Originally posted by Nadia

http://www.gdconlineawards.com/rules/

eligible titles are persistent online video games which were initially released in Beta or full version June 1, 2011 – May 31, 2012 in North America

 

there wasnt much to pick from

what does timespan leave?   SWTOR and TERA ?

 But if it's SWTOR and TERA ... why did SWTOR win this...

 

"Best Online Visual Arts: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)"

 

A cartoony butchered Star Wars themed game with awful animations somehow won that over TERA?

 

They also won best Tech, i'm pretty sure hitboxes, collision detection, self aimed reticle combat is harder and more complicated than tab targetting, also TERA is a persistent world.

 

Both games are full of flaws, but SWTOR does not deserve those two rewards for any reason at all, I would have given the reward to the Sims in artstyle before SWTOR because SWTOR already had art to go off and they still managed to do horribly.

Originally posted by Jenosyde
Another reason why people think its OK to make terrible games. Still get rewarded for failures..

SWTOR a terrible game? thanks for the laugh. Why can't people just say "It's a good game, just not my thing". I also don't like GW2, for me it's one of the most boring MMO's i've played. Yet i don't come here saying "this game is garbage".

You want to know what's terrible?! I'll tell you, it's the MMO community. A bunch of spoiled brats who can't see anything improving or growing with time. 

You want to know what's terrible?! I'll tell you, it's the MMO community. A bunch of spoiled brats who can't see anything improving or growing with time. 

 We can't see it because nothing is improving, besides graphics, but graphics don't make a game.

Originally posted by sleepr27

Originally posted by Jenosyde
Another reason why people think its OK to make terrible games. Still get rewarded for failures..

SWTOR a terrible game? thanks for the laugh. Why can't people just say "It's a good game, just not my thing". I also don't like GW2, for me it's one of the most boring MMO's i've played. Yet i don't come here saying "this game is garbage".

You want to know what's terrible?! I'll tell you, it's the MMO community. A bunch of spoiled brats who can't see anything improving or growing with time. 

Although overly harsh, I pretty much agree. 

Originally posted by Karteli

ref:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/179174/Live_from_the_Game_Developers_Choice_Online_Awards.php

Special thanks to Sevenstar61 in thread
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/367031/page/1

for revealing the award link.

Among the most puzzling:

Best New Online Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)

"It was a long journey to get there, and a lot of people. It's a huge game, the biggest thing I can imagine to do, this project. A lot of effort went into it." - Former executive producer Rich Vogel, who was, touchingly, brought on stage by the current team members in attendance to accept the award with them.

 

The advisory board:

http://www.gdconline.com/aboutgdc/advisoryboard.html

 

A significant number of people on the board are either affiliated with EA or once were.  Rich Vogel was recently laid off from EA and dusting off his resume (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174300/SWTORs_executive_producer_leaves_BioWare_amid_layoff_reports.php), and Gordon Walton is responsible for the alpha version of SWTOR's Hero Engine, which he said EA would finish it themselves (http://www.heroengine.com/2011/11/heroengine-meets-starwars/).  Mr. Walton left EA's subdivision BioWare in early 2011 (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33051/BioWare_Austins_Walton_Leaves_To_Join_Playdom_Austin.php).

 

Among the other questionable "voting" board members:

Robert Zubek, former EA employee (http://arnetminer.org/person/robert-zubek-319979.html)

Euguene Evans, VP & Studio GM of Mythic (EA) http://www.developconference.com/page.cfm/Action=Visitor/VisitorID=482)

Chris Mayar, former Technical Director at EA  http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,217471/

Min Kim, former Localization Direction at EA http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Kyung+min/Kim

[I'll check others if I have time, gave up because 85% of them had an EA affiliation that was publicized]

 

Others are still affiliated with EA, or were at one time.  It hardly seems fair, even though SWTOR wasn't up to par with expectations, that developers get to vote for themselves to advance their carrers, on a panel that has a significant proportion of EA influence.  Just to give themselves awards.  Journalists ran with this story, but none of which actually looked at the makeup of who was capable of the votes.

 

What s sham to gamers.

 

Yes the fix was in, and they got awards that they don't deserve.  All this in hopes of bolstering the stock price. Somebody forom the SEc needs to look at them for stock malipulation as this is what it is.

Originally posted by Karteli

ref:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/179174/Live_from_the_Game_Developers_Choice_Online_Awards.php

Special thanks to Sevenstar61 in thread
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/367031/page/1

for revealing the award link.

Among the most puzzling:

Best New Online Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)

"It was a long journey to get there, and a lot of people. It's a huge game, the biggest thing I can imagine to do, this project. A lot of effort went into it." - Former executive producer Rich Vogel, who was, touchingly, brought on stage by the current team members in attendance to accept the award with them.

