Commercial Comp?

[maga (Sam Kabo Ashwell)]

@joningold

I have a feeling that without a Commerical category in the XYZZYs, we will never see a commercial game win in any category, regardless of its quality in that category, simply because it’s a popular vote. I mean, a percentage of people won’t play Horror games or Twine games either, but it’s nothing like the percentage that won’t pay for a particular game before casting their votes.

To take a real example that I’m a touch biased about, Shadow in the Cathedral was up for 5(?) noms the other year. I wonder how many people who voted for something else - and hence against it - had played it?

That’s an issue I’m conscious of, yeah. It’s also a problem with comp games vs. non-comp games, and games that presented themselves well to the community vs. games that did so very ineffectively (see Endless, Nameless, which somehow managed to be a game that everybody who played liked, but few people felt enthusiastic about picking up). But commercial games do have the toughest time of these.

(Counterexample: 1893. I acknowledge that a single Best Setting victory from eleven years ago may not be very heartening. But I will be very shocked indeed if Hadean Lands doesn’t compete strongly.)

But I don’t think that XYZZY voters are likely to start buying those games just because there’s a category in the XYZZYs. I certainly don’t think that anyone will start making commercial games because of the existence of a category. And then you have a ghost-category problem: if there aren’t that many serious candidates, nor many people voting for those candidates, is the category relevant? (I’m already thinking about changing or doing away with Best Individual Puzzle for this reason.)

[joningold]

@maga

But I don’t think that XYZZY voters are likely to start buying those games just because there’s a category in the XYZZYs. I certainly don’t think that anyone will start making commercial games because of the existence of a category. And then you have a ghost-category problem: if there aren’t that many serious candidates, nor many people voting for those candidates, is the category relevant?

Fair enough. It’s probably also true that the XYZZYs are more valuable to hobbyists making free games and trying to get them noticed, than people making commercial projects, for which there exist quite a lot more review channels.