ENnies and Diana Jones Award Nominations Announced

Yesterday, the nominees for my second-favourite of all game industry awards were announced. They’re the ENnies, an award originating from the EN World website. They were first given out in 2001, and have only grown bigger.

The ENnies system works so that first the EN World community picks a number of judges from the community – a bunch of folks announce their nominations and they’re voted upon by the community. They read through a mind-blowingly huge pile of products and pick the best for nominees in every cathegory. Then, the online community of roleplayers votes the winners, and the awards are given out in a ceremony in Gen Con Indy.

It’s a strong list of nominees this year. Paizo Publishing is up for a bunch of awards, many of which they richly deserve, The Pirate’s Guide to Freeport is up for four, there’s Witch Hunter and Trail of Cthulhu and The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, and even Star Wars Saga Edition, Og and Monte Cook’s World of Darkness.

I’ve got a lot of the nominated products, and looks like I’ll need to pick up a goodly amount more. Especially Trail of Cthulhu has been on my shopping list for some time now. The voting opens on July 21st, and I will have to make some hard choices.

On July 4th, the nominees for my very favourite of all game industry awards were announced. It’s the Diana Jones Award, so named because the physical prize is a perspex pyramid containing the burnt remnants of the last unsold Indiana Jones Adventure Game, with only a part of the logo still visible. According to the award commitee, a physical embodiment of the destruction of one of the industry’s least mourned products is a most fitting symbol for the goals of the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming.

There’s always a certain variety in the nominees for the Diana Jones. While most awards, like ENnies and Origins, focus on the products, the Diana Jones may go anywhere. This year, the nominees are a podcast, a charity, a game festival, a game publication method, a book of academic essays about gaming and only a single actual game. And even I have only ever actually heard of two of those.

It’s going to be interesting. It always is.