Does anybody really value Cacowards?

[Major Arlene]

yes.

[Hyacsho]

As a noob, I very much value the cacoawards. They give me "the simplest path" to finding amazing WADs to enjoy, and give me an insight into what is possible when it comes to mapping. Love them and respect them. :) 

[D4NUK1]

If you trink it's not apreciated, just trink about how many troubles would do if Cacoawards were removed, even temporaly °n°

 

[insertwackynamehere]

I’m not super active these days so I use them every year to try a bunch of new stuff in a week-long binge before not really playing anything for another year. I find them enjoyable to keep up with and use in this fashion.

[Redneckerz]

16 hours ago, Cynical said:

LOL they're literally just what wads a few random dudes liked.

Somehow those few random dudes consistently got it most things right for the past decade or so because the Cacowards listed are near-universally well regarded.

But what do i know, this is a Cynical post.

 

16 hours ago, Cynical said:

 There's been plenty of trash that's gotten Cacowards over the years, and tons of classics that got ignored.

Name a few. Preferably those that aren't on the Forgotten Cacowards list. Maybe those that weren't there missed the spot by one vote. Maybe they were Runner's Up. Maybe they were atleast referenced.

Or maybe you are trolling. What's going to be?

 

15 hours ago, M_W said:

Doomworld really do be playing "Hot Take Telephone" lately

Probably are calling from ''Butt Hurt Hospital, Minnesota'' because those takes aren't really worth sending someone to the burn unit for.

[fufu]

They have more value than the Oscars, that's for sure.

[smeghammer]

Yes.

 

Long before I ever joined DW, I was finding decent stuff to play by looking at the annual Cacowards. As others have said, sometimes a given WAD may not be to my liking - but that's personal taste and absolutely no reflection on quality.

 

They are valuable and offer a good selection of each year's releases.

[Chip]

Oh wow! Not only do the cacowards have their own Doomwiki page, but an actual Wikipedia page. right here. Not even Doomworld itself has a wikipedia page. I guess people really do value to cacowards

[Komenja]

Yeah, it's a fun thing to read every year and it's always got recommendations for awesome stuff I completely missed out on. Plus it's just really nice to see folks in the hobby get praise and recognition for the cool shit they make. Like every year, reading it makes feel like the Grinch, y'know? Heart increases three sizes and all. Like Antkibo said, I wish more games with modding communities had something like this.

[Chip]

11 minutes ago, Komenja said:

I wish more games with modding communities had something like this.

I don't think a lot of games have as many mods as DOOM. Like, name 20 DOOM Wads off the top of your head, then name 20 Morrowind mods. It's much harder, because there aren't a lot to choose from. 

[VanaheimRanger]

12 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

I don't think a lot of games have as many mods as DOOM. Like, name 20 DOOM Wads off the top of your head, then name 20 Morrowind mods. It's much harder, because there aren't a lot to choose from. 

Bro, I can name you 200+ Morrowind mods...

 

EDIT: In fact, here is how many Morrowind mods are hosted at Nexus:

Edited September 21, 2020 by guitardz

[Chip]

1 hour ago, guitardz said:

Bro, I can name you 200+ Morrowind mods

I stand corrected. Here you go.

   👑

🖕😄🖕

🦵   🦵

[Doomkid]

There seriously needs to be a Koopawards for Mario mods. There are literally thousands of mods for SMB1, SMB3 and Super Mario World. I wouldn't be surprised if Mario 64 has been modded to hell and back by now as well. It's overwhelming and I don't know where to start. I'm so glad people who love Classic Doom as much as I love Classic Mario don't have to feel overwhelmed when considering jumping into the world of mods. (If there is something link the Cacowards for the OG Mario games please do let me know.. I've played a small handful of mods and loved the hell outta them but really don't know where to look.)

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

4 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

There seriously needs to be a Koopawards for Mario mods. There are literally thousands of mods for SMB1, SMB3 and Super Mario World. I wouldn't be surprised if Mario 64 has been modded to hell and back by now as well. It's overwhelming and I don't know where to start. I'm so glad people who love Classic Doom as much as I love Classic Mario don't have to feel overwhelmed when considering jumping into the world of mods. (If there is something link the Cacowards for the OG Mario games please do let me know.. I've played a small handful of mods and loved the hell outta them but really don't know where to look.)