 

The advisory board:

http://www.gdconline.com/aboutgdc/advisoryboard.html

 

A significant number of people on the board are either affiliated with EA or once were.  Rich Vogel was recently laid off from EA and dusting off his resume (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174300/SWTORs_executive_producer_leaves_BioWare_amid_layoff_reports.php), and Gordon Walton is responsible for the alpha version of SWTOR's Hero Engine, which he said EA would finish it themselves (http://www.heroengine.com/2011/11/heroengine-meets-starwars/).  Mr. Walton left EA's subdivision BioWare in early 2011 (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33051/BioWare_Austins_Walton_Leaves_To_Join_Playdom_Austin.php).

 

Among the other questionable "voting" board members:

Robert Zubek, former EA employee (http://arnetminer.org/person/robert-zubek-319979.html)

Euguene Evans, VP & Studio GM of Mythic (EA) http://www.developconference.com/page.cfm/Action=Visitor/VisitorID=482)

Chris Mayar, former Technical Director at EA  http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,217471/

Min Kim, former Localization Direction at EA http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Kyung+min/Kim

[I'll check others if I have time, gave up because 85% of them had an EA affiliation that was publicized]

 

Others are still affiliated with EA, or were at one time.  It hardly seems fair, even though SWTOR wasn't up to par with expectations, that developers get to vote for themselves to advance their carrers, on a panel that has a significant proportion of EA influence.  Just to give themselves awards.  Journalists ran with this story, but none of which actually looked at the makeup of who was capable of the votes.

 

What s sham to gamers.

 

Would you like to borrow some tin foil?

Reminds me of this....

 

http://i.imgur.com/BEZOe.png

Originally posted by Paragus1

Reminds me of this....

 

http://i.imgur.com/BEZOe.png

Almost as bad as this.

Originally posted by Pivotelite

Originally posted by Nadia

http://www.gdconlineawards.com/rules/

eligible titles are persistent online video games which were initially released in Beta or full version June 1, 2011 – May 31, 2012 in North America

there wasnt much to pick from

what does timespan leave?   SWTOR and TERA ?

 But if it's SWTOR and TERA ... why did SWTOR win this...

"Best Online Visual Arts: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)"

A cartoony butchered Star Wars themed game with awful animations somehow won that over TERA?

They also won best Tech, i'm pretty sure hitboxes, collision detection, self aimed reticle combat is harder and more complicated than tab targetting, also TERA is a persistent world.

Both games are full of flaws, but SWTOR does not deserve those two rewards for any reason at all, I would have given the reward to the Sims in artstyle before SWTOR because SWTOR already had art to go off and they still managed to do horribly.

agree i would have voted for TERA for visual effects

 

 the nominee listings

http://gdconlineawards.com/nominee/index.html

Best Online Visual Arts

The Best Online Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in online games including, but not limited to, character and animation design, interface design, and 2D or 3D art creation and direction of all kinds

    WINNER: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)
    Tera (Bluehole Studio/En Masse)
    Empires & Allies (Zynga LA)
    Age of Empires Online (Robot Entertainment & Gas Powered Games)
    Glitch (Tiny Speck)

Best Online Technology

The Best Online Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in an online game. This includes excellence in complexity of network infrastructure, persistent world coding, graphics technology, artificial intelligence, or any other elements.

    WINNER: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)
    Diablo III (Blizzard Entertainment)
    Indiana Jones Adventure World (Zynga Boston)
    Tera (Bluehole Studio/En Masse)
    The Sims Social (Playfish)

Originally posted by Karteli

ref:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/179174/Live_from_the_Game_Developers_Choice_Online_Awards.php

Special thanks to Sevenstar61 in thread
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/367031/page/1

for revealing the award link.

Among the most puzzling:

Best New Online Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)

"It was a long journey to get there, and a lot of people. It's a huge game, the biggest thing I can imagine to do, this project. A lot of effort went into it." - Former executive producer Rich Vogel, who was, touchingly, brought on stage by the current team members in attendance to accept the award with them.

 

The advisory board:

http://www.gdconline.com/aboutgdc/advisoryboard.html

 

A significant number of people on the board are either affiliated with EA or once were.  Rich Vogel was recently laid off from EA and dusting off his resume (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174300/SWTORs_executive_producer_leaves_BioWare_amid_layoff_reports.php), and Gordon Walton is responsible for the alpha version of SWTOR's Hero Engine, which he said EA would finish it themselves (http://www.heroengine.com/2011/11/heroengine-meets-starwars/).  Mr. Walton left EA's subdivision BioWare in early 2011 (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33051/BioWare_Austins_Walton_Leaves_To_Join_Playdom_Austin.php).

 

Among the other questionable "voting" board members:

Robert Zubek, former EA employee (http://arnetminer.org/person/robert-zubek-319979.html)

Euguene Evans, VP & Studio GM of Mythic (EA) http://www.developconference.com/page.cfm/Action=Visitor/VisitorID=482)

Chris Mayar, former Technical Director at EA  http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,217471/

Min Kim, former Localization Direction at EA http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Kyung+min/Kim

[I'll check others if I have time, gave up because 85% of them had an EA affiliation that was publicized]

 

Others are still affiliated with EA, or were at one time.  It hardly seems fair, even though SWTOR wasn't up to par with expectations, that developers get to vote for themselves to advance their carrers, on a panel that has a significant proportion of EA influence.  Just to give themselves awards.  Journalists ran with this story, but none of which actually looked at the makeup of who was capable of the votes.

