With 45 ratings spread over 10 games, the results are going to be pretty arbitrary no matter what you do. Even in IFComp where there’s more like 45 ratings per game, it would usually only take a half dozen voters with genuinely different opinions to scramble the top 5 or top 10. That’s just… how numbers work.
And sure, it’d have been better to update the info in all the places, and probably even better for the organizers to stick to their guns and not change ranking methods mid-comp even if the original choice wasn’t ideal, but… anyone who’s getting seriously upset about the results being arbitrary in an event and a hobby this niche is just telling on themself.
I have followed the thread and I’m having a very hard time understanding the results.
In the “Best Game Results” there’s a “Rank Listing” and an “Itch.io Ranking.” Does the “Rank Listing” incorporate only the Google Form, or also the Itch rankings?
Did Grand Island Bank Robbery win “Best Game” in this year’s ParserComp? Or are there two winners, based on the two different rankings?
That did not happen. One rating moved from 4th to 6th. The results are actually very comparable, especially considering that some games only had one or two responses in the Itch system.
Bank Robbery and Valuable Card swiitched 1st and 2nd place. Both were authored my Mathbrush. Vauable Card had DC as a co-author. I have corresponded with Mathbrrush.
The Google Forms provided more detail on the ratings supported by the optioonal categories.
I’d be interested in this too, for putting data on IFWiki. In other words, is the left hand column the overall result (1st of 10, 2nd of 10 etc)? If there are two separate 1st-10th places what would be the best way succinctly to describe each? Thanks.
So as the organiser, would you feel that it accurately reflects your intentions if someone were to say (for example) that The Woodcutter’s Quest achieved 4th/6th place in the competition?
I think people are confused by that table because it’s nearly unheard of to have two sets of rankings for the same category in the same competition.
I read it and assumed I didn’t understand it, because I wrongly assumed that there would be one winner (or a tie), but not two full sets of equally valid rankings.
It’s such a strange thing to say/do that folks are assuming that it isn’t what you intended.
I was trying to be transparent since both systems were active for voting.
All games received more rankings by the judges in Google Forms with an average of 6.4. Only 1 game had only 4 ratings. On itch, the average was 4.5 with four games with only 1 and 2 ratings.
The Google Forms rankings are more accurate.
At this point, we are beating a dead horse. Next time I will make sure it is simple.
If any of the ParserComp 2026 participants are unhappy with their game rank and the controversy that has flared up on Intfiction.org, please contact me directly. I will do whatever I can to resolve the issue to your satisfaction.
i have no dog in this fight since my ranking was the same either way. but i guess we were assuming (at least i was assuming) that the two ranking systems would somehow be combined to create one definitive ranking.
the two systems agreed for the most part but may not in the future. next year if they can’t be combined then i would just stick with one, i guess the google forms (since that was the most used).
I guess I can only speak for myself but please don’t take any confusion as criticism. The recent posts has made it clear that the Google Forms result is the final result, which is fine
For anyone curious, the spreadsheets are available through a link on the itch page.
