Mission Architect: 2009 Player Awards! Voting

Ok here are two more votes from me.

Best Comedy:
Verner von Grun's Extraordinary Extradimensional Excursions #115174 @Igor Blimey
Captain Dynamic, the Great, Faces the Great Face #190069 @Aehaed

Best Short Arc:
Becky's Revenge #60197 @New Age Ronin
Celebrity Kidnapping #1388 @PW

Haven't had time to play all the nominated arcs, unfortunately, but I've played a few, so here goes:

Best SO Level Arc (25 - 40):

1st) Teen Phalanx Forever! (#67335)

Best Serious Arc:

1st) Karmic Exchange (#47550) - at least I know I'll get one vote
2nd) Turg Fiction: Ghost In The Machine Act I (#1013)

It's not cheating. It's perfectly fair to consider your own arc better than the other nominees. I feel more along the lines that it's cheating to force someone to vote for someone else's arc and take themselves one step further from winning.

Categories I've finished playing (prequalified and shortlisted) so far:

Serious
1st: The Storyteller: Sabrina's Tale #1237 @Redbone1
2nd: Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name #178774 @Silvers1

Mechanics
1st: Speeding Through Time # 51728 @Geek_Boy
2nd: The Next War on Drugs #245042 @arachnodragon

Comedy
1st: In Poor Taste #259920 @Wrong Number
2nd: Seeking Men #169114 @Fatare

As noted often by others, arcs that missed the shortlists are still 5-star quality! Try: Constantinople Jones' Family Secret #91838 @Hero2 for its ingenious mechanics in a single mission; Aeon's Nemesis #161865 @Darkonne for its exceptional plot, and subtle humour; and LOST DOG #9882 @6x, for spacey, kid-friendly humour. There's lots more I'm forgetting - link to the original nominations post here.

There's another comedy nomination that I recommend very highly too. But I've been taught not to laugh at my own jokes. Don't let it stop you .

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

And so far

Voted for themselves 1st place: 5
Voted for themselves 2nd place: 1 (I plan on voting myself second as well)
Didn't vote for themselves: 1

My vote for best use of mechanics are below. I found this category to be pretty hard to decide, as all the arcs have some pretty cool tricks as well as just being good arcs in general.

The Next War on Drugs #245042 @arachnodragon
The Beating Heart of Astoria: A Play in Five Acts #170547 @The Cheshire Cat

I know I didn't do myself any favors voting myself second place, but I like anacrhrodragon's better and it won't hurt my feelings to lose. Especially if it's to an arc that I think exemplifies the category in question better than mine does.

I'm not going to weigh in on this because I think the entire argument smacks of rude, since Bubbawheat (and friends) have gone to extraordinary lengths to make these awards special for all of us. Whether or not I agree with that decision, or any of the mechanics behind this contest, I feel owe it to Bubba to be absolutely supportive.

I'm not meaning to be a Pollyanna, or to necessarily be critical of people that have weighed in on it. That's just the perspective I'm coming from.

I wasn't pointing any fingers. It's been a very civil discussion. I just don't want to be critical, even constructively, of Bubba and company (that'd include you and everyone else that have helped him). Any argument that says anything along the lines of, "Well, it's wrong that people can vote for their own arc," no matter how well worded, is saying Bubba was wrong. I'm not dissing people that go there, I just don't want to be one of them.

TO range arc

#1. Nuclear in 90: The Fusionette Task Force (just saying that makes me want an Up-and-Away burger. Darn you Pavlov!)
#2. Mercytown, the one with the fish (loved Krylov and his obsession with super soldiers!)

DO range arc

#1. The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! ("Destroy..." "Destroy... (You stole my line, dude!)" .... hilarious!!)
#2. Ctrl + Alt + Reset (I first played this very early on under the "Time Loop" name, played it again recently and it seems much more polished)

SO range arc

abstain (I know the rules allow and even encourage you to vote for your own arc, but my personal sensibilities do not allow for this; I understand this puts me at a disadvantage. I'm OK with it.)

Epic level arc

abstain

Short arc

abstain

Multi-Part arc

#1. The Lost Choir (insanely epic with world-shattering scope)
#2. The Consequences of War (a terrific war drama)

Best use of Mechanics

#1. The Next War on Drugs (forensics mission is very technically impressive)
#2. Macguffin Delivery Service (really like the pawn shop breakin and the fence meet-up)



(Haven't played enough of the Serious/Comedy nominees to have a reasonable opinion yet.)

When I do the results post, I'll be looking at as many statistics as I can. I'm tracking 4 different types of ways to calculate final winners based on two picks (first pick only, first and second pick equal, first pick 2 points - second pick 1 point, first pick 3 points - second pick 2 points) I'll also look at how voting for yourself impacted the vote, and any other things that come to mind between now and then.

