DragonCon 2016 has launched a new award and invites all fans everywhere to participate:
Welcome to the first annual Dragon Awards! As a part of our 30th Anniversary as the nation’s largest fan run convention, we are introducing a new way to recognize excellence in all things Science Fiction and Fantasy. These awards will be by the fans, for the fans, and are your chance to reward those who have made real contributions to SF, books, games, comics, and shows. There is no qualification for voting – no convention fees or other memberships are needed. The only requirement is that you register, confirm your email address for voting purposes, and agree to the rules. This ensures that all votes count equally.
Winners will be announced at the 30th Anniversary Dragon Con convention, which will be held September 2 to September 5, 2016 in Atlanta.
Winners will be selected in a two-step process. Using a dedicated Dragon Awards website, fans can nominate one (and only one) of their favorite properties in any or all the award categories. Nominations will be open from early April until July 25. The best and most popular of the nominated properties in each category will then be offered for a second and final vote beginning August 2. Fans will be allowed to vote just once for each category’s best in this final round of voting.
More complete details about the Dragon Awards.
The graphic story and game categories really should be split up a bit more. I don’t think the organizers quite realize how much material is produced for these in any given year.
OT Some SJW on boardgamegeek was looking for games exploring mental illness akin to Depresson Quest. It took a bit of restraint not to recommend something in the LARP category.
Give it time — this is just the first iteration. They’ll figure out it needs to morph over the next year or three.
Good start from the above list.
Really? Their gaming categories, to me, are the few places where they’re not splitting hairs a bit too finely.
Bad enough that Mil-SF, Apocalyptic and Horror SF are off in their own little ghettos; I would not begrudge tedious rock gathering Eurogames competing against military strategy games so long as it didn’t mean making a dozen little categories that few outside of those little niches would care about. Broader categories could very well mean a wider range of products getting cross-over exposure.
Again, first iteration. Give it a chance to sort out by collecting your (and others’) feedback.
Mostly for the boardgames, and I’d support a simple SF/F split. Tons of stuff getting put out these days, partly due to crowdfunding, but there’s a lot of companies these days.
I personally think the subgenre awards are a good idea, as it can grant a better picture of the quality of the year’s work.
I’m just glad to see them doing this at all. It’s a good step for DragonCon to be taking. And I agree with Blue that this is the first iteration – I’m betting that they’ll respond well to feedback.