 

What s sham to gamers.

 

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Obsess hate much? Conspiracy theorys abound!!!!

lol hahaha good one.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

SWTOR is an ok game. I love the Star Wars universe but the PvE is horrible, combat is bad and quest system is old and boring, PvP is unbalanced.

The things i like with SWTOR is the story of a few classes and the Legacy System.

Originally posted by sleepr27

Originally posted by Jenosyde
Another reason why people think its OK to make terrible games. Still get rewarded for failures..

SWTOR a terrible game? thanks for the laugh. Why can't people just say "It's a good game, just not my thing". I also don't like GW2, for me it's one of the most boring MMO's i've played. Yet i don't come here saying "this game is garbage".

You want to know what's terrible?! I'll tell you, it's the MMO community. A bunch of spoiled brats who can't see anything improving or growing with time. 

It's a terrible game. If SWTOR is not terrible then there is no such thing.

Those people would be called customers. Theyre the ones who left the game by the hundreds of thousands because it's a vacuous experience.

Also, If you think SWTOR will improve by some significant degree over time then you are falling for the same mechanism they have used for retention since launch ... baseless hope.

 

This pat on the back by the industry amounts to giving a kid candy for bad grades in school.

Developers feeding a schizm with the userbase do so at their peril.

Originally posted by Karteli

ref:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/179174/Live_from_the_Game_Developers_Choice_Online_Awards.php

Special thanks to Sevenstar61 in thread
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/367031/page/1

for revealing the award link.

Among the most puzzling:

Best New Online Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)

"It was a long journey to get there, and a lot of people. It's a huge game, the biggest thing I can imagine to do, this project. A lot of effort went into it." - Former executive producer Rich Vogel, who was, touchingly, brought on stage by the current team members in attendance to accept the award with them.

 

The advisory board:

http://www.gdconline.com/aboutgdc/advisoryboard.html

 

A significant number of people on the board are either affiliated with EA or once were.  Rich Vogel was recently laid off from EA and dusting off his resume (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174300/SWTORs_executive_producer_leaves_BioWare_amid_layoff_reports.php), and Gordon Walton is responsible for the alpha version of SWTOR's Hero Engine, which he said EA would finish it themselves (http://www.heroengine.com/2011/11/heroengine-meets-starwars/).  Mr. Walton left EA's subdivision BioWare in early 2011 (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33051/BioWare_Austins_Walton_Leaves_To_Join_Playdom_Austin.php).

 

Among the other questionable "voting" board members:

Robert Zubek, former EA employee (http://arnetminer.org/person/robert-zubek-319979.html)

Euguene Evans, VP & Studio GM of Mythic (EA) http://www.developconference.com/page.cfm/Action=Visitor/VisitorID=482)

Chris Mayar, former Technical Director at EA  http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,217471/

Min Kim, former Localization Direction at EA http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Kyung+min/Kim

[I'll check others if I have time, gave up because 85% of them had an EA affiliation that was publicized]

 

Others are still affiliated with EA, or were at one time.  It hardly seems fair, even though SWTOR wasn't up to par with expectations, that developers get to vote for themselves to advance their carrers, on a panel that has a significant proportion of EA influence.  Just to give themselves awards.  Journalists ran with this story, but none of which actually looked at the makeup of who was capable of the votes.

 

What s sham to gamers.

 

Good lesson for me to never post any links in this forum.

I think I got enough of this forum for a long time.

It was an award for game developers, handed out by game developers. It like the awards for actors, handed out by actors. They're going to have a different set of criteria for what's 'good' and what's 'bad'.

Sad fact is that if you are a major player in the gaming industry , you've once worked with or for EA. Face it , it's a huge stable company that employes a lot of people on major projects. If you are any good and are noticed by them , they will hire you .  Most will rightly jump at a chance to pad their resumee's, as well as their pockets.

Your logic is flawed. You are assuming former members of EA have given up their integrity to EA. This is the worse kind of slander.

 

 

Bottom line...the only awards that REALLY matter are the ones that gamers decide to give out or withhold with thier wallets. Everything else is just smoke and noise.

Originally posted by lizardbones

It was an award for game developers, handed out by game developers. It like the awards for actors, handed out by actors. They're going to have a different set of criteria for what's 'good' and what's 'bad'.

To me the message sent isn't "the game is good" but, we developers (or should I say suits) have no clues of how to do better and are uaware (at least officially) of what games are better.

You missed Joe McDonagh of Pop Cap games, owned by EA.

That asside, the competition was a very weak field, and included social media games.

Most industry awards are pretty much a useless circle "something" and are only really noticed in the "arts" entertainment field. Video games are in a weird grey area between art and commerce, so it's easy to be bothered by their award choices or ignore them completely.