My vote for the best SO level arc:

1) Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335 @PW
2) Astoria in D Minor # 41565 @The Cheshire Cat

This just keeps getting harder and harder. All the nominated arcs for SO Range (25-40) were fantastic.

Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335 @PW--5/5 Stars. Very good job on the custom characters of the Teen Phalanx team and the Vahzilok Brides. Hard to find something to say that hasn't already been said about this arc which is just so perfect. Still can't believe this one didn't win the Hero Con contest.

Polar Emergence neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN) #29205 @Tubbius--5/5 Stars. Deeply enjoyed all the deadpan silliness. Reminded me a bit of the old Batman tv series for some reason. Love anything involving the Winter Horde and we do not get to see them enough in game.

Astoria in D Minor # 41565 @The Cheshire Cat--5/5 Stars. Freakiest horror type story ever! Gave me chills more than once. Just a brutal story. One person I played it with made the comment that one should never have to lead an escort out without fighting something as happens in one of the earlier missions. Not sure I completely agree with that as I have a similar thing in one of my missions that involves a kidnapping on a small map but you might want to throw in an ambush to go with it if possible. This is another one for which I was shocked when it didn't win its category in the Dev contest.

Escalation #6143 @FemFury--4/5 Stars. A very fun arc. The body jumping idea is a brilliant one and well executed. The bot dialog was excellent and fun to read. It comes so close to my idea of a perfect arc with its extremely challenging minions and an archvillian or hero that requires a real effort to defeat. Not to mention that the AV was just a plain unforgettable character. The last map is truly awesome and I can't believe I never noticed that one in the mission editor! If I had to give one negative criticism it would be that there wasn't more of a variety of different types of minions to fight. Maybe the author could throw in some random villainous looters or something?

Also found this arc impossible to finish with full team of mid to low level toons (Super Sk'ed to 26) because the boss showed up as a +4 AV when the team leader's difficulty was set to +0 and a lot of us were still on TO or DO enhancements. When I later soloed it the final boss was only a +1 EB (which is what my difficulty was set too) and so while very hard was just barely doable for my un-purpled out level 50 PB and I wouldn't want her to be any weaker because of what an enjoyable challenge it was. So I don't know what if anything can be done about this.

Twisted Tongue #1444 @Days--4/5 Stars. Going in I was afraid with only Freakshow to fight that it would be a bit monotonous and also suffer in comparison to OMG! It's Lolbat, the recent guest author arc with a similar plot, which I greatly enjoyed playing but it turned out to be different enough to deserve to be evaluated on its own merits. I really liked the long-winded professor contact and the contact's text throughout the arc.

Nice choice of an unusual map for first mission that the Devs should really expand a bit to have some more room as well as some spawn points on upper floor. The mission entry pop for the 2nd mission is a nice little touch and an excellent example of the high quality of the text present through the whole arc as it establishes that you've been searching for the students for a while with just a couple of lines. Final map is also one of my favorites. Thought I saw an inapropriate X-rated joke in one part of it but who can tell really? Damn the author for actually making me understand Leet speak!

Typo alert: Second mission Contact's still busy text need to be redone as part of it makes no sense. The final description text for the Genius boss should end in a question mark, no?

Now for the impossible choices.

BEST SO LEVEL ARC (25-40)

1st Place--Astoria in D Minor # 41565 @The Cheshire Cat
2nd Place--Polar Emergence neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN) #29205 @Tubbius

This is another tough one for me, all the arcs are extremely well done, but I'm going to have to make my vote for Best Use of Mechanics:

1st: The Next War on Drugs - best non-combat mission I've played, and I have played more than one. Also great chaining throughout the arc.
2nd: MacGuffin Delivery Service - First partly non-combat mission I've played, and also great use of chaining throughout the arc.

I was going to avoid posting my thoughts on the arcs to avoid influencing voters, but I don't think what I say will really influence anyone that much.

Grim Riddles: Excellent concept with a nice hook that follows throughout the arc. Though it's a single mechanic used throughout.
Speeding Through Time: A memorable use of mechanics in mission 3, though the rest are fairly straightforward.
The Beating Heart of Astoria: Very nice use of spawning to chain dialog, and excellent story. My two votes just barely edged this one out. Also, I'm likely going to be voting for Cheshire in his other category.

And another group completed as well: Best DO range arc:

1st: Invasion of the Bikini-clad Vampiresses from Outer Space (Didn't catch the first mission, but it still grabbed my attention enough to win me over, even above my own arc)
2nd: Sibling Rivalry (Fun arc, and also because I can't completely remove it from the fact that it's inspired and partly written by an 8 year old)

I was going to vote for myself, but I decided I'd rather give the inf away than possibly keep it for myself.