The 2008 Lemmy Visual Novel Awards - Results now posted!

[mikey]

Most innovative [...] Innovative is too vague. What part are we talking about? [...] However, everything else is to varied for me to decide what we are exactly aiming for here. Abstained.

Well, it's not like the official description of "best overall" is any more clear:
Special [games] that have entertained you and made you think, "Wow, that was really good!" .

[Wintermoon]

I'd like to start off by noting that I think the categories could probably have been better. I mean - there's a "Best Drama" and a "Best Humour" but not - say - a "Best Romance" or a "Best Any Other Genre Of Fiction", and there's nothing to celebrate some of the other aspects of VN production, like art or music. I'd probably have been more happy with a "Best Writing" instead of the Drama/Humour categories, and added "Best Original Graphics" and "Best Original Music" categories. Maybe even a "Best Presentation" or "Most Polished".

I'd rather not see visual novels picked apart like that. The result is what matters, not the components that went into it.

(It almost sounds like you think music and art don't contribute to humor or drama, but that can't be right, can it?)

Well, it's not like the official description of "best overall" is any more clear:
Special [games] that have entertained you and made you think, "Wow, that was really good!" .

Sounds very clear to me. Vote for the one you liked best.

[mikey]

Sounds very clear to me. Vote for the one you liked best.

Well, if everyone votes for the game he likes best (without any further specification, just this very general formula), won't the result of that vote be not the best game, but the most popular one? Doesn't the word "best" (as in Best Game) already stipulate some criteria, some context?

[monele]

I wouldn't be against having awards for music and graphics and such. As long as we get "technical" awards AND "spiritual" awards ("average graphics and music but it just worked so well the way it was put together!" = best overall for example), it's fine.

[Jake]

(It almost sounds like you think music and art don't contribute to humor or drama, but that can't be right, can it?)

Not at all. It means that I think that there is more to writing than comedy and drama, and it means that I think Visual Novels are inherently multimedia creations, and that ignoring the art and the music aspects is counter-productive.

What if someone wrote a documentary in VN format? Maybe it's a really good format for whatever they're presenting for some reason, and they could have the best writing in the world, but still not be dramatic or comedic. Outside of 'Best Overall', that VN wouldn't have any category it could be nominated in, whereas if there were a "Best Writing" category it would be perfectly at home.

Similarly, it's quite, quite possible to write a fluffy romance without using drama or comedy, and that's a lot closer to the heart of the forum.


Fundamentally, if you're not going to pick VNs apart and consider their components, then you have one single award: Best VN. This set of awards already examines just some components, I just think it's careless to recognise some components and ignore others.

Here is a hypothetical:
VN A has excellent attention paid to visuals and musical direction and user-interface polish and so on. It's obvious that the creator really understands the VN medium, it's strengths and its weaknesses, very well. Unfortunately, he's a mediocre writer and as great as it is, he can't write dramatic scenes very well.

VN B has excellent dramatic writing, but shoddy graphics and carelessly-thought-out music that was obviously assembled in a hurry. It might just as well be plain-text prose and totally misses the point of a VN.

Why should VN B be eligible for an award, but not VN A? And bear in mind that I brought it up in the first place because there's a VN this year - The Fucking Question - which I think stands out quite obviously from the crowd, but mostly in ways which aren't recognised by these awards.

[chronoluminaire]

I thought I'd make my votes public, so I can explain the thought process behind them. Feel free to ignore

Best Overall: Songs of Araiah
This was close. In terms of polish, TFQ beats the others, but TFQ has pretty much no appeal to me for any of the rest of what I want from a VN, and it isn't anything that I can point people at to say "Look what OELVNs can be like!"

SoA and TT are a lot closer to each other. SoA loses points for being a KN and everything that goes with it - losing the involvement and feeling of controlling a character's destiny - as well as for the backgrounds that don't match the text; but it gains them for the intro video, the elements of the presentation like the frame, the depth of the setting, the sheer length without feeling padded, and the dramatic climax.

Best Drama: Tying Threads
This was the hardest decision, for me, as all three nominees were in serious contention.
So if I liked Araiah's dramatic climax, why do I vote for Threads? Because TT's emotional involvement was more consistent. SoA ranged across a whole variety of aspects, spending time discussing the details of how magic works and the political situation, and the protagonist spent most of his time getting bossed around by the girl While TT focused on basically just one emotional axis - between loneliness and belonging - and did it very well.

Best Humor: Lady Sugarplum's Bad Day
TFQ didn't do it for me. Real Life was definitely amusing in several places, but overall, Lady Sugarplum gave me the most laughs.

Most Innovative: Yaruge Girl Triona
All the nominees deserve recognition for taking Ren'Py beyond the basics, and all of them worked well within what they tried to do. But Triona's was the most technically impressive to me. I wouldn't necessarily say it worked as a game, but the capabilities of the graphics code are astonishing.

Fanservice Award: Lady Sugarplum's Bad Day
As others have said, Triona isn't exactly "fanservice". Real Life is definitely aiming for the otaku appeal, but - well - if I can put it this way, I find panties more fanservicey if they're being worn by a female character at the time!


My congratulations to all the nominees. (And I wish Raidaa no Asahi could have been eligible, because that was an excellent game that I would have tried to nominate somewhere had I been able to.)

[ShiraiJunichi]

Wow- I almost missed these awards. RL has been keeping me really busy, so I haven't visited the forums for quite a while. Thanks for the nomination- that alone is quite an honor. I'd like to play some of the other games so I can make an informed choice and vote too, but the archives seem to be down... T_T But maybe that means the servers crashed because SOOO many people are downloading games so they can vote ^_^ ( I'd really be interested in seeing the download statistics for the past two months compared with downloads over the sixth or so months prior )

EDIT: Looks like they're back up. Though I realized I could've just downloaded the games here on the forums. It really has been too long since I've been active in this community... T_T

[lucy]

Hmm... (Reads the whole thread)

(...There goes our Lemmy's for this year )

A "Handsome Long Haired Guy" will definitelly go into "extended sulking mode" for a while when he reads this...

[Samu-kun]

Maybe he'll learn his lesson and reform himself now...

[mikey]

Maybe he'll learn his lesson and reform himself now...

I'm more inclined to think the Lemmys should learn their lesson and reform themselves instead.

[Blue Lemma]

I think we'll have a 2008 Lemmy post-mortem after this...

But anyway, I just wanted to say that the results will be posted Sunday

Vote vote!

[Taleweaver]

Results?

[Blue Lemma]

Coming today

(make that tonight... in like an hour ^_^)

[lucy]

Oh Boy... Better be prepared for the incoming mental shock...

"POOF" (Disap... ugh *Cough*) Still need more practice. (Walks away)

[Blue Lemma]

Results are up!

http://lemmasoft.net/lemmys/results2008_0.html