AME on the Neverwinter Nights Podcast

Last Tuesday, Andarian and I recorded with Jay, Trey and Striker B from the Neverwinter Nights Podcast.  We discussed coming changes in the awards, leadership and all around questions to inform the public on what to expect from the AME this year.  Please check it out and let us know what you think.

Neverwinter Nights Podcast Episode 125

Tybae, AME Chairman

Greetings folks. We have officially started our new cycle for Golden Dragon Awards. We have made a few changes to the awards this year that will be beneficial to everyone. Some of the changes include:

  • The Veteran Author Award has been modified to include extensive updates to current releases.
  • We have changed the award system to reflect 2 types of categories: Core and Non-Core.
  • We have added an International Recognition Award.
  • We have added a new position to the AME Ranks: Dragon Age Leader.

To read the full article click here.

Posted by Andarian for AME Chairman Tybae

A New AME Chairman for 2010

Now that we’re approaching a new year and beginning preparation for a new awards cycle, it’s time for me to announce that I’m stepping down as Chairman of the AME. After a call for volunteers and a vote, I’m pleased to announce that 2009 Vice-Chairman Tybae has been elected as the new Chairman of the Academy for Modding Excellence.

Although I will be remaining as a member of the AME with a minimal workload, I also have a set of very ambitious plans that I need to start focusing more of my time and energy on during the coming year. Among them are a serious return to my modding and writing work, and to development of my Sanctum of the Archmage Saga. That will involve finishing the current part (The Miracle Worker) in NWN, as well as developing the final part (The Alliance) in Dragon Age. I’m in the process of forming a modding team to undertake those projects, so it’ll be a lot of work and I’m taking it very seriously.

I’ve known and worked with Tybae about two years now, and I can definitely say that the AME is in good hands with him. Congratulations, Tybae, and best of luck!

Andarian

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the AME 2008 Golden Dragon Awards for Neverwinter Nights 2! To see the list of finalists and winners, please visit our Announcement Pages linked below. You can also listen to the NWN2 GDA Show on Episode 115 of the Neverwinter Nights Podcast. And if you’d like to discuss the finalists and winners for 2008, please feel free to visit our forum thread.

Andarian - AME Chairman

The finalists for the 2008 AME Golden Dragon Awards for Neverwinter Nights 2 have been announced! To see the list, please visit the announcement page here.

To discuss the NWN2 Golden Dragon award finalists for 2008, please feel free to visit our forum thread.

Andarian - AME Chairman

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 AME Golden Dragon Awards for Neverwinter Nights 1! To see the list, please visit our Winner Announcement Page here. To see the full list of finalists — and to view the fabulous finalists video produced by our very own qkrch — please visit our Finalist Announcement Page here.

If you’d like to discuss the NWN1 Golden Dragon award finalists and winners for 2008, please feel free to visit our forum thread. You can also listen to my appearance with AME Vice-Chairman Tybae announcing the finalists on Episode 107 of the Neverwinter Nights Podcast.

Andarian - AME Chairman

The finalists for the 2008 AME Golden Dragon Awards for Neverwinter Nights 1 have been announced! To see the list — and to view the fabulous video produced by our very own qkrch — please visit the announcement page here.

The finalists are also announced on the NWN Vault. To discuss the NWN1 Golden Dragon award finalists for 2008, please feel free to visit our forum thread. You can also hear my appearance with AME Vice-Chairman Tybae announcing the finalists on Episode 103 of the Neverwinter Nights Podcast.

Andarian - AME Chairman

NWN1 GDA Finalists Podcast!

From Tybae, Vice-Chairman of the Academy for Modding Excellence

The Academy for Modding Excellence and The Only NWN Podcast have teamed up to announce the finalists for the 2008 NWN1 Golden Dragon Awards. For those of you who don’t know, the NWN Podcast has recently been streaming the host recordings of their shows. The AME has asked the Podcast if we could stream the finalists on their scheduled recording night and they have agreed. On Tuesday May 12 at 7:00pm PDT (UTC-8) Andarian and I will announce the finalists for the 2008 Golden Dragon Awards and Ashercon and Skunkeen will be the representatives from the Podcast team. To find out how to listen, please visit their forum page here. You will need some kind of media player that can stream from a URL. Winamp, Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc.

In addition to that, the NWN Podcast has an irc chatroom on irc.nwn2source.net. You can drop by the chatroom to ask questions, comment or just chat with whoever shows up on May 12th. Liso will be manning (womanning) the chatroom fielding questions and giving them to Andarian and I at the end of the announcements so we can answer as many as we can in the time allowed.

So save the date and drop by to find out who the finalists will be for The 2008 Golden Dragon Awards!

To discuss the NWN1 GDA Finalists Podcast, please feel free to visit our forums here.

A New AME Chairman and Vice-Chairman

I am sorry to announce that Ben Wynniatt-Husey, who has led the AME since October of 2007, has decided to step down from his position as AME Chairman. Ben’s adept guidance was instrumental in helping the AME to realize its founding dream of honoring the talented builders of the NWN community with a serious set of awards. His tireless leadership and innovative ideas were a tremendous asset to our team, and I believe that I speak for all of our membership when I say that I would like to sincerely thank him for everything that he has done to make the Academy for Modding Excellence a success. Thanks, Ben!

Ben will be retaining his AME membership, and still participating in some of our work in this year’s awards cycle. After a call for volunteers