MISAO RE-JIGGIFY

author=Sooz

author=psy_wombats
(I think either way, the way to tackle this is to get rid of categories like "best characters" or "best xxx design" or w/e because they'll naturally just become the "most voters played this game" award

P. sure that's all the awards tbh

ETA: Which honestly will ultimately defeat any attempt at improving the awards because it doesn't matter what the category is when most voters will just vote for "Oh, I know that title!"

Well half the categories are "Best thing" variants, let's be fair. Not every award is won by the same game which I think people keep insisting hyperbole wise. It's evident that the system does work in select awards when it's unlikely for example to nominate a completed game for best demo. Whether or not the game that sweeps most everything happens to be a demo is up to fate I guess.

A big revamp idea I've had was basically, just do a top 10 best game voting. Then people submit in a little form of why they like the game they voted for, the staff then does a customized award write up for each game on a general consensus that the game excels at. Games would be given awards, but the award names are just for fun and kind of personalized. The only exception being best game getting the obvious GOTY. The voting is still systematic but the variety of acknowledgements are done by a human. I guess it's sort of like how Rotten Tomatoes does their critic consensus blurb (no idea how those are done), but instead it's for awards.

Drastic idea and huge revamp. But that's the only thing I can think of that would adapt to the ratio of community size and available games.

edit: I should also elaborate that each voter lists their top 10, and similar to the Top RM games of all Time thread could have a point score total.

I wanted to post this before I forget - A really cool nomination category to add this year, would be "Best Trailer", there were a lot of cool trailers that came out this year. Best one, hands down was Dookie's Kingdoms of the Dump. (I rewatch it sometimes just for the wrecking ball part)

By making this a nomination category. It will allow people to quickly look at what other people are submitting and study what makes a good trailer and how to make your game more marketable to an audience, which I think is a really important skill to have, if you plan on eventually going commercial. I can't think of an RMN sounding name for it yet, though - but going to: https://rpgmaker.net/games/media/trailer/ might make it easier to browse through, create nominations and select a winner for that year:

We had 68 trailers this year, if people pick one out of that 68 as their favorite. We'd have like, a really cool top 5 or top 10 list of trailers to browse at, vote on, and choose from, for that year.

EDIT:
The "Video Killed the RM Star" Award
The video trailer that made you want to play a game the most this year?

Ok, I decided to make a rather lengthy commentary on this. I take that Misaos as a popularity meter are goofy and community oriented and I don't have any problem with categories I find unnecessary. I'm a fairly serious person and I like thinking about, which categories do make sense to me, which to a passive user only visiting rm because of one game and which make sense as quality awards.
Also, I would like to respond to some notions.

author=Darken
A big revamp idea I've had was basically, just do a top 10 best game voting.

This would be cool, but it would require voters to play at least 10 games/year. Probably a lot more. Last year I played over 30 games and I struggled to make top 10. I ended up with a list of 8 games, because the rest didn't impact me enough to put it on the list.
So, this would have a condition of many people playing many games. I wouldn't be against making an Educated Choice, if there are enough people, who played 50 or more releases.

author=LordBlueRouge
I wanted to post this before I forget - A really cool nomination category to add this year, would be "Best Trailer", there were a lot of cool trailers that came out this year. Best one, hands down was Dookie's Kingdoms of the Dump. (I rewatch it sometimes just for the wrecking ball part)

That's a neat button! I'm not sure this would make a good category, tho. It would be nice to spotlight trailers a little bit more. Maybe an article focused on best trailers once in a while? Something like Best of Blogs. It could even combine blogs, trailers and other media. Something like RMN news.

I divided current awards in 3 categories. Also, my commentary on new awards follows.
Good-Important basic categories. It might be difficult to find nominees for some of them, but they are about basic aspects of gaming development and important things to recognize.
Unnecessary -I don't think these awards add anything. They don't capture important aspects of gammak.
Fast - These are categories, which are unnecessary, but I find it incredibly simple to nominate games in them.


