Questions, concerns, befuddlements

Ron Edwards · December 31, 2010, 11:44:00 PM

Whoops, thanks Dave - I did miss your post.

Here are some of my notions about your question. #2 is probably the most direct answer, but the points are all related.

1. The issue isn't originality vs. not, but rather good or not.

2. Any understandable interpretation of a given term is all right. The limit to "understandable" vs. "oh come on" is only found in my head, but I assure you it's very generous. As long as I can see how you got to that use of the term, it doesn't matter whether I would have gone that way myself.

3. Sometimes the most important thing isn't the specific term, but how the two terms relate (for you), and what other terms or game-ideas crop up according to that relationship.

I hope that helps. One of the most important parts of the Ronnies, to me, is seeing the incredible variety of term-interpretation and usage, so go where you will.

Best, Ron

Callan S. · January 01, 2011, 05:05:10 AM

Oh, could anyone recommend a free PDF converter they use/trust. I honestly don't know of any and would prefer to use one someone else has (a free one

)

Ron Edwards · January 01, 2011, 05:28:20 AM

Damn good question. I found this one through sheer Google luck some years ago and it's always treated me well: PDF Converter. But my experience is an uninformed anecdote and anyone with a more knowledgeable perspective should weigh in.

Best, Ron

Ante · January 01, 2011, 09:43:15 AM

OpenOffice can export to PDF and can read MS Word and a bunch of other formats, it might be a good alternative to start writing in as well. Quite decent price as well.

I have used the same converter as Ron once as well.

David Berg · January 01, 2011, 07:53:21 PM

Thanks, Ron, that was quite helpful.

Callan S. · January 04, 2011, 05:34:59 AM

Didn't really absorb the rules before - there can be more than nine entries? It's just on the ninth a 24 hour countdown occurs and further entries are accepted, as long as it's inside that countdown?

Nice PDF converter, BTW. Ta! Now I look like I know what I'm doing...

Ron Edwards · January 04, 2011, 07:56:42 AM

You have the rules correct. And since your entry is the ninth, the last 24 hours starts now.

Best, Ron

Phil K. · January 04, 2011, 04:25:39 PM

Re: PDF conversion

I have to make PDFs all the time for work and have gained some knowledge on this the past few years.

Mac users: you can convert any document that can be printed into PDF. At least since Tiger (OS X 10.4) there has been a drop-down box in the lower-left corner of the print dialogue that will let you save a document as a PDF. It's one of my favorite features of Mac and one that seemingly gets overlooked by most users.

PC users: if you have a bunch of documents that need to be converted quickly, look for Ghost PDF. It's a postscript printer driver that spits out PDFs. The nice thing about this over most PDF creators I've found is that you can actually set it as the default printer for your computer and then print multiple files (high light the files in Explorer, right click, select 'Print') for a speedy conversion.

If you happen to be lucky enough to own Acrobat Pro for either OS, part of its installation includes a postscript PDF printer driver.

-Phil

Troy_Costisick · January 05, 2011, 05:55:19 PM

Heya,

Ron, will this new set of Ronny Awards have the two levels of winners (High and Low) that the previous set had? Or will there only be one level of winners this time? If I missed this in the rules or in the questions somewhere, I appologize.

Peace,

-Troy

Baxil · January 05, 2011, 07:53:28 PM

One thing that I appreciated about this year's Game Chef is that, even though I didn't make the finals, I was engaged through the whole event, because I got to drag my gaming group into playing a few of the finalists (which ended up expanding everyone's horizons a little, and being instructive toward my own game design efforts as well). Is there anything similar planned in terms of audience participation?

Ron Edwards · January 05, 2011, 10:40:35 PM

Hi everyone,

Troy, I'm biting the bullet and going back to the original notion that there's Ronnies vs. not, so no high or low. The money amount ($50) reflects that as well, I think. It was actually a very hard call to make in application, but I do think it's both fairer and clearer in the long run.

Baxil, I am hoping that people will act to playtest the Ronnies entries that interest them the most, on their own initiative. As I see it, if that doesn't happen on an ongoing basis at the Forge anyway, for whatever games are in development, then the site's purpose is failing.