 

What are some good Mario mods? Never even played through a whole Mario before, this interests me if it's half as impressive as our Doom modding community.

 

Also to answer the question, the Cacowards were my gateway into wads. Many people recommend the Cacos to newbies.

[Hypnotik]

Yes. even if nobody did, I do. I got folders dedicated to each year of Cacoaward wads since I've been following doomworld. Cacoawards initially drew me into Doomworld, that was the first thing I noticed about Doomworld. And at the time I was like "Oh wow, that's awesome, at the end of every year, they handpick some awesome wads people made?" And its displayed? For years??? It kind of contributes to the "coolness" behind making wads.

In a way, it promotes/influences Doomers into pushing their potential of wad making!

 

It's cool because, you can come back in so many years and be like "Holy shit I remember that!"

Nostalgia can be a pleasurable experience, at times. :)

[plums]

I think Cacowards are nice for a few reasons already stated. I don't see them as an exhaustive list of what's good from that year though, which I think is where some of the negative attitudes towards them come from; the idea that things that get a Cacoward are of high level of quality sort of implies that anything that didn't get a Cacoward isn't of that level of quality, which I don't think is true at all. (To be clear, I don't think this is a point of view ever expressed by the people who do the Cacowards, but rather a hidden assumption that some people might make.)

[Scuba Steve]

The enduring legacy of the Cacowards is their inclusiveness—an attribute which grows stronger every year; yearly entries are not ranked, the number of honorable mentions has increased, and new categories have been added to recognize creative ideas. The team of writers has grown to encompass a variety of community members (mappers, gameplay modders, programmers, artists...) who painstakingly debate the merits of every project. When the time comes to select the winners, each writer takes the time to explain the thought process behind the selection and why it is worthy of recognition. While the early years were a bit rough around the edges, the idea of recognizing the best our community has to offer was always taken seriously. Since then, the outstanding writing and devotion by members like @Not Jabba, <rd> and @Demon of the Well have turned the Cacowards into an almost yearly scholarly dissertation on the intricacies of Doom. With the recent addition of members like @Marisa Kirisame and @Major Arlene, the Cacowards have never had a more talented, dedicated core of judges and authors.

Should you value the Cacowards themselves? That's ultimately up to you, but the objective, rigorous analysis and research that goes on behind the scenes is the sort of thoughtful stewardship you'd be a fool to devalue.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Scuba Steve

[baja blast rd.]

On 9/21/2020 at 10:13 PM, Scuba Steve said:

... the Cacowards have never had a more talented, dedicated core of judges and authors.

 

I got snubbed from the examples. See, it goes both ways. ;) 

 

edit: thank you for adding me 

Edited October 10, 2020 by ‹rd›

[Juza]

They're there for finding content and that's it. In the end, they're just regular opinions from regular people, whose opinions are not above anyone else's. Unless you have a PhD in Doom modding I guess.

[Redneckerz]

2 hours ago, Juza said:

They're there for finding content and that's it. In the end, they're just regular opinions from regular people, whose opinions are not above anyone else's. Unless you have a PhD in Doom modding I guess.

...which is consequently what makes up most of the team, often known as they are for their own contributions.

 

Writing for the Cacowards and crafting mapsets good enough to be considered for them has a sheen to it, a goal to work towards to.

[snapshot]

I don't even check the thing

Edited September 22, 2020 by sluggard

[Marisa the Magician]

Gosh, being called talented feels weird.

[Scuba Steve]

2 hours ago, sluggard said:

I don't even check the thing

Liar.

[snapshot]

21 minutes ago, Scuba Steve said:

Liar.

:P okay I used to visit them out of curiosity whenever there was a big banner near the top of the site, even throw a vote every once in a while, but I barely even do that anymore.

Edited September 22, 2020 by sluggard

[Doomkid]

10 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

What are some good Mario mods? Never even played through a whole Mario before, this interests me if it's half as impressive as our Doom modding community.

 

Also to answer the question, the Cacowards were my gateway into wads. Many people recommend the Cacos to newbies.

The only one's I can think of off the top of my head are Bowser's Valley for SMW and Mario Adventure SMB3, which would be Total Conversions, if we're applying the same standards from Doom modding.

