Community Feedback on Hall of Fame Rules

[Aethera]

Hall of Fame Rules Changes 2023: Phase 2

There have been many complaints about the Hall of Fame being a popularity contest over the years. If a game with three players is up against a game with sixteen, the game with sixteen almost always has at least that many votes in the first round and immediately trumps the game with only three. Well-known Game Masters can spread their influence, much like a PR campaign, over voting members of the community until the Hall of Fame becomes the People's Choice GM Awards instead of basing voting decisions on the writing and gameplay. We have heard you. (Yes, even you—you know who you are.)

The current rules (as laid out in the 2023 nomination thread and the changelog below) are being examined and a few changes have already been made by staff; this is your chance to put your thoughts forward. Thoughts on what changes can be implemented are much more helpful than complaints without solutions, but we'll review both. In the most realistic scenario, a few changes will be made this year, and we will continue to examine the rules should the new set have holes we weren't anticipating or not make enough of a difference. Comments in this thread are guaranteed our reading them, not any guaranteed action.

Hall of Fame Moderation Comments will be seen by Aethera, at minimum, as she is the current mod assigned to the competition. Additional mods may be joining her, and there will be additional staff discussion of all changes before any changes will be implemented. Other mods will chime in on this thread, too.

Please note: you may detail past issues that have occurred, but constructive criticism and solutions to such problems will get you exponentially farther than insulting, flaming, or trolling staff and/or other members (all of which are against RPGX rules). Please put away the soap box.


Phase 1 of Hall of Fame Rules Changes ended on March 15th, when the updated rules were posted along with the nomination thread. This commentary thread may get locked on that date when Aethera is in the middle of posting, so get your comments in before the last minute. Last minute comments won't see any changes made for this year's Hall of Fame (2023).

Phase 2: We now welcome continued feedback on what changes we made, whether they will suffice or not be enough, and so forth. Phase 2 can be much more relaxed, not having the imminent deadline, and may not see any official decisions made until next February, when the Hall of Fame moderator again begins organizing.


2023 Changes Already Made
Every year we have aimed to take in three great games, but there are so many more out there! In an attempt to limit the People's Choice Awards and standing-player voter-base problems mentioned above, this year we will introduce the Hidden Gems category and the Extraordinary category, both of which will consider the same nominees (and additional honorable mentions, if any) to accept another two games each year. This could be a way to reward an overlooked game or an excellent game that just wouldn't have enough player-popularity votes to pull through the member selection route. These new categories will double-down on our "quality, longevity, good implementation" definition of what makes a game worthy of Hall of Fame notice, and a game with only two players is just as worthy as one with fifteen groups. Unique game concepts, decade-long games, and games with repeated Post of the Month nominations will get another consideration for Hall of Fame induction even if the popular vote eradicates them from the running. To go along with this, we will also be taking applications for a judges panel (headed by the current Hall of Fame moderator, Aethera) to select these additional Hall of Fame games.

Encouragement will be added for sharing Post of the Month nominations related to HoF nominees, which will NOT count against the two links per game rule. No maximum number of POTM-nominated post links is currently in place. Please don't force me to implement one because of abuse of this loophole. Obviously, games that have been completed may not have POTM entries to share, but we expect most current games could have a number of them. This is not a requirement. Yet.

Limited time for discussing rules changes before kicking off Hall of Fame meant we couldn't create huge changes without significant pushback. Further changes will take place as necessary. If you want a more detailed description of the staff conversation that led to this change, please PM Aethera or the current Hall of Fame moderator.

Changelog

2023 Changes:

• New Hidden Gems and Extraordinary categories to refocus Hall of Fame on gameplay and writing quality.
• Please share posts nominated for Post of the Month in your game nomination, if you have them. They do not count against the two-link rule.

2022 Changes:

• Second-round (Community Supporter) voting submissions were secreted to prevent strategic voting of late votes.
• Games run by "the Reds" will no longer be eligible for nomination. Staff members will keep any Hall of Fame awards, and once they step down (ie. once they're not red anymore) they will once more be eligible for nomination.

[ekidnu]

One possibly simple change that should eliminate direct bias is to prevent members from voting for any game that they are/were involved in, either as a player or GM. You could still nominate a game you're involved in, just not vote for it.

This is basically what happens in the real world to mitigate bias/nepotism/insider trading/etc--if you're directly involved, you recuse yourself. There still could be a friends effect, but direct bias should be minimized. More of the people voting should be interested in quality over blindly supporting their own racehorse.