Posted: 12/29/2021 12:00 AM
(Edited: 1/1/2022 1:25 AM)
Post subject: The Award Season process (info/rules)
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Noxxa
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Award season is an annual event on TASVideos, held from January 1st through January 21st of every year. During award season, TASVideos members get to nominate and then vote for their favorite TASes and TASers of the previous year in various categories. This post is made in preparation for the 2021 Awards - the 15th TASVideos award season - which will be held soon, as we approach the new year. Schedule The yearly award season schedule goes as follows: • January 1st, 00:00 UTC - Award nomination topics are made for every category. Members have until January 7th to nominate their favorite TASes and TASers in each topic. • January 8th, 00:00 UTC - Award polls are opened in each topic, with each poll including the nominations of their respective category. Members have until January 14th to vote for their favorite TASes and TASers in each topic. • January 15th, 00:00 UTC - After all award polls are closed and winners are defined, the final "TAS of the Year" award poll is opened. The entry list for TAS of the Year consists of all system category award winners. • January 21st, 23:59 UTC - At the end of the 21st, the TAS of the Year poll closes, and the final winner is decided. Category info Awards are awarded for various kinds of categories: • [System] TAS - Best TAS of a given system, or set of systems. The exact make-up of system categories varies from year to year, subject to how many eligible movies exist for each category. Some categories may exist that combine multiple different systems, e.g. "Sega TAS", "PC TAS", or "Exotic TAS". Typically, there are between 8 and 10 system TAS categories each year. • [System] TASer - Best TASer of a given system, or set of systems. Each System TAS category also has a respective System TASer category. • Other category TASes (First Edition, Glitchy TAS, Lucky TAS, etc.) - See descriptions in their respective threads. The list of TAS award categories may change over time. • Rookie TASer - Best TASer, whose first movie publication was published in this year. • TASer of the Year - Best TASer overall. • TAS of the Year - Best TAS overall. The topic for this award is posted after all other award polls have concluded, and its poll includes the winners of every System TAS category. The list of award categories is subject to change from year to year. Consult the Award Categories topic (stickied during award season) to see which award categories are available in its respective year. Nomination rules and guidelines Nominations are open for each award category (except TAS of the Year) from January 1st until the 7th. The following rules apply for nomination: • The first post of each award topic will include a link to a list of eligible entries. Nominations must come from entries that are in the list. If you think a movie or TASer is missing in the eligibility list, contact staff. • When nominating a movie, use the BBcode format [movie]1234[/movie] to nominate a TAS. This example will end up looking like: [1234] GBA Metroid Fusion "100%" by BioSpark in 1:35:49.53. Nominations that don't follow this format may be ignored. • When nominating a TASer, use the username with which they are registered on TASVideos. Nominations using other nicknames, Discord handles, etc. may be ignored. • New rule for 2021: A movie or TASer must have at least 2 valid nominations in order to be included in the award poll. A single nomination is no longer sufficient to be included in a poll. Exceptions may be made if there aren't enough eligible entries otherwise. • When picking a TAS to nominate, do so because you feel it was good for its category, not because you like it generally or for other unrelated reasons. • When picking a TASer to nominate, do so because you feel they did well for their category, not because you feel they did well in some other category or you like them generally. • If you feel a nomination is made which you believe is truly undeserving, you may point it out so that there may be a proper discussion. However, arguments which are a matter of opinion and personal taste are uncalled for. • Nominations for yourself, or for your own movies will not be counted. • Nominations for banned users, or for movies solo-authored by banned users will not be counted. • TASVideos staff reserves the right to veto any nomination, if they consider them unsuitable for the category in question. Voting rules and guidelines Voting is open for each award category (except TAS of the Year) from January 8th until the 14th. Voting for TAS of the Year is open from January 15th until the 21st. The following rules apply for voting: • You must have voting permissions on the site. This means you must have at least 4 posts on the site (may be subject to changes in global site rules). • Unlike most other polls on the site, you can select multiple options to vote. Feel free to choose every option which you think is deserving of the award in question. • When voting on a TAS, do so because you feel it was good for its category, not because you like it generally or for other unrelated reasons. • When voting on a TASer, do so because you feel they did well for their category, not because you feel they did well in some other category or you like them generally. • If a poll ends and multiple options are tied, all will share the award. Final notes If you have further ideas, suggestions, questions etc. regarding awards in general, feel free to post in this topic. Happy nominating/voting!
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Posted: 12/29/2021 1:04 PM
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Alyosha
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Award Suggestion: Best Submission Text Submission texts are my favorite part, I almost always get more entertainment value from reading them then from watching encodes, I think they should get more recognition.
