Gamma's layout comments

[Harlequin]

Hm. This isn't a self-motivated beef, it's a fairness and consistency beef. The contest rules were completely unequivocal - the games would be judged solely on the merits of the text. No wiggle room for "really amazing" or "really crappy" layout in there. If Gamma's comments on Malleus Maleficarum and Revolution had been clearer about how, although he's happy to comment on it, he'd taken care not to let it affect his scoring... then this beef wouldn't exist. But it sounds like he merely allowed that to contribute as a minor factor - which wasn't what the rules said would happen.

Folks like Chris Moore or James Brown designed their entries with a promise that it wouldn't make a lick of difference, guys - and that includes the Style score. If a lack (of carriage returns or anything else) bothers you as a judge, then insert carriage returns and read it again. If an image or layout property impresses you, it would be fairest to delete it from the text and read again - but I wouldn't insist on the latter, so long as the judges are keeping it in mind.

- Eric

[kenjib]

As the author of Malleus Maleficarum, I agree with you. I did the layout for fun, to inspire my own creativity, and to keep myself motivated to complete the game sufficiently that I could submit it. My layout helped with my thought processes and establishing the tone of the game in my mind. I too hope that the judges don't take the layout into account for the actual scoring.

Some kind of rule about limiting the amount of production might be useful next year, although I wonder possibly if nice layout makes the job easier/more enjoyable from the judge's perspective. Getting through so many texts without any layout or design, or having the judges feel the need to edit the files for readability, would seem more laborious to me, regardless of whether or not it influences the scoring.

[hamsterprophet]

[jmstar]

[a_ninja_judge]

There are two different issues here, for the two different games in question (Malleus Maleficarum and Revolution).

For Malleus, my intent for mentioning the page layout in the first paragraph was not to emphasize its importance but to get it out of the way first so as to focus on more relevant issues (such as the quality of the text itself discussed in the second paragraph). I could have not mentioned it at all, but it was part of my reaction to the game, so why not? I mentioned many features, good and bad, of many games, that did not, for many different reasons, correspond to either added or decremented points in the score.

I do apologize, though, for the clumsy way I worded the disclaimer about not putting "much weight" (implying, unintentionally, that I did put some weight) on layout issues. Actually, quite apart from the contest rules, I’m far more indifferent to layout, typography, and art in role playing game texts than the average gamer. So much so, in fact, that I habitually include in my game reviews a statement to the effect that I don’t put much weight on them, as a warning to readers who care about those things a lot more than I do. (I prefer, when possible, to avoid reactions like: "You said the game was well presented, but the typography is boring and the art is terrible. You made me waste my money!) In this case the disclaimer was, given the contest rules, unnecessary and misleading.

In the Revolution comments I made a different error, which was to characterize the problem I had with the text as a page layout issue. It’s not. If you read the full text of the paragraph, you’ll see that I wasn’t criticizing any problems with, or lack of, formatting elements such as margins, page breaks, illustrations, borders, italicization, or cute little curlicues between the paragraphs. The only issue I discussed, and the only issue I was concerned with, was missing line or paragraph breaks (carriage returns, in unformatted or minimally-formatted text) that made some of the game content difficult to parse. Paragraph breaks are not page layout (though their presence affects the layout, of course, just as the presence of each word does). They are as much a part of the "text itself" as punctuation marks and spaces between words. They are, in short, fair targets for my radioactive critical shuriken.

Would you argue for the "if you don’t like it, fix it yourself and reread it" mandate if a writer omitted all the spaces between words? Or ran all the sentences together with no capitalization or periods? Sorry, no. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and yes, paragraph organization do count with this judge, to the extent that they create an impression of rushed or careless writing, and/or affect the text’s ability to convey the game content.

That said, it’s quite possible that I did inadvertently allow the quality of the page layout in Malleus to inappropriately influence my subjective impression of the game style. It’s also possible that I penalized Revolution too much (or perhaps, not enough) for what was, in the end, a relatively minor fault. I will review my scoring and submit any appropriate changes to the Judgebot.

[Harlequin]

Radioactively fair and well-considered. No worries. I concur with your statement about line breaks, but it's a blurry line, innit?

You do realize, however, that your secret identity will be forever compromised when one of the indie crowd shows up at Gen Con missing a pinkie.

- Eric

[PlotDevice]

Great. Now everyone has to cut off a pinky. This is like the Yakuza all over again.