CuriousShyRabbit
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The Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards

Welcome to the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards. 2010 was a quiet year for DROD, without much official news or forum activity. Yet, out of the shadows came a small but wonderfully diverse selection of unique creations. In 2010, we were entertained by stories, we explored interesting properties of selected game elements, we were challenged by hordes of monsters and by lynchpin puzzles. There were a few very nice DROD RPG offerings as well. Come and thank the forum's new and veteran architects for sustaining us for another year. It's time to nominate our favorite holds and architects for awards! Holds eligible for the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards must have been published between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2010.

The categories for the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards follow. See the links below for some history of the categories and their previous winners. Some of the categories are on hiatus due to the small number of holds published in 2010. And even though the word "fun" isn't included in all of the category descriptions, please imagine it there. A hold that is not enjoyable (at least for someone, in some sense of the word) should not win any of these awards.

1. Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this award is for a published DROD hold that has a beautiful design. The rooms and levels must be attractive, and they must work together as a whole in an interesting way. Holds eligible for this award may (or may not) include hold art, original avatars or sprites, or original image floor, pit or wall. Players can't just rush through this hold; they feel somehow compelled to stop and just admire the beautiful rooms and levels.

2. Technical Design Excellence in Concept
This award is for a published DROD hold that is the first (or only one) of its kind. It features unique puzzles that fit together in an equally innovative way. This hold is a leader, where others are followers. A player's reaction is, "I wish I had been the one to think of this!"

3. Creative Design Excellence in Storyline
This award is for a published DROD hold that has a detailed and engaging storyline. Characters are well-developed. The player is motivated to solve puzzles just to find out what happens next.

4. Creative Design Excellence in Difficulty
This award is for a published DROD hold that is difficult (at least 7 brains), yet still fun. Solving these puzzles requires the player to think in new ways. While many players give up on other difficult holds, they persevere and struggle through this one, because it’s just such an amazing hold.

5. Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment
This award is for a published DROD hold of easy to medium difficulty (at the very most 6.5 brains) that is the most fun to play. Playing through this hold is the perfect way to relax on a Sunday afternoon.

6. Graphics Design Excellence in a Modification
This award is for a modification for DROD or DROD RPG, not for any one hold. It can be a whole new room style, a clock, or a “cheat” like transparent tar. The most professional-looking and usable modification wins this award.

7. DROD Hold of the Year
This award is for the best DROD Hold published in 2010. This beautifully polished and balanced hold features an excellent overall concept, creative and fun puzzles with just the right level of challenge, great level design, an engaging story, and perhaps just the right extra goodies (such as custom artwork or voice acting) to set it apart from the rest. If only one of this year’s holds could be preserved for future generations of DRODders to enjoy, this would be it.

8. DROD RPG Level Set of the Year
This award is for the best DROD RPG Level Set published in 2010. This terrific level set is fun to explore, aesthetically pleasing, and the player encounters a variety of unique and interesting challenges. If you could take only one RPG level set to play and play again while stranded on a desert island, this would be it.

9. Novice Architect Award
This is the Rookie of the Year award for architects. This award is for an architect whose first hold was published in 2010. Excellent puzzles, well-designed levels, and possibly other architectural virtues such as well executed scripting, engaging storyline, and/or beautiful custom artwork show promise of great things to come from this architect.

10. Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement
This award is for architects who have been creating great holds for years. To create one good hold requires creativity and skill. But to keep on creating good holds, year after year, requires special dedication and inspiration, well worthy of an award. The winner of this award must have published their first hold in 2008 or earlier, must have published at least one hold in 2010, and must have created at least four holds rated 7 "fun" or better. This award is so prestigious, it can only be won once in a lifetime. Previous winners of the Erik Hermansen Award are Doom (2006), LarryMurk (2007), Jacob (2008), and BoyBlue (2009).

Nominations
A list of eligible holds and architects will be posted below. Please PM your nominations to me. You may make nominations in all 10, or only some, of the categories. You may nominate more than one entry in each category. You may nominate yourself, although I may publicly embarrass you by stating this fact. Other nominations will be kept private. I'll post and keep updating a list of what has been nominated for each category. Each eligible hold or architect that receives at least two nominations will appear as a choice in the Seventh Annual People’s Choice Awards voting topic.

Deadline for Nominations: February 12, 2010

Links
History of the People’s Choice Awards (This page still needs editing.)
The First Annual People's Choice Awards | Voting | Tiebreaker
The Second Annual People’s Choice Awards (Deadlies) | Voting
The Third Annual People’s Choice Awards | Voting | Final Round | Tiebreaker
The Fourth Annual People’s Choice Awards | Voting | Tiebreaker | Winners
The Fifth Annual People's Choice Awards | Voting | Tiebreaker | Winners
The Sixth Annual People's Choice Awards | Voting | Tiebreaker | Winners

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 01-28-2011 04:06 AM]

CuriousShyRabbit
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Here are lists of holds and architects eligible for the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards.

