Adventure Gamers - Forums

After the voting tournament in this forum it shouldnt be too surprising we have a large amount of tex supporters…. im still a little surprised though… i did not think tesla effect was a great game.. it was ok.
And for those who think its fishy: all you have to do is look at the reader reviews and see the many 5 star scores to see that it isnt.

I can’t really remember what I voted for in every categories, but I think I picked Tex for quite a few. It wasn’t because I loved the game, but because there were no better choices in the list I was given.

This raises the question why ‘nominees’ are needed at all. If a full list of all the games considered adventures by the site was provided for me to choose from, then I would have had more options to find a game I consider worthy of the category, and less reason to pick a game I consider ‘least worst’ out of the choices given.

But I’m biased, because my favorite game of the year wasn’t included in any category at all.

I agree with what Jackal and Cubase wrote. I also think it’s easy to guess why Tesla Effect has such a passionate fanbase.

Tex fans have been living with an unresolved cliffhanger since 1998. Sixteen years later, in 2014, Tesla Effect brought closure to Tex fans.

If you’re not a Tex fan, think of one of your own favorite unresolved things. It could be another unfinished game series (Gabriel Knight 4, Ron Gilbert’s Monkey Island 3), it could be a canceled TV show (My So-Called Life), it could be an unfinished book series (Frank Herbert’s seventh Dune book).

Or think about the franchises that seemed to be dead for years despite the fans yearning for more, and then a revival actually, amazingly happened: Star Trek -> Star Trek: The Motion Picture (we take this one for granted today but it was huge and unprecedented at the time), Firefly -> Serenity, Veronica Mars the series -> Veronica Mars the movie. In fact, this goes all the way back to the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and then his return.

We’ve seen a lot of adventure game creators from the golden age return via Kickstarter, but most are doing new games or spiritual successors. I think those are all awesome, but I also know that part of what people loved about the golden age games was more than just the skilled creators behind the scenes. It was often the appeal of those specific game worlds and those specific characters.

Tesla Effect, along with Broken Sword 5 and Dreamfall Chapters, is one of the few KS revivals that were able to continue the very franchise that earned those adventure game fans’ devotion in the first place. (And previous installments Broken Sword 4 and Dreamfall both came out in 2006, which was a long time ago but can’t quite compete with 1998. Though I fully expect Dreamfall Chapters to have a very strong presence in the 2015 Reader’s Choice Aggies, assuming it’s finished by then, for a similar reason to Tesla Effect.)

I’ve never voted in the Reader’s Choice Awards, and I have no knowledge of how many people do or don’t vote, or why they vote for what they do, but that’s my take on the situation.

Oscar - 19 February 2015 06:33 PM

I can’t really remember what I voted for in every categories, but I think I picked Tex for quite a few. It wasn’t because I loved the game, but because there were no better choices in the list I was given.

This raises the question why ‘nominees’ are needed at all. If a full list of all the games considered adventures by the site was provided for me to choose from, then I would have had more options to find a game I consider worthy of the category, and less reason to pick a game I consider ‘least worst’ out of the choices given.

??? The reader poll DID provide the complete list of games to choose from. We only removed games that weren’t eligible for certain awards (traditional games from the non-traditional category, non-comedies from best comedy writing, etc.). Nothing else was excluded from any list.

Our list of nominee finalists has nothing to do with the readers. That article is strictly an Aggie primer posted for kicks.

Cubase - 19 February 2015 05:32 PM

Let’s also debunk another hunch…

Saying: “they did not do well compared to the other titles on the user tournament, which means it should not do well in the Aggies” is a flawed claim because if Grim Fandango or DOTT was a contender in this years Aggies nobody else would stand a chance there either! LOL Not to mention it was all about Pandora and not Tesla.

I thought I compared Tesla Effect specifically to Blackwell Epiphany - also a 2014 game? Certainly meant to. Blackwell was voted into the tournamnet and did very well. Tesla Effect didn’t get enough votes to enter the tournament. Yet now it’s suddenly beating Blackwell Epiphany in every single reader category? That’s my point…which you seem to have missed.

DaveyB - 20 February 2015 01:40 AM

Tesla Effect didn’t get enough votes to enter the tournament.

The tournament was something new and I would imagine that a lot of people didn’t click on the original tournament thread in time to nominate games or vote for the early nominations. For instance, I didn’t pick up on what was going on in the tournament until all the entries had already been decided and were being voted on in separate threads.

I enjoyed the tournament a lot and if there’s another one next year, I’ll get involved sooner.

