"Not The Cacowards"

[Catpho]

"...and the award goes to... not these wads" 

^{Image by @koren}

The Cacowards has always been a respected list of the biggest and most quality releases each year, no doubt very useful for the community. Nonetheless, just like the end of every awards ceremony, there will always be people thinking "wait, why did this wad didn't win?????". So, inspired by those comments and this write-up by Koredian/@koren (a good one that you should read), how about a thread titled "Not The Cacowards" pops up after every award page is posted? It will be a place where people discuss about the best wads of that year that weren't a part of the prestigious 10, and will probably go on until the relevancy is over :) This could be a cool place for people to see wads that "slipped under the radar", or were quality but were simply outclassed by a masterpiece. It could make people try out good wads they have missed, or reflect on wads that they enjoyed but didn't receive much critical attention. Of course, this is not a place to rubbish the Cacowards, but rather just there to show the other good stuff in that particular year (which in turn actually makes the Cacowards even more valuable ;))

 

I don't know if this idea will attract anyone, i personally think it could be helpful exercise, but it requires dedicated people to write. Thoughts?

Edited September 6, 2018 by Catpho

[Deadwing]

I think this is a pretty good idea.

There are lots of quality wads already released this year and some of them will probably slip under the radar. This thread is a good idea to help them get some more exposition. As for myself, there's lots of stuff from 2018 I haven't played yet, and I plan to do it, but I don't remember everything that was interesting haha

Edited September 6, 2018 by Deadwing

[Nine Inch Heels]

Another idea would be to just make a bit more room "inside" the cacowards to give credit where it is due, obviously the large hurdle there will be getting people to play all the things as per usual, but also doing more write-ups. I'm not averse to the idea that things like "Rise of the Woolball", to use an example, get an extensive write-up even though they didn't make it into the cacowards, but I suppose the key problem is that you need some people who are willing to not only do a write-up for things they themselves liked, but at the same time you kinda need something like an organized overhead to etablish something that resembles a "standard" that people would recognize.

 

Talking about myself, I don't see myself writing essays for something like that any time soon: My tastes are usually too niche, I'm not a native speaker, and I don't have anywhere near enough time to play all the things at the moment. That said, I probably wouldn't be a good candidate for this.

[dew]

Good idea. Why are we even discussing this? Just do it 10 seconds after the Cacowards are released and have all the fun your body can possibly withstand, you don't need anyone's permission for it. Unless this is meant for building up hype, then carry on.

 

1 hour ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

My tastes are usually too niche

Wouldn't that actually make your insight on what was snubbed all the more interesting, unique and a perfect fit for such a thread?

 

1 hour ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

I'm not a native speaker

lol smh :rolleyes: pls...

 

1 hour ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

I don't have anywhere near enough time to play all the things at the moment

No one does. There are some hyperactive Doom junkies on the Cacoward panel right now, but even then it's a collaborative effort. And when someone who wasn't born yesterday has an opinion that something is good, it doesn't necessarily need to be underpinned by their completed 2018WadRankings spreadsheet.

[Nine Inch Heels]

22 minutes ago, dew said:

Wouldn't that actually make your insight on what was snubbed all the more interesting, unique and a perfect fit for such a thread?

I think I can see your point, but at the same I feel like a lot of the things that most people are genuinely exited about are lost on me. And I wouldn't want to end up "NIHsplaining" why something didn't make the cut (from my POV), if that makes any sense.

24 minutes ago, dew said:

lol smh :rolleyes: pls...

Well, it seems to me that most people who are currently doing the cacowards are actually native speakers. And when I look at my clumsy grammar, and my not so elegant choice of words when compared to, let's say Alfonzo or "Demon of the Words" (:P), then I get the impression that being good at getting the point across like they do is a skill I simply don't have. I still remember that my newstuff write-up for Miasma was anything but easy for me, at all, so the notion that I maybe might end up doing not just one kinda seems like a tall order to me.

[Memfis]

To me a separate thread definitely sounds better than Cacowards trying to be as inclusive as possible and having dozens of honorable mentions.

[MFG38]

I'm all for this idea.

[[McD] James]

I like this idea a lot, but I don't care for the suggested name in the slightest. Surely, we could use something better than "Not the Cacowards". 

[Pegleg]

I think this is a good idea, but I'm with Ajora, we would need a better name for the write-up.

 

Ultimately, we'd also need a way to determine which wads and mods would be discussed, other than just including every map mentioned in the "Mentionation" thread that didn't win a Cacoward or get one of the runner-up positions. I assume there is a panel that decides the Cacowards, so perhaps something similar to that.

 

4 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Well, it seems to me that most people who are currently doing the cacowards are actually native speakers. And when I look at my clumsy grammar, and my not so elegant choice of words when compared to, let's say Alfonzo or "Demon of the Words" (:P), then I get the impression that being good at getting the point across like they do is a skill I simply don't have. I still remember that my newstuff write-up for Miasma was anything but easy for me, at all, so the notion that I maybe might end up doing not just one kinda seems like a tall order to me.