DROD Holds published between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010

DROD RPG Level Sets published between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010

Mods posted between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010
As far as I know, these are the only two. Please let me know if I missed any!

2010 Novice Architect Award

2010 Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement
You'll notice that some very talented people are not on this list. That's because they didn't publish any levels in 2010. Hopefully, they'll finish their projects this year and get back on the list for 2011!

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 01-13-2011 05:08 AM]

CuriousShyRabbit
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Nominations
Here are the nominations received thus far. A hold or architect needs two nominations to reach the voting topic.

1. Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics

2. Technical Design Excellence in Concept

3. Creative Design Excellence in Storyline

4. Creative Design Excellence in Difficulty

5. Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment

6. Graphics Design Excellence in a Modification

7. DROD Hold of the Year

8. DROD RPG Level Set of the Year

9. 2010 Novice Architect Award

10. 2010 Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement

Thanks very much for the nominations received so far - keep them coming! Don't be shy!

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 02-13-2011 08:09 AM]

CuriousShyRabbit
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Thanks to Schik for moving this topic out of its hiding hole.

Let the nominations begin!

12th Archivist
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I have sent in my nominations.

Get those submissions in, everybody else!

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

Penwielder
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I've sent in some nominations, and I'm still thinking about others. The choices may be fewer, but they're still not easy--there are still many architects represented, both new and familiar, several of which returned after long breaks. If you've enjoyed even one of these holds, then by all means, recommend it in an appropriate category. We can use all the nominations we can get.

Meanwhile... I've hardly played some of these...

____________________________
Penwielder's Palace, Detention Complex, Archipelago, Cube of Memories

Lamkin
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Nominations sent.
Encouraging others to send theirs in as well.

CuriousShyRabbit
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I see this topic has about 100 more views than when I left it last night... I know you people are looking.

Go on and send your nominations in! It's even more fun to look when the list of nominees is growing.

Plus, there's a bribe. As with last PChA and the one before, those who send nominations will eventually be rewarded...

Schik
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I haven't sent in any nominations yet, but a while ago, I developed a little tool that might come in handy for those wanting to nominate holds, particularly for the Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics award.

I present.... DROD Hold Mega-MiniMap Viewer Thingy. It's quite unpolished, and I don't have a good place to integrate it into the forum at this point, so it's just a standalone test thingy right now. But hey, play with it, check out the holds from 2010, and nominate some of them!

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Chaco
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Schik wrote:
I present.... DROD Hold Mega-MiniMap Viewer Thingy. It's quite unpolished, and I don't have a good place to integrate it into the forum at this point, so it's just a standalone test thingy right now. But hey, play with it, check out the holds from 2010, and nominate some of them!

Hey, neat! This should indeed be helpful for viewing entire levels at a time.

One little quirk, though: when calculating the size of rectangle the level image needs to be, the generator takes into account the locations of all secret rooms, even if they don't all show up due to the player not finding them yet. That can give away the locations of secret rooms if there's an entire black row or column that doesn't seem to be there for any reason.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

Schik
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Quirk known, and I'm not terribly concerned about it. But thanks for reporting it.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Rheb
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Schik wrote:
I haven't sent in any nominations yet, but a while ago, I developed a little tool that might come in handy for those wanting to nominate holds, particularly for the Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics award.

I present.... DROD Hold Mega-MiniMap Viewer Thingy. It's quite unpolished, and I don't have a good place to integrate it into the forum at this point, so it's just a standalone test thingy right now. But hey, play with it, check out the holds from 2010, and nominate some of them!

So, is this going to be added as a feature in the hints and solutions room search?

Really really really coll by the way!

____________________________
Voligner is my very own DROD-like game. Please check it out!

Timo006
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Schik wrote:
I haven't sent in any nominations yet, but a while ago, I developed a little tool that might come in handy for those wanting to nominate holds, particularly for the Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics award.

I present.... DROD Hold Mega-MiniMap Viewer Thingy. It's quite unpolished, and I don't have a good place to integrate it into the forum at this point, so it's just a standalone test thingy right now. But hey, play with it, check out the holds from 2010, and nominate some of them!

This sure makes the 13th level in KDD a lot easier, if you ask me...

and this is the first time that something I made is in the finals, sweet!

____________________________
Drod Number: 3034; 8th person to see the Second Sky

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[Last edited by Timo006 at 02-02-2011 12:34 PM]

larrymurk
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Schik's thingy is a very col thingy.

CuriousShyRabbit
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Map.php is awesome!

I'd be really interested to see a Forum Statistics page showing which level(s) have been viewed the most...

Also: we need more nominations for the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards. Now that Schik's made it easy for everyone, I hope we can really start to flesh out the ballot.