Posted: 12/30/2021 5:49 PM
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EZGames69
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Alyosha wrote:
Award Suggestion: Best Submission Text Submission texts are my favorite part, I almost always get more entertainment value from reading them then from watching encodes, I think they should get more recognition.
There’s a couple of problems that I could see arise from this. 1. Users would have to read through a good majority of submission texts in order to figure out which ones to vote for, and for most people if it’s reading about games that they don’t know about or don’t understand, they will not vote for it. And if we had to, as staff, approve each nomination like we did for speedy TAS, it would mean we have to take time to read through it and decide if it’s good or not, which imo is more effort than it’s worth. 2. It would Incentivise people to going all out on submission text, which is not to say we don’t like authors putting effort into submission text, but if people are going all out just for the awards, then it makes judges jobs harder because they still have to read everything.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Posted: 12/30/2021 6:16 PM
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Noxxa
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As well as that, I'm not a fan of rating submissions texts because you are not judging the content of the TAS itself. You're rating a supplementary work that has no direct bearing on the TAS. At least up to now, awards are supposed to highlight the qualities of the TASes themselves (and the TASers that created high quality works), not qualities of other things. (Also, the list of categories for this year's awards is locked in already, but we can look at new category ideas for further years)
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Posted: 12/30/2021 11:17 PM
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scrimpeh
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I feel like awarding submission texts would be biased towards people fluent in English. Maybe not much more so than the site itself being English language anyway. Perhaps there could be another way to highlight good and effortful submission notes.
Posted: 12/31/2021 1:03 AM
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Memory
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scrimpeh wrote:
I feel like awarding submission texts would be biased towards people fluent in English. Maybe not much more so than the site itself being English language anyway. Perhaps there could be another way to highlight good and effortful submission notes.
I already didn't really like the idea of submission text awards, now I'm kinda convinced its bad.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Posted: 12/31/2021 4:12 AM
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Arc
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I support Alyosha's idea. But since "Best Submission Text" will not be added to the Awards this year (if ever), then there could alternatively be a thread for it in the Site section, similar to Gruefood Delight. But it would be nice to have more than just a list of good submission texts; it would be encouraging to hear people explain why certain texts stood out to them. Response to criticisms:
1. Voters would have to read the texts.
Yes, and voters are also supposed to watch movies before nominating or voting on them. I'm the only member who has watched and rated 100% of published movies, but historically that hasn't disqualified everyone else from voting however they want.
2. People would put effort into submission texts.
This argument seems to go against the mission statement of this site and assumes bad faith. "Yes... my evil plan wasn't actually to inform the community in great detail about the game... it was actually just a scheme for me to win an award mwahahahah." But really, whether it's a movie or submission text, what is wrong with wanting others to recognize its quality? People submit very high-effort movies and submission notes to this site, for free, so other people can see and appreciate them. (And also for other reasons, such as the personal satisfaction of producing something meaningful.)
3. Awards are supposed to highlight the qualities of the TASes themselves.
This statement is knowingly self-contradictory since it adds "and the TASers that created high quality works." But, that's ok. The Academy Awards are a model for the TAS Awards, and essentially we vote on the "Best Picture" (TAS of the Year) and "Best Director" (TASer of the Year) categories. But the Academy Awards also have two awards for Best Screenplay, which is the category most analogous to TAS submission notes. You don't see the physical script in the finished film, but you see the script's qualities translated into the film, and the same is true of submission text. To say that the script "has no direct bearing on the" film would definitely be incorrect. And so yes "Screenplay" is a different category, but like "Picture" and "Director," an award for merit is deserved.
4. There is bias toward English.
It is true that the site contains a mix of native English speakers, people who speak it as a second language, and people who barely speak English at all. Fortunately, technology exists that allows people to write in their native language and translate to English with fairly high accuracy. There are also many bilingual members who are willing to help translate, if so desired. Additionally, it is presumed that submissions would be judged more on the quality and depth of the explanation of the game rather than on its poetic style. A few grammatical errors or odd word choices aren't that big of a deal.
Posted: 12/31/2021 5:40 AM
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EZGames69
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Arc wrote:
Yes, and voters are also supposed to watch movies before nominating or voting on them. I'm the only member who has watched and rated 100% of published movies, but historically that hasn't disqualified everyone else from voting however they want.
People will come to this website to mainly watch TASes, not to read submission texts.