"Eye Candy" Award - It values visual and their artistic value. This one's important.
Summoner of Sounds - Sound is an important atmospheric and narrative device in video games. It's more than good soundtrack. Unfortunately, this is a rather difficult category to nominate games in.
Excellence in Narrative - new storytelling techniques and directions are what makes games so exciting medium today.
The "How the Hell Did They Do That?" Award - RM in particular is a technically limited engine. It's nice to have an award for overcoming its limitations. Again, it might be difficult to recognize, what's worthy a nomination in this category.
Best First Game - This award has great motivational value and it usually adds less known games on the list of nominations.
Most Promising Demo -again It's important to keep devs motivated.
Game of the Year - true popular choice.

Honestly I like most of these, I just find it more difficult to nominate games in these categories and they don't bring so many new games in.
The Dark Souls of RMN - this one's very vaguely articulated. Is it an award for difficulty or for game design? I had a good nomination in this category, because Flesh is a dark souls inspired game with great game design, but it's not really so well defined.
Punniest Game Alive - I'm a serious guy. I don't appreciate humour.
Trippiest Game - This is again a weirdly specific one. Each of us can have a different definition of trippy games and while event give us many games on drugs, occasional visitors probably don't have any idea what to nominate.
The kentona Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence - A honorable mention award is nice in theory, but it doesn't work. GOTY wins this every time.
Year of the Owl
- I get it, but its not a good serious award.

Best Game Title - It's likely that you bump into a ridiculous title, while searching for something to play. On the other hand it's not really something worthy recognition on the same level as main categories.
Best Game Profile - I enjoy this one, because it encourages users to have nice profiles. It's not related to quality of games, tho.
"Lawsuit Waiting To Happen" Award - And I really love this one and I think that it belongs to the culture of RM Fan Fiction.

Overall, I thinks these are all good and inspiring categories. The point I tried to make is more of a personal one. There are 6-7 categories, which should be taken seriously. The rest is us having a good time. And I certainly enjoy nominating games in some of the unnecessary categories, where I would put all new categories as well.

author=Cap H
This would be cool, but it would require voters to play at least 10 games/year. Probably a lot more. Last year I played over 30 games and I struggled to make top 10. I ended up with a list of 8 games, because the rest didn't impact me enough to put it on the list.
So, this would have a condition of many people playing many games. I wouldn't be against making an Educated Choice, if there are enough people, who played 50 or more releases.

Well people don't have to submit 10 games, it's just a max of what you can submit. But this idea is kind of just in a perfect world scenario. My summary is basically just: funnel everything into one category in order to get a longer list of notable games in a way that presents a unique tally order.

I agree with Misaos being fun and dumb. But I think it's also okay to be passionate about stuff sometimes (I mean what else is there to do? :V).

edit: On the last point I'll be a nerd and simulate my 1 category idea. So taking the highest votes from each game (for any reason) meaning if 22 votes is what one game got highest on in a category, those 22 votes becomes "its total" here is what a list would look like.

50 - Aria's Story
42 - Psyche Locke
34 - Castlevania - Elegy of the Curse
33 - Eldritch Law
28 - Grimps
22 - Final Fantasy vs Dog
18 - Shattered Hourglass
15 - Fire RMNblem
15 - The Kidnapping (and other crimes) of Princess Pri
15 - I Want to Bring Her Back to Life but I Don't Know Where to Start
10 - Journey to the East
18 - Empty Head
17 - Flesh
14 - Escatpade
12 - Off the Table
9 - Acceptance - An Afro Guy Quest
9 - Dolorific: A House
9 - Eat a Cactus
8 - A Half-n-Half Affair
5 - Dia:Dol - Diamond Idol

So 20 games made it into the 2018 misaos. Some of them are enabled more by the jokey categories but ultimately it's an interesting list. In a perfect world I'd like to see more games make it on there, and while there would be a top 10 cut off, there'd at least be a blurb write up for each unique game.

None of the categories are necessary because awards are not necessary. Y'all are silly.

author=Liberty
Suggestions, thoughts and ideas? Keep or swap a few out for something else? Do we want a reviewer award or something like that? Maybe best event game award too? IDK

I think an award for best reviewer and best review are both excellent ideas.

Also personally, I think that more than anything else on the list, "Best Game Profile" is emphatically its own reward because that game already has tons of attention, so the idea of it being a Misao category rubs me the wrong way. Misaos should be about the games, not the packaging. But that's just my two cents.

Edit/Off-Topic: Darken, is that Killy I see?

It sounds like a good idea.

Most Pettable Dog