And the award goes to...

[Timofee]

Saying thank you...

The inestimable Mr Walker complained around this earlier in the year, and... well... he has a point. RPS is lovely enough to share so many sumptuous word ramblings and news morsels that it only seems fair to occasionally give thanks.

I pay my subscription ( I think! although paypal was being weird that day...I really must check ) but the reading materials - useful, amusing or otherwise - that I consume from RPS each year is worth vastly more than that. Indeed I suspect its my 2nd highest 'most time spent' site after the Beeb.

We can't have a glitzy awards ceremony, coz y'know...effort. But we can nominate our Bestest of the Best, super fastastic RPS writer of the year 2012 (not quite yet done) award or something... award

So, the nominations, in alphabetical order, are

Adam Smith for:
Introducing me, and I suspect many others, to the brilliance of Crusader Kings 2 along with his wonderful tales

Also for being the first RPS writer to not hate Foot-to-ball and introducing me to a few other great games

Also this

Finally, he gets an honourable mention in the entirely unsubstantiated 'some of the best puns' award

Alec Meer for:
His tales of horrific slaughter in games like FTL and X-Com. Here are extra words as I have run out of ones to link from

Making an effort, even if he did fail miserably.

Explaining things to stupid people and really driving home a point/joke

Speculation and analysis and mentioning Sleeping Dogs which I'd have probably missed otherwise

Jim Rossignol for:
Pandering to my shameless request for promoting the GW2 RPS collective and consistently writing about and analysing the interesting aspects of game design and exhorting the value of things that appeal to me. Even when writing about ones I had no interest in playing

Not to mention making the largest attempts to participate with the RPS forum community through the likes of PS2 and Perpetuum rather than being a big-ole-grump-o-puss.

As well as compiling some light reading

Oh and he just so happened to spare some time to make a game that sounds like it could be pretty awesome.

John Walker for:
Spending huge amounts of time trawling through Kickstarter and summarising what's there
For being a big-old-grump-o-puss, usually with good cause including lots of things that matter.
For laying down the law - even if the bastards won't listen

Taking time to look at the wider context of games along with generally doing the most journalist-y journalism

Also this and horace

Nathan Grayson for:
The highest pun rate, and tirelessly posting the news which is useful for those of us that don't read a thousand other sites.

Generally coming across as slightly unhinged

Making Peter Molyneux cry (you big meanie) and doing most of the interviews as far as I can tell

Also fighting the fight and analysis



And the winner is...

*drum roll*

Adam Smith for introducing me to the entirely unexpected and fantastic Crusader Kings 2, for which my gaming experiences this year have been immeasurably improved.

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At this joyous time it also seems fitting to shame one member of the RPS collective. And that is...

The RPS Search-O-Tron 3000 for making this post such a pain in the arse to compile that I became pretty lazy at linking things.

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Just a few more awards to give away folks...

The winner of the entirely unsubstantiated (because I'm not that mad) regular punster award is...

Alec Meer

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Our penultimate award is for the member of the RPS writing staff most in love with Ragnar Tornquist. And the winner is...

John Walker

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And finally, the annual award for most shortlived regular feature

The Shotcast for the 9000th time in a row!

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PS yes I know this list is skewed to things in the later part of the year. That's because my memory is rubbish. Deal with it.

[Velko]

I'd like to give the Hunter S. Thompson Award of Brilliance to whoever wrote that story about visiting a World of Tanks tournament somewhere in Russia or what was it. That was pure genius.

[The Tupper]

The sheer amount of (quality) content that Nathan Grayson's put out deserves recognition.

[Wheelz]

I approve everything written in this thread, and would like to 2nd the following motion:

I'd like to give the Hunter S. Thompson Award of Brilliance to whoever wrote that story about visiting a World of Tanks tournament somewhere in Russia or what was it. That was pure genius.

[BDH]

There is only one winner, and that is Tim Stone for his absolutely brilliant The Flare Path articles. The guy is consistently funny and always has something interesting to say about the genre (Which can't always be easy considering how dry the subject matter can be.). He also obviously puts a hell of a lot of time and effort into the The Flare Path Foxer which I feel may be under-appreciated.

I'd love his column to be bi-weekly but I understand that given the amount of effort that goes into it that is probably not possible.

I find that most writers can be somewhat hit or miss but Stone has never written a disappointing article.

RPS, give the man a raise.

[Timofee]

Addendum.

Alec gets an award for Legend of Grimrock as described by everyone's favourite dinobot

[Faldrath]

I'd like to give the Hunter S. Thompson Award of Brilliance to whoever wrote that story about visiting a World of Tanks tournament somewhere in Russia or what was it. That was pure genius.

That was Brendan Caldwell, and yes, loved those articles.

RPS's supporting cast has been nothing short of wonderful this year as well, especially Richard Cobbett and Cara Ellison. Patricia Hernandez's recent article also deserves a mention.

[Berzee]

Timofee, I overlooked that Diablo III Novelization when it was on the front page. Thanks for drawing my attention to it! It was unexpectedly poignant, considering the subject matter (especially that part with the gloves).

[jhng]

Yes -- it is a brilliant site and the hivemind do a fantastic job of (a) getting great people on board, (b) maintaining their own individual voices and 'agreeing to disagree' and (c) remaining really committed to quality and independence.

Way too many brilliant articles (and games I would never have heard of otherwise) to mention, but I will add a special prize for Jim's Sunday Papers which I always save a special spot for -- a great and eclectic selection each week and well-balanced between industry, game design, social issues and criticism.