Some things that would be nice, as this is considered:
A setup that would encourage people to only post after they’ve played (and possibly even decided on a score) for a particular game.
A setup that minimizes the chance for spoilers in games people haven’t yet played. Having a good idea of who “Edgar O. Weyrd” was before I played “Delightful Wallpaper” last year probably played a part, for instance.
A setup that minimizes having your opinion swayed by the opinions of others before you’ve played. Even the most harmless of comments can have an impact on people (me, in particular). For instance, I had doubts about a game that people had posted a bug discussion in the newsgroup, last year. Even if I hadn’t read the details, just seeing ongoing bug discussions (maybe it’s Labyrinth I’m thinking about here) put certain thoughts in my head.
Yikes. I’m not sure any pre-result discussion can really avoid these things.
I guess it’s up to each individual judge whether or not they would even want to participate, and if so, at what point in their judging. From the start, not really worried about being influenced by other opinions or spoilers? For each game, after playing and forming their own opinion? After playing them all and submitting votes?
I like the idea that every IFComp judge can post votes that are right – even if drastically different than anybody else’s scores. For whatever reason, I’m not a big fan of the “decide-my-opinion-based-on-what-everybody-else-says-first” kind of thing – at least, not when it comes to the IFComp. There was some chat about this last year, and some people felt that they would prefer reading other people’s opinions before deciding on a score, in case they were being too generous with an intended score, or not generous enough. My fear is that more discussion might lead to more of that, and to me, that kind of ruins the “fun” in thinking that it’s all completely objective…
I’m rambling. Anyway, thanks for putting some thought into it, Sargent. I can see some good coming from a private discussion that can be un-hidden for public consumption after the voting deadline. There would be a wealth (potentially) of comments written while everything was still fresh on the posters’ minds. But I would hope that people could practice restraint, and try to play each game before reading and/or writing about it.
Is anybody else out there? What do others think about this?