I have an enormous amount of respect for Andrew and the many many good things he does, plus it's his poll and he can put down whatever arbitrary restrictions he likes... but I think he's gone bat-shit loopy la-la over this.
The poll is not and never will be some kind of objective measure of quality - it's a measure of who can mobilise the biggest community. A related measure, perhaps, but not the same thing. I always assumed that was understood, and that it was just meant to be a bit of fun to get people talking and to expose people to roguelikes they might not otherwise try, and in that I think it does a good job*. Furthermore, in that regard DarkGod advertising the poll
in any way can only be a good thing. Especially when the means he is using is specifically targeted to only reach those people who are actually
playing the game.
The idea that huge numbers people actually give enough of a shit about winning that they will specifically alter their games to accomodate it (and as I understand it, TOME's in-game news system was pre-existing(?)) seems ludicrous to me. And if they do - well, good luck to them.
I however also don't understand why DarkGod feels the need to continue to try to get the ToME community worked up about this poll. He's already won it twice. What does winning it again prove?
What, really? You can't see that, perhaps having won it the past two years in a row actually puts
more pressure on DarkGod to try to defend the title? Winning might not prove anything, but losing might make it look as if the game had diminished somehow.
If you want the results to be more interesting and don't want TOME to keep winning every year, then just make a 'hall of fame' for games that have won three times in a row or something and exclude them from the voting. Or, just exclude the previous year's winner (but let them compete again the next year) - that way you'll get some variety but still keep their communities interested.
*I think it would do a better one if all the games had links to their download locations, but I understand the massive amount more work this would require.
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