 

Throughout my career, I have worked with both native and non-native speakers. And what I have found is that there is a very big difference between speaking and writing in English, just as in other languages. (I used to be rather decent writing in Spanish, but I stumbled all over myself trying to talk to someone in Spanish.) I have worked with people who were not the best English speakers, but their writing was well-composed, polished, and highly professional. In some cases, the writing was better than of some native speakers I knew. I'm not saying it was easy for them, just as you said your write-up was not easy for you, but they performed quite well. Similarly, whenever I have read anything that you have written on here, it is clear from the standpoint of grammar and meaning. I think there are a number of non-native speakers here who could contribute such write-ups.

 

Personally, I would rather see a mixture of native and non-native speakers writing the reviews of the high-quality wads and mods that didn't win Cacowards. I think that would provide more of a global perspective. The same would be true for purveyors of different sub-genres; I think different interests would contribute to a more well-rounded analysis of those wads and mods.

[DMPhobos]

Every year there's some discussion on the cacowards about projects that didn't won any of the big awards, so a space to discuss and praise some of the stuff that didn't won the big awards is perfect. I feel a lot of people have something to say about their favorite wads that didn't won and since this year is going to be doom's 25th anniversary, is great to have more stuff to read and talk about to keep the celebrations

[Catpho]

5 hours ago, Pegleg said:

 

Ultimately, we'd also need a way to determine which wads and mods would be discussed, other than just including every map mentioned in the "Mentionation" thread that didn't win a Cacoward or get one of the runner-up positions. I assume there is a panel that decides the Cacowards, so perhaps something similar to that.

What do you have in mind? I intend to keep the process simple by having people just coming writing about whatever wads they believe were worthy of attention. Though now that I think of it, some trolls might come in and "recommend" some obviously low quality wads, which at the moment I haven't thought out how to prevent that :P 

[DMPhobos]

2 hours ago, Catpho said:

What do you have in mind? I intend to keep the process simple by having people just coming writing about whatever wads they believe were worthy of attention. Though now that I think of it, some trolls might come in and "recommend" some obviously low quality wads, which at the moment I haven't thought out how to prevent that :P 

I think that if a troll starts to "recommend" a low quality/terry wad it will be too apparent that they are trolling to be taken seriously, so i wouldn't worry too much about it

[Doomkid]

Why not "Painawards", especially given then PE as the trophy (plus it sounds kinda cool imo)

[Bridgeburner56]

Good idea. There is an insane amount of quality releases this year

[GarrettChan]

I really like the design of the trophy. Well, I would say this is a good idea. Last year, I was sad that TNT: Revilution and Moonblood didn't make it into the Cacoward.

 

For writing problems, I would say probably non native speakers could good at writing. As my personal experience about learning English, speaking is definitely the most difficult part because you need not only decent amount of understanding of the language, but also to construct a proper sentence in a short period of time. Although I've heard a lot "don't afraid to make mistakes", or "don't care about grammars too much" when I was practicing my English back then, you can't pull a sentence out of thin air if you don't have enough knowledge about English. I consider Chinese and English are different enough to make me confused and have quite a bit of difficulty when learning English.

 

On the other hand, writing gives you plenty of time to correct your mistakes, so I would consider writing is an easier job than speaking. I would say my writing is decent enough to review a certain WAD if there's a chance, but if you ask me to talk about my opinions directly, I would probably can't express myself properly.

[Space Marinara]

How about calling the awards "Troophies"?

And top authors could be "Hell Knighted".

[Solmyr]

Wonderful idea, why not change the color of the trophy for silver to denote that this is for honorary cacowards. 

 

How about Soulawards for one of the possible names?

[DMPhobos]

I think the 'Lost Souls Awards' name is a bit more appropriate =P

[Gez]

The 'Mental Awards

[Nine Inch Heels]

How do you plan on avoiding people doing write-ups for the exact same WADs?

[Catpho]

7 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

How do you plan on avoiding people doing write-ups for the exact same WADs?

Yea, it's something I've been thinking about. Perhaps people should "claim" them first by posting in the thread what they want to write (like /newsuff chronicles)?

[Doomkid]

I think multiple perspectives on popular releases would be a welcome addition, personally. Avoids homogeny. Plus, if something popular enough to warrant several people giving a write-up I'd say that speaks well on it's behalf.

[Grain of Salt]

I had this idea ages ago and it is copyrighted to me.

 

The awards are called Pain d'Or, the logo is a golden PE.

[Fonze]

^ good in that case I'm copyrighting The Cacophonies ;D

[Gez]

51 minutes ago, Grain of Salt said:

Pain d'Or

Golden Bread?

[Doomkid]

2 hours ago, Grain of Salt said:

I had this idea ages ago and it is copyrighted to me.

 

The awards are called Pain d'Or, the logo is a golden PE.

 

1 hour ago, Fonze said:

^ good in that case I'm copyrighting The Cacophonies ;D

 

THIS IS MY OC (ORIGINAL CACOWARDS) DO NOT STEAL

[valkiriforce]

How about the "You Tried But You Died" awards?

 

[Grain of Salt]

2 hours ago, Gez said:

Golden Bread?

 

It has a dual garlic bread/pain elemental theme.

[GarrettChan]

3 hours ago, valkiriforce said:

How about the "You Tried But You Died" awards?

 

What a nice name!

[crazyflyingdonut]

Don't we need Linguica's permission for this?