GenCon Friday
Friday was a blur. I spent a lot of time out of the booth and when I was there I was constantly talking or putting together new bundles. We ran out of several products the first day and had to have more sent in. Boxes were moved, opened, product stacked, more product stacked. Next thing I knew it was 5:30 and I was feeling exhausted, with the ENnies still ahead of me.
After the dealer's hall closed I made a quick change into ENnies attire and headed over to the location of the ceremony. A new location again this year and a step down from the swankness of last year's ceremony. The room was desperately hot and had far too few seats, let alone tables and chairs. The cash bar was doing a brisk business in $5 Heinikens and "$7 Liquor" as desperately thirsty game designers caved in and begged for something cold to drink. The ceremony itself was well run, emcee'd again this year by Pirate Cat Kevin Kulp and studded with guest presenters. Music, lights, and the video projection were all handled nearly perfectly. My only complaint on that is that in some cases Honorable Mentions were included in the announcements but in others they were overlooked. Both The Game Mechanics and our own Robert J. Schwalb had one Honorable Mention apiece and both were among those honorable mentions that didn't get mentioned.
It was the Year of Silver for Green Ronin, as an increasingly sweat-drenched Steve Kenson was called up to accept Silver ENnie honors for his work on Mutants & Masterminds. This year every publisher was asked to pick a song that could be played as they came forward to accept. Chris wanted to find a punk rock song but I pulled rank as GR's General Manager and insisted that we pick something quick, catchy, upbeat and that kicked in within 2-3 seconds because I knew we only had about 15 seconds of sound to work with. None of the rest of the staff knew what I'd picked, so they were waiting to hear. When the first award was announced and the audience began actively clapping along to the Black Eyed Peas' Pump It, I knew I'd made the right choice. By the end of the night we had the whole place rocking, clapping along. I couldn't have been happier.
We took home the Best Publisher award again this year and, truly, you could have knocked us over with a feather when the announcement was made. Wizards of the Coast was awarded the Silver ENnie and we all looked at each other in shock as we couldn't imagine who could beat WotC. But this year was a Golden ENnie year for Paizo (and well-deserved) so it took us just a few seconds to agree amongst ourselves that it must be Paizo for the gold. We were expectantly waiting to hear Paizo announced, so when the words Green Ronin came out of Peter's mouth it was such a shock. Amazing how quickly one can make up one's mind! It had only taken me seconds to agree that Paizo would be winning, it's not like it was a long-held belief, but I was stunned... physically shocked when I that guess was wrong. Of course we think we're doing a good job, but it's so rewarding to know that other people think so, too. It makes all the difference, especially after the hard (and not so rewarding) work everyone on our team has put in over the last year.
We celebrated. Justin Achilli was spinning after the awards and I was totally and completely into it. When he launched into Jesse's Girl I gave him a big fan-girl scream for his efforts (and got a smile out of him in return). I had to leave the party a little early as I'd made a date to meet up with the Fiery Dragon guys and the rest of our team for a little private celebrating. Thanks, gentlemen! I had a fine, fine time last night and it was a much more appropriate celebration than last year's depressing wander as we discovered that bars in Indy close up as early as 11:15!
We roll into GenCon Saturday in high spirits.
After the dealer's hall closed I made a quick change into ENnies attire and headed over to the location of the ceremony. A new location again this year and a step down from the swankness of last year's ceremony. The room was desperately hot and had far too few seats, let alone tables and chairs. The cash bar was doing a brisk business in $5 Heinikens and "$7 Liquor" as desperately thirsty game designers caved in and begged for something cold to drink. The ceremony itself was well run, emcee'd again this year by Pirate Cat Kevin Kulp and studded with guest presenters. Music, lights, and the video projection were all handled nearly perfectly. My only complaint on that is that in some cases Honorable Mentions were included in the announcements but in others they were overlooked. Both The Game Mechanics and our own Robert J. Schwalb had one Honorable Mention apiece and both were among those honorable mentions that didn't get mentioned.
It was the Year of Silver for Green Ronin, as an increasingly sweat-drenched Steve Kenson was called up to accept Silver ENnie honors for his work on Mutants & Masterminds. This year every publisher was asked to pick a song that could be played as they came forward to accept. Chris wanted to find a punk rock song but I pulled rank as GR's General Manager and insisted that we pick something quick, catchy, upbeat and that kicked in within 2-3 seconds because I knew we only had about 15 seconds of sound to work with. None of the rest of the staff knew what I'd picked, so they were waiting to hear. When the first award was announced and the audience began actively clapping along to the Black Eyed Peas' Pump It, I knew I'd made the right choice. By the end of the night we had the whole place rocking, clapping along. I couldn't have been happier.
We took home the Best Publisher award again this year and, truly, you could have knocked us over with a feather when the announcement was made. Wizards of the Coast was awarded the Silver ENnie and we all looked at each other in shock as we couldn't imagine who could beat WotC. But this year was a Golden ENnie year for Paizo (and well-deserved) so it took us just a few seconds to agree amongst ourselves that it must be Paizo for the gold. We were expectantly waiting to hear Paizo announced, so when the words Green Ronin came out of Peter's mouth it was such a shock. Amazing how quickly one can make up one's mind! It had only taken me seconds to agree that Paizo would be winning, it's not like it was a long-held belief, but I was stunned... physically shocked when I that guess was wrong. Of course we think we're doing a good job, but it's so rewarding to know that other people think so, too. It makes all the difference, especially after the hard (and not so rewarding) work everyone on our team has put in over the last year.
We celebrated. Justin Achilli was spinning after the awards and I was totally and completely into it. When he launched into Jesse's Girl I gave him a big fan-girl scream for his efforts (and got a smile out of him in return). I had to leave the party a little early as I'd made a date to meet up with the Fiery Dragon guys and the rest of our team for a little private celebrating. Thanks, gentlemen! I had a fine, fine time last night and it was a much more appropriate celebration than last year's depressing wander as we discovered that bars in Indy close up as early as 11:15!
We roll into GenCon Saturday in high spirits.
Congrats on all the silvers, but especially on the gold!
Obviously, I'm glad to her GR got the kudos it deserved.
On another note, I and all of my friends agree that GR's booth set up this year was excellent. It was a great idea to create a space where people can not only come in to browse, but have room to stand around and talk without clogging up the surrounding aisles. More booths should set themselves up that way.
:)