom stuff and it's a 'last chance'. There'll not be a grace period this year, at any rate. I (personally) prefer the rule the way it is, as it's much clearer than 'whenever we decide to set a deadline for nominations'.

[zoraster]

I don't mind a grace period that is up to the nomination deadline with the provision that if your game doesn't get nominated because there wasn't enough time, you'll have to wait until next year. And also if your game gets nominated in one year, it cannot the next.

But really, that kind of just shifts the problem from (in this year's case) January 1st to January 11th. A line has to be drawn at some point, and someone is going to have to wait like 18 months to see if they won.