“Arc” wrote:
2. People would put effort into submission texts.
That’s not what I said. I said people would go OVERBOARD with them, and overcomplicate aspects of submission text to appear more spectacular. I would rather it done be organically and not with the goal being winning an award.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Posted: 12/31/2021 6:50 AM
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Noxxa
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Arc wrote:
3. Awards are supposed to highlight the qualities of the TASes themselves.
This statement is knowingly self-contradictory since it adds "and the TASers that created high quality works." But, that's ok. The Academy Awards are a model for the TAS Awards, and essentially we vote on the "Best Picture" (TAS of the Year) and "Best Director" (TASer of the Year) categories. But the Academy Awards also have two awards for Best Screenplay, which is the category most analogous to TAS submission notes. You don't see the physical script in the finished film, but you see the script's qualities translated into the film, and the same is true of submission text. To say that the script "has no direct bearing on the" film would definitely be incorrect. And so yes "Screenplay" is a different category, but like "Picture" and "Director," an award for merit is deserved.
This argument makes no sense whatsoever. The screenplay is an integral part of a movie, as without a screenplay not much would happen in it. The content and quality of the screenplay have a very clear bearing on the movie itself. It is more akin to an input file for a TAS (albeit a bit more pleasing to read standalone). Meanwhile, submission notes are an entirely supplementary work. You are not even required to write submission notes (beyond one or two lines), and plenty of times submission notes are written entirely after production of the movie has finished (something obviously impossible with screenplay). To say that best submission text deserves an award because Best Screenplay is an Academy Award is a false analogy at its finest.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Posted: 12/31/2021 1:44 PM
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InputEvelution
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Arc wrote:
Fortunately, technology exists that allows people to write in their native language and translate to English with fairly high accuracy.
Machine translation tools are infamous for being problematic and inaccurate for translating stuff, especially if it's of the technical sort that detailed submission texts inevitably would be. Can you name one that isn't going to suffer from this issue?
Posted: 12/31/2021 1:48 PM
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EZGames69
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InputEvelution wrote:
Arc wrote:
Fortunately, technology exists that allows people to write in their native language and translate to English with fairly high accuracy.
Machine translation tools are infamous for being problematic and inaccurate for translating stuff, especially if it's of the technical sort that detailed submission texts inevitably would be. Can you name one that isn't going to suffer from this issue?
In fact, this would complicate the process and is another reason why it isn’t practical to have such a category
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Posted: 12/31/2021 3:01 PM
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scrimpeh
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I got curious about how well machine translation works, so I decided to try out machine translating [4521] NES Final Fantasy II "game end glitch" by naruko in 04:38.87. The submission notes have handmade translations by xxezrabxxx. The results of translating the text with Google Translate are here. My personal impression is that while the general topic of each section is clear, it is very hard to follow the text because Google tends to mangle the sentences in a way that is unnatural to an English speaker. Some unclear vocab, where Google has to guess, doesn't help matters. It is obvious that the hand-crafted translation by xxezrabxxx is much better, and makes it significantly easier to follow the text. Having the text translated for you by someone else is contingent on someone being there to do it. I would definitely suggest having a thread on the forum or a page on the site where notable submission texts can go instead. That way, there is no "best" text, where being best is largely determined by your ability to produce good English language writing.
Posted: 1/1/2022 1:30 AM
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Arc
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Noxxa wrote:
The screenplay is an integral part of a movie, as without a screenplay not much would happen in it. The content and quality of the screenplay have a very clear bearing on the movie itself. It is more akin to an input file for a TAS (albeit a bit more pleasing to read standalone). Meanwhile, submission notes are an entirely supplementary work. You are not even required to write submission notes (beyond one or two lines), and plenty of times submission notes are written entirely after production of the movie has finished (something obviously impossible with screenplay).
The input file is like the film reel, not the script. It is quite possible (and has been done) to make a motion picture without a script and mostly lacking narrative, in which movement is made art, such as in a photoplay. There are also motion pictures that are largely improvised, working around only a basic premise, and so not much of a script is needed. And some TASes are made the same way. Other TASes require more preparation, and the author largely must follow the detailed "script" planned in advance to optimize the TAS. The analogy to a screenplay is accurate, independent of one's opinion of whether submission notes are award-worthy. DeepL is better than Google Translate.
Posted: 12/14/2023 6:01 PM
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feos
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Arc wrote:
The input file is like the film reel, not the script. It is quite possible (and has been done) to make a motion picture without a script and mostly lacking narrative, in which movement is made art, such as in a photoplay. There are also motion pictures that are largely improvised, working around only a basic premise, and so not much of a script is needed. And some TASes are made the same way. Other TASes require more preparation, and the author largely must follow the detailed "script" planned in advance to optimize the TAS.
The difference is in the importance of the role. Movie scripts are written as a basis for the future creative work (which may end up deviating from the script), but submission notes are never written before something has been TASed: you need to invest enough effort first, to then be able to describe it. If we work with motion picture analogies here, it doesn't matter if TAS input file is closer to a movie script or to a film reel. What matters is that submission notes never play the same role in TASes as scripts play in movies. They play the same role as spoken annotations, interviews, and other "making of" kind of footage that answers the same question: what it was like to make this movie.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.