Shareware Industry Awards is an Embarassment

[Fost]

http://www.sic.org/2006nominees.asp

scroll down to best action games.

Now, this is supposed to represent the cream of shareware games:

Unreal Tournament -shouldn't even be on there and anyone who voted for them should be sent some smelly socks in the mail
Commando Xenidis by Magic Storm
Tomb Climber by Magic Storm


Now, I really feel unconfortable saying this, but I'd hope the guy at Magic Storm would agree: as nice as his games are, I don't think a fairly basic shoot-em-up and a Fred remake represent the cream of indie games.

Is anyone else here other than us voting? We voted for Outpost Kaloki and a few of the other great games that have turned up this year.

We really need to turn this event round as I think it makes the indie industry look bad.

[Robert Cummings]

Best Graphics Program or Utility

Adobe PhotoShop by Adobe, Inc. - Info - Download

And so on. Completely pathetic. Disregard these awards.

[Fost]

You can download a demo of photoshop, so it meets the criteria - although it is a bit of a joke.


I'm just wondering who is voting in the action games section, and why two obscure (unless I'm living in a bubble) games from the same company are in there.

[jankoM]

well I downloaded demo of NFS and DOOM3 and FARCRY lately so this criteria is rather wide.

(unless I'm living in a bubble)
Maybe you live behind the moon... in a pod :) . No seriously ... from the list it look like something totally unrepresentative of anything... more like random things got wotes. I don't know maybe just a small bunch of people even knew/cared (some with their own agenda/some not even knowing what shareware is) for this and woted. I didn't know it exists and didn't wote - but I am new around here.

It would be interesting to see how wotes they recieved to get these results...

[Sharpfish]

That commando exendis is a strange one. Very poor website (no one's perfect but it just looks like a hobby page) and the system requirements are very high (DX9, loads of ram and fast CPU). This seems to go against the normal form of indiegames attempting to be as compatible as possible. maybe it got in with the hardcore crowd who are the ones voting on that site which is why you see UT in there also?

I think i'll just ignore it and choose my own favourites :)

[Fost]

I didn't know it exists and didn't wote

You can only vote if you've been nominated once before-since we've nominated different people every year for 3 years, there must be a few about on these boards. Next year I'm going to start a thread and see if we can't at least vote some of the more popular games up. This should reflect the kind of games Game Tunnel has in its end of year round up.

Maybe it's just over-run by business software users and they don't have a clue what to vote for ?

[cliffski]

you can only vote if you have been nominated?
what a joke.
nobody gives a damn about this award anyway, and the award website itself looks very cheap. Next to the IGF, this is an irrelevance. Ignroe it.

[Fost]

nobody gives a damn about this award anyway
I don't know, that site gets a lot of traffic. It's within reason that if enough of us actually bothered to vote, then some good games would go to the top of the pile. I'll make sure to vote for people who can't already vote next year :)

[GBGames]

you can only vote if you have been nominated?
what a joke.

Gah! It's like the Academy Awards where only members of the Academy can vote, and new winners get inducted into the Academy. B-)

[PoV]

Wow that's awful... though I do agree UT should be GOTY. :D

I'm kidding! It should be the Game Of All Time (GOAT)!!!!!

[Bouncer]

:eek: Those awards are the most f¤#&%# up thing I've ever seen :confused: ... lol @ the game winners...

[Jon Trainer]

I find it interesting that Magic Storm's website lists the copyright for "Tomb Climber" as 2003 and release date of 2004. Isn't this the 2006 awards?

[Fost]

Isn't this the 2006 awards?
Age doesn't matter in the shareware industry awards. I actually think that's ok myself, although I imagine I'd be in the minority. The awards are mainly aimed at business software, which is contantly updated. Some people work like that with games too - I applaud pretty good solitaire getting in the non-action games category. PGS is updated continually, and you couldn't say the first version is anything like the current version.

Still, just makes it more open to abuse, although it's a shame there isn't an award for 'best improved game' at most places, because some people put tons of effort into it and theres no reward from an exposure point of view. I suppose most people here are in the pure casual market where it makes more sense to move on or sell an improved version as new.

[GBGames]

Best Application Using .Net

I am more confused about this award. Best web enhancement? Best action game? Best overall utility? Those make sense to reward people with. At least it is saying, "Congratulations, you've improved the world in some way."

But rewarding people for using a specific technology? What does .Net usage have to do with shareware? Why not reward people for using Java or OpenGL or DirectX or COM or Qt or any number of other things?

The Academy Awards equivalent? "Best Short Using Arriflex".

[electronicStar]

Have you seen the non-action games palmares?
One solitaire and two sudokus...:rolleyes:

[Sillysoft]

I voted in them last year, but skipped it this year. I think the criteria for nominating apps is that you be "in the shareware industry". I agree the categories are totally wacked out. I think these awards are run by some of the same people who are involved in the ASP, and probably most of them don't know about the vast majority of shareware games out there.

GameTunnel's "game of the year" selection is a much better coverage of the best shareware games.

[Fost]

OK, next year, if I remember, I'll make a web page with a load of suggestions and links to demos, and try to promote it on the ASP forums. I think you are right - the problem here is that it's a lot of business software users who don't really know what's new, so I'll try and give them some help next year. :)

[RedKnight]

I hope that the winner would get a golden dildo or something that should resemble a oscar.


yahoo!!.

[Mike Boeh]

The traditional shareware industry has a little of the "old boy network" going on... The successful authors go to the SIC and make friends, and then it's easy for their product to get a lot of votes... Tom Warfield is an easy-to-like guy "in real life" and I am sure Pretty Good Solitaire will win every year from here to eternity :)

One of my old games was nominated one year, and I went to the awards dinner, it was pretty fun. I told a couple of the guys there that if I won, I was going to run up there and scream and make a total ass of myself. But alas, Charlie II won and not my game. Yup, I lost to a duck.

[RedKnight]

I am sure Pretty Good Solitaire will win every year from here to eternity :)



so start let's start cranking out those "Really Better Solitaire" Games.
and Charles The duck games.

:D

[Fost]

I don't think there's anything sinister going on here - it's primarily a business software awards system, and the voters are probably not that interested in games. It is a big awards event for our industry though, and so I think we are letting it down by not getting involved enough.

Anyway - enough talk, more action :) , I intend to do a bit of work promoting some of the better stuff around next year, so voters are at least aware of more variety.

[Mike Boeh]

Of course it isn't evil or anything... Just that it's a small voting base, and who you know is a factor....

[destron]

sorry guys - i missed most of the discussion - but that is sad - let me get this straight - they're classifying shareware as any paid-for program that has a downloadable demo?