2006 Hall of Fame Modding Awards - please post your thoughts

[Epistolary Richard]

I wanted to start this thread to start collecting thoughts on modding awards for this year's HoF, specifically in terms of what sort of categories people would suggest and whether there should also be categories for MTW modding and M2TW modding.

HoF 2005 was all wrapped up by the end of the year, so I'd like to move relatively quickly on this - so don't delay in posting your thoughts!

Here's the modding categories from HoF 2005:
Best MTW Total Conversion Mod
Best MTW Mini Mod
Best RTW Total Conversion Mod
Best RTW Mini Mod
Outstanding RTW Modder
Outstanding MTW Modder
Best Modding Guide Writer
Best Modding Tool Creator
Best Artist
Most Promising Mod

[Roman_Man#3]

how about the fastest progressing mod?

[Dol Guldur]

Depends how detailed you want to go, ER.

For BI, RTW and MTW you could have:

- Best models
- Best 2D art
- Best textures
- Best animations
- Best video
- Best music
- Best voice audio
- Best coder
- Best scripter
- Best non-roman-era historical total conversion mod
- Best non-historical total conversion mod
- Best enhancement mod
- Best roman-era mod
- Best gameplay
- Best balance
- Best support
- Best tool
- Best in-game text
- Best attention-to-detail
- Best (most realistic) battles
- Best map (aesthetic)
- Best map (strategic value)
- Most promising mod

And so forth. It might also be interesting to allow people to vote for their "favourite" mod rather than a "best". Voters may, for example, know that a certain mod of a certain genre is exceptionally well done but they will vote for another of perhaps a little less brilliance if it is in the genre they like, By saying "favourite" rather than "best" the vote is more accurately reflected I think. Indeed, the word "best" could be replaced by "favourite" in all the above.

I am not sure categories should be established where there is no real way for a person to know the truth of the matter: Best dev. team for example.

Just some quick thoughts.

[wlesmana]

Voting is overdone. TWC did it and it all came down to mustering the fanbase to vote. Having "Fan Favorite" awards would be good for this. But I'd really like to see the nominees and winners be judged by a panel of experienced judges. They don't have to be modders themselves, but someone who knows the community and projects well enough.

[Dol Guldur]

A panel of judges is a good idea but I wonder of there are many or any who really have a good handle on every high-profile mod out there? You could have a panel made up from managers of the top mods who are *not* allowed to vote for their own mod. Perhaps a primary popular vote could select the mods to be included as nominees in all the categories (witha min. vote requirement) and the secondary vote made by two members/managers put forth from each of the nominated mods. Maybe 1 from each mod team would be better so as to not disadvantage mods that may only have 1 person in them (esp. enhancement ones) ;)

[Helgi]

Why not a straight popular vote, or redo what you did in 2005 HOF, it seemed to work.

[wlesmana]

A panel of judges is a good idea but I wonder of there are many or any who really have a good handle on every high-profile mod out there? You could have a panel made up from managers of the top mods who are *not* allowed to vote for their own mod. Perhaps a primary popular vote could select the mods to be included as nominees in all the categories (witha min. vote requirement) and the secondary vote made by two members/managers put forth from each of the nominated mods. Maybe 1 from each mod team would be better so as to not disadvantage mods that may only have 1 person in them (esp. enhancement ones) ;)

Or just have different judges for different categories. For instance, you, alpaca, Bwian and EP could be judges for RTW-era mods. Heck, let's put EP and Myrdraal in all judges panels.

About nominations, I think the judges should come up with those. They make a list of all the mods, then take nominees from that. The tough part would be to figure out how a mod could be considered a nominee. I have several ideas:

- The mod is submitted to be considered. This is like the Oscars, where the filmmaker must submit their film to the judges. The mod being submitted must also point out which category it wishes to be considered in.
- The mod submitted will be considered AS IS, so even if it's a beta (i.e. LOTR-TW 1.1c), it will be considered as a complete mod (i.e. minus points for not having a campaign).
- The nominees will be posted before the award is given, each with a written analysis by the judges on its strengths or weaknesses.
- Any additions/fixes/patches after the mod is submitted will not be considered.



For once, I'd really like to hear what other modders think about other mods. Other modding awards had always been about which mod is played most by players.

Yes, it WILL be subjective and probably controversial, but at least for once we get the experts' opinions.