CuriousShyRabbit
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Less than 1 week left for nominations! If you would like to see the Eighth Annual People's Choice Awards happen next year, you need to participate in the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards! If you can think of even one hold that deserves a nomination, send it in!

We need at least 10 more participants to make this thing fly!

EDIT: After one day of the Big New Incentive (see post below) we now need at least 4 more participants to make this thing fly!

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 02-07-2011 07:34 AM]

CuriousShyRabbit
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BIG NEW INCENTIVE

Schik just told me that everyone who sends me nominations for the Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards will get one sword for the new bar game! I'll send him the list of those who have already done their nominations right now!

Ivcha Pivcha
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SCHIK, I must say to ya that Viewer Thingy is very CHIC!

____________________________
Never read books you aren't sure about . . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup? ~ St. John Bosco

CuriousShyRabbit
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Usually, as more nominations trickle in, points of confusion get ironed out. But apparently not in the case of Jacob's hold, Uncle Arable's Rooms. This hold has a user rating of 6.5 brains, which means some players think it's a 7+ brain hold and others think it's easier than that. That's probably not surprising for a hold filled with lynchpin puzzles. It's been nominated in two mutually exclusive categories, Creative Design Excellence in Difficulty (for 7+ brain holds) and in Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment (for <7 brain holds). This cross nomination can't be a simple mistake or typo in a single set of nominations, because it's leading both categories in number of nominations!

What would you all like to see happen?

Let it compete in the Entertainment category only, due to its 6.5 brain user rating? (This would be my default decision.)

Let it compete in both categories? (Since there are so many nominations, maybe this is what you want.)

If it does compete in both categories, should it be allowed to win in both categories?

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 02-10-2011 09:19 AM]

slimm tom
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I'll get my nominations in today. It's always nice to promote good architecture, especially through something as awesome as the People's Choice Awards! (Great job CSR!)

Penwielder
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CuriousShyRabbit wrote:
What would you all like to see happen?

I think it would be in Jacob's best interests to run his hold in only one category so that votes for it are not divided. It's also most consistent, considering what we did with Penwielder's Palace last year (same situation). I wouldn't really mind either way, though, so I'd give the author the choice.

____________________________
Penwielder's Palace, Detention Complex, Archipelago, Cube of Memories

Chaco
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I second Penwielder's opinion that we should get Jacob to pick which category he wants to run his hold in when the official poll is set up, since the two categories are mutually exclusive and I think the hold should only have a chance to win one "high or low difficulty level" award.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

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[Last edited by Chaco at 02-10-2011 07:20 PM]

CuriousShyRabbit
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Regarding Uncle Arable's Rooms, sure, if I hear from Jacob before I set up the poll on Sunday, I'll use his preference. Otherwise, I'll put UAR in the Entertainment category, not the Difficulty category. Thanks for your input, Penwielder and Chaco.

slimm tom wrote:
I'll get my nominations in today.

I'm looking forward to receiving them. Thanks!

CuriousShyRabbit
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Time's running out! Only a day and a bit to send in your nominations. We need more nominations in the following two categories:

- Creative Design Excellence in Difficulty (for 7+ brain holds)

- DROD Hold of the Year

Ivcha Pivcha
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CuriousShyRabbit wrote:
Regarding Uncle Arable's Rooms, sure, if I hear from Jacob before I set up the poll on Sunday, I'll use his preference. Otherwise, I'll put UAR in the Entertainment category, not the Difficulty category. Thanks for your input, Penwielder and Chaco.

slimm tom wrote:
I'll get my nominations in today.

I'm looking forward to receiving them. Thanks!

Author's Difficulty:
Brain trust: 6,5

Hope this will tell You something. Mind thou that I rated this hold with perfect TEN in entertainment and 7 and half brains in difficulty, but whomever setup rules You should stick with them.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus!


____________________________
Never read books you aren't sure about . . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup? ~ St. John Bosco

Jacob
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Since hold is rated 6.5 (and I'd thought it was easier), it make sense to just run in it in the lower difficulty category (entertainment).

Thanks for asking.

____________________________
New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

CuriousShyRabbit
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Less than 10 hours left for nominations!

This ballot looks rather sparse, so there's plenty of room for more nominations! Send them in!

As mentioned before, sending in your nominations earns you one sword for the Bar Game.

CuriousShyRabbit
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Four hours left for nominations! Come on, you can do it!

CuriousShyRabbit
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And... CLOSED

A big thank you again to the 30 community members who sent in nominations!!!

As is our custom, people who sent in nominations will find they now have more mod points (either here or in some other forum post) and holds that got at least two nominations will find they have more karma.

I'm going to make the voting topic now...

EDIT: And here is the VOTING TOPIC. Who wants to vote first?

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[Last edited by CuriousShyRabbit at 02-13-2011 09:33 AM]