[Icehouse] Ice Game Design Competition 2007

[James Hazelton]

I'm glad that someone is able to take up this responsibility. I think it is
important to have an individual by name who can head up a project and be
accountable. That said, I also think it would be a good idea to have a small
cabal of associates who also have access to voting records, to head off
termination and even delay. Were such a cabal to be formed, I hope my name
is considered.

Brian, you make a lot of good points; while I disagree on some points, it
looks like we are on the same page for most things.

1. Things from the old competition should be cleared up, but if we are going
to have two formats this time around (see below), it would be overkill to
redo the last competition as well. Certainly it is only fair to allow the
games to compete. You might go so far as to guaranteeing a spot on the
ballot for those games (this is assuming that there would be a primary to
see which games get to compete--after this long, there may be too many games
for everyone to get on the ballot).

2. While I agree that the Wiki is an invaluable tool for the community and
it would convenient to use it for the competition, I think it is important
to make sure that game submission and voting can both be done without
membership to the Wiki. I am assuming that we will get mentions on
Looneylabs.com and Wunderland.com, so no doubt there will be a good number
of potential voters who want to participate, but not enough to sign up for
something. There should be an email option as well for anything that
requires membership to the Wiki.

3. Once or twice a year is, in my opinion, more preferable than quarterly. I
don't think every game made in the time frame should even be allowed on the
ballot, necessarily. The Icehouse Null Game was in the first
competition--how? Fewer competitions a year will increase the average
quality of the games.

4. I strongly disagree with adding prize support to the competition. The
traditional "prize" of having your game recognized on likely printed is good
enough. A Crystal Caste set would be enough motivation to get someone to
cheat, and even a set of ZPIPs or a fancy piecenik set add something to the
game that I'm not sure is proper. If it were a Looney-supported prize--say,
off-coloured pyramids or some cash--I may feel different, because then it
could be more in the line of reimbursement for printing rights.

5. I very much like the idea of a dual-format. This is in line with what I
was suggesting earlier about having a Treehouse-centric ballot and a
separate open ballot. This time the themed format would be Treehouse, and
next time it could be Volcano caps, or tarot cards, or whatever. For all the
reasons you mentioned, especially fostering creativity in games, I think it
is a fantastic idea.


James
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