Ennies: Why Do I Care?

I have been asked by 2 people that have been great sources of feedback on my games why do I care about the Ennies if I am doing what I do out of passion. So here is the answer for everyone to see.

First, some facts for those who are out of the loop. The Ennies is an annual fan-based award given out at GenCon every year. Games produced between May 1st 2010 and April 30th 2011 are eligible for the awards at this year's GenCon. I will be submitting my own games right before the cut off. These games are then reviewed by a panel of judges and nominations are selected to be put to a vote. So the judges nominate 5 games in a category and then fandom can vote on the games over the internet. The winners get awards at GenCon.

Now obviously, I have a snowballs chance in hell of winning the general vote. If I won an award, I would be really surprised. Because the votes are based on popularity and as a dark horse candidate I don't feel that I have a chance to out-fan Pathfinder or Vampire or whatever. That would be delusional. The only way I could win an award would probably be to run an entire category, which is theoretically possible since I have 5 games that I could hold every nomination in the Free Games category. However, that would be like the greatest long shot ever. Like shooting a basket from under the opponent's goal as the buzzer sounds in the Final Four or something. Never gonna happen kinda stuff.

However, I am most interested in the nomination process. Unless I am ignorant of some other venue, the Ennies is the highest profile chance to have your game judged on content, not marketing. It is arguably the best fair hearing that a low profile free game is going to get. So if I can pull out a few nominations, it would show people that I make quality games, regardless of my limited marketing presence.

Now I have heard quite a few people express a concern that the Ennies is too focused on print-based production to give a fair hearing to PDF media. And there have been accusations of corruption in some quarters and the merits of that I will leave to others to debate. I am not placing all my hope in this basket or anything, I just feel positive about it. I am optimistic that it can be a good thing for me. And if it leaves a sour taste in my mouth in a few months, so be it. I will be a sad panda for a little while and then move on.

I feel like I gotta take a chance and roll the dice.

Make sense?