The Aggies, on the other hand, are well established over the years, and many people have read them and voted in them in the past and look forward to them every year.

Cubase - 19 February 2015 12:55 PM

Sefir - 19 February 2015 12:34 PM

Aggies Reader’s choice used to mean something some years before…

You will forgive me for saying this but making a statement like that may serve to discredit (and potentially hurt) those who worked extremely hard to deliver these individual aspects of the game which are being positively received by the community.

I personally almost wish it was not getting so many awards because now (after reading the responses here) apparently none of the readers choice awards are going to hold any weight in the community’s opinion, which is a sad state of affairs. I hope none of the dev team members who are getting a buzz out of reading the readers choice award results which highlight their achievements read this thread.

No, I discredit (and probably hurt) a move (voting one game only) that shows complete disrespect for every adventure game of 2014 that isn’t Tesla Effect.
To change a bit some words of yours:“I hope no dev team member other than the ones from Tesla Effect ever sees those Aggies Reader’s Choic, because they would feel that their work is not that appreciated by the communiy.
Call me a scepticist, but I can’t deny that there is a huge difference between the view of the forum members ( Good game, deserved some Aggies ) and the voting results ( Tex won almost everything ). ...

Iznogood - 20 February 2015 09:22 AM

I am also fairly certain that if we go back and look in the archives, then votes with just one game all across the ballot, is something that has happened every single year (especially in 2012).

Even in those situations where a game took the majority of awards, there were always people in the threads backing these votes with their positive arguements. Like The Walking Dead. Despite the hate (like yours), it had a tone of admirers too (like me) that expressed themselves throughout the threads. That doesn’t happen here where I can’t find a single person claiming that Tesla Effect deserely should have won all those awards.

Sefir - 20 February 2015 10:06 AM

Even in those situations where a game took the majority of awards, there were always people in the threads backing these votes with their positive arguements. Like The Walking Dead. Despite the hate (like yours), it had a tone of admirers too (like me) that expressed themselves throughout the threads. That doesn’t happen here where I can’t find a single person claiming that Tesla Effect deserely should have won all those awards.

That has a lot to do with how comfortable forum members are in getting involved in a highly controversial/contentious conversation like this one. I’m quaking in my boots right now just because I’m having the temerity to post in this thread and possibly contradict the stated opinions of members that I respect tremendously. And the context of an awards ceremony may not the best place to start bringing in lots of details from the game to defend your opinion or contradict someone else’s.

I say we nominate Tesla Effect for the next Community Playthrough, and then we can criticize or celebrate it as we go along.

Fair enough? Or an unfair distraction posing as an argument?

Iznogood - 20 February 2015 10:43 AM

I think that The Tesla Effect has deserved to win all those Aggies!

I personally only voted for it in 1-2 categories, but that it is another story, and only because there are other games that I thought deserved it even more. But not for a single one of the categories it won, was it lower than 3-5 place on my own list.

And yet you just voted it for 2 categories. Exactly my point.

Iznogood - 20 February 2015 10:43 AM

And on a side note: If The Walking Dead really was so loved with the forum members that it “objectively speaking” deserved to win all the prices, whereas The Tesla Effect doesn’t, why did it only end on the 72 place it the tournament?
After games like The Stanley Parable, Deponia, Broken Sword 5, Night of the Rabbit, The Book of Unwritten Tales, Edna and Harvey… and many many other modern adventure games.

Don’t bother answering, it was a rhetorical question to which I already know the answer.

Of course I will. It was also something that was mentioned in the contest threads. If “our” contest would have taken place that year, TWD would have probably been LOTS higher. But after having so much “clones” (TWD2 among them) and the enthusiasm weared off, the decline was a natural result.

Becky - 20 February 2015 10:39 AM

That has a lot to do with how comfortable forum members are in getting involved in a highly controversial/contentious conversation like this one.

I can accept that, though it would have been very interesting if we knew the number of people who subscribed to the site just to vote for Tesla Effect in the Aggies. (similar to what was attempted to be done in the Forums contest). Of course there is no regulation to prevent newcammers to vote and rightly so, but I still do insist that voting for one single game is wrong. It probably shows that there is no critical thought in this vote (and yes, having played a single game and voting for it is not what I call a mature and thoughtful vote)

Iznogood - 20 February 2015 10:50 AM

Becky - 20 February 2015 10:39 AM

I’m quaking in my boots right now just because I’m having the temerity to post in this thread and possibly contradict the stated opinions of members that I respect tremendously.

Don’t be, there is nothing like a good discussion between friends, and it is entirely possible to respect and disagree with someone at the same time.

This