Chinese Singaporean immigrant in the UK. Writer. Nintendo enthusiast. SF Giants fan. Ailuromaniac. (Other animals are 💖.) Bibliophile. Anime-niac. See the link for my TTRPGs out on http://itch.io


austinkelmore
@austinkelmore

I don't like receiving industry awards or company kudos and I realized yesterday it's because I feel like they're both divorced of an emotional connection with people who are affected by my work. Awards and accolades are also often given to those with prestige or power and omit or ignore the work other people who aren't as visible have done and I have concerns with how we as an industry hold individuals up instead of teams.

At the same time, if you love awards and you get a lot out of receiving or being nominated for them, I'm super happy for you. I want to try to both celebrate peoples' joy and also have my own opinions and feelings about them at the same time. I realize it's a touchy subject, though, especially as some people REALLY like them.

When I think about what matters to me most about games I've worked on, it's not the awards the games have won, it's my connection with people who have played them that I value the most. I love seeing strangers play games on a bus or airplane that I've helped make. I adore the letters that people have sent to companies I've worked at to express how much the games mean to them and how we've impacted their lives. I squee on the inside when friends tell me the specific parts of games they like unaware that those parts are ones I worked on.

Those are the things I personally value.

I'm also hyper aware that award shows like the Academy Awards were literally created as a way to bust unionization efforts. So when I see awards and award ceremonies, I ask myself - who benefits from them? Who is excluded? How do the owners of whatever organization is giving the awards personally benefit from giving an award that is considered prestigious? Those are complicated questions without easy answers, but I think they're worth thinking about.

How to celebrate without awards

I've been trying to think of ways to celebrate the good work that people do without running into the many issues that I have with awards and company kudos because I think it's really important that people get praise for good things. I want folks to know how awesome they are!

What I've started doing at the end of most union meetings these days is to give space for people to express gratitude to others in the group or people who aren't there and it is incredible how warm and caring that feels. People talk about how their friends and comrades checked in with them and helped them with something, how peoples' work in that meeting impacted their lives, and how grateful they feel for having interacted with people there.

It's very different from awards and accolades and it feels much better and much more grounded to me. It's about the human connection that we all have with each other and how people help each other. It's also not something that's required or has any monetary association with it. It's freely given because people care and want the folks who have touched them to know they mean something to them.

I love it so much, it's one of my favorite things these days.


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in reply to @austinkelmore's post:

It's a small thing, but in our work Slack we have a channel dedicated to calling out the invisible things people have done to help you out - things that don't make it to a Jira card or happen in quick calls/DM's.

As for awards, I have my one GDH Award that sits behind me and feels like all I need. It was something I didn't expect to ever get (and not something I've ever bent effort towards) but I'll admit it felt very nice to know people had good feelings about my work; and being picked to win by people I respected in the games industry did a lot to make me feel like I'd actually been 'accepted' into the industry. It was also nice that it wasn't part of an event where I'd have to buy a table for several grand to go accept the award.