 

Here's the only centralized places I know to find Mario mods

 

Super Mario Bros 1:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/709/

http://nesninja.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros.hack-collection/roms

 

Super Mario Bros 3:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/750/

http://nesninja.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros.3-hack-collection/roms

 

Super Mario World:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/714/

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&amp;s=smwhacks

 

Super Mario 64:

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&amp;s=sm64hacks

https://mario64hacks.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_N64_Hacks

 

As you can see each one of the "Big 4" classic Mario games has hundreds and hundreds of mods, and this is only a small selection of some of the biggest sites. Like with Doom, there are also smaller/lesser known/international hackers and modders doing their own thing as well.

 

If you expand to the other old Mario games, like Mario Land, Yoshi's Island and other stuff, you can end up with tens of thousands of mods. Thankfully there are a few "top 10" videos on YouTube, but other than that, I don't think there's any sort of Cacowards-like equivalent for this kind of stuff.

[fufu]

13 hours ago, Komenja said:

I wish more games with modding communities had something like this.

The only thing similar to the Cacowards that i can think of would've the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Hacking Contest , and even then they are nowhere near the size or quality of the Cacowards. 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

The only one's I can think of off the top of my head are Bowser's Valley for SMW and Mario Adventure SMB3, which would be Total Conversions, if we're applying the same standards from Doom modding.

 

Here's the only centralized places I know to find Mario mods

 

Super Mario Bros 1:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/709/

http://nesninja.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros.hack-collection/roms

 

Super Mario Bros 3:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/750/

http://nesninja.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros.3-hack-collection/roms

 

Super Mario World:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/714/

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&amp;s=smwhacks

 

Super Mario 64:

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&amp;s=sm64hacks

https://mario64hacks.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_N64_Hacks

 

As you can see each one of the "Big 4" classic Mario games has hundreds and hundreds of mods, and this is only a small selection of some of the biggest sites. Like with Doom, there are also smaller/lesser known/international hackers and modders doing their own thing as well.

 

If you expand to the other old Mario games, like Mario Land, Yoshi's Island and other stuff, you can end up with tens of thousands of mods. Thankfully there are a few "top 10" videos on YouTube, but other than that, I don't think there's any sort of Cacowards-like equivalent for this kind of stuff.

 

Awesome, thanks. Do you think SMW would be a good starting point for a Mario noob?

[Phobus]

I may not always agree with the Cacowards, and I may feel like things I like are overlooked or whatever, but they're undeniably of great value. Back in the 2000s, they were great entertainment and a bit of silly fun, whilst over more recent years they've morphed into something that feels both professional and with some actual weight.  I always look forward to reading them when they're out (often on the morning of the 10th December) and think very highly of the quality of the presentation.

 

They don't excite or entertain me like they used to, but they feel no less essential. If they were to end, the sense of loss would be right up there with the demise of regular /newstuff chronicles reviews for me. The sheer volume of content produced for Doom almost requires the existence of reviews and awards to help us recognise the great works out there that would easily be lost in amongst the general mass.

[xvertigox]

I would 99.99% of respect the Cacowards but I'm sure there's some people who are like "The Doommanti hates me and didn't give me a cacoward!".

 

I would absolutely love to win a Cacoward at some point, for me it would be validation for all the energy, love and skill put into a Doom project.

So yeah, Cacowards are legit.

[Master O]

13 hours ago, Doomkid said:

The only one's I can think of off the top of my head are Bowser's Valley for SMW and Mario Adventure SMB3, which would be Total Conversions, if we're applying the same standards from Doom modding.

 

Here's the only centralized places I know to find Mario mods

 

Super Mario Bros 1:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/709/

http://nesninja.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros.hack-collection/roms

 

Super Mario Bros 3:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/750/

http://nesninja.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros.3-hack-collection/roms

 

Super Mario World:

https://www.romhacking.net/games/714/

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&amp;s=smwhacks

 

Super Mario 64:

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&amp;s=sm64hacks

https://mario64hacks.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_N64_Hacks

 

As you can see each one of the "Big 4" classic Mario games has hundreds and hundreds of mods, and this is only a small selection of some of the biggest sites. Like with Doom, there are also smaller/lesser known/international hackers and modders doing their own thing as well.

 

 

Imagine if any of those games' sourcecodes were ever fully released.  That scene would be as large as Doom's.

 

I can't ever see Nintendo ever doing it, though. :(