But it’s not the author’s responsibility to make people aware of the comp. In fact, nothing prevents an author from saying “Hey guys, look at this! A comp with lots of IF! Come check this out!” in various places. And every player can do that and even discuss the actual games.
Lifting the rule would make this place buzz with activity, apparently mostly because of the authors, which are understandably way more psyched about the comp than people like me, who just enjoy the games whatever the outcome of the comp is. But that has very little, or nothing, to do with a perceived “blanket of silence”. People around here can still talk about the games, and anyone/everyone can reach out to outside of the community with news of the Comp.
I didn’t think there was any exageration. I believe that there’s tons more activity in the author’s board. What I meant was, just because that’s the place with all the buzz, that doesn’t mean everywhere else has a “blanket of silence”.
In fact, what we’ve been having is mostly the silence of people playing the games, and then sometimes leaving a review. If I’m enjoying a game, or a series of games, I certainly won’t even look at any discussion about it before I’m well underway, or finished with the game.
I mean, authors, there’s a timing, y’know? Let the players play. Believe me, I do know how nerve-wrecking the silence must be for you, but it’s part of the whole thing - people are playing the games in peace, in their own time (and there’s so many this year!). Sometimes they have things to say - and bam, review goes up. Sometimes they don’t, and that’s also how if goes. Usually the place explodes after the comp because most people have played the relevant games, and are free to discuss them, and can even consider the results in their discussion. That’s also when post-mortems arrive. That really is the most sensible time for authors and players alike to explode in discussion.
Having said all that, I still personally think that if the rule no longer makes sense it would be fair to try and lift it, see what happens.
EDIT - The only circumstance in which I think this sort of discussion would actually be useful for an author mid-comp would be if it prompted the author to update their game. Which some might say would be an unfair advantage for that particular author, as they happened to have a (some) player(s) note something specific in their game that they could change to make it better. While the judging period was going on.
Since, however, I was never on board with the whole update thing, I’m pretty much not bothered by that. But you, authors, should also think of that.
Apart from this one circumstance, though, I don’t see any specific feedback that can be so important to the authors they can’t wait until the comp is over to know about.
…I mean, isn’t it normal, in any competition, for the people competing to discuss things amongst themselves but keep it all separate from the judges? (then again, in which competition is it normal for an entry to be continuously updated right until the last day of the Comp…)
(Bleh. It looks like I’m advocating the rule stay on. I’m not - I’m just trying to look at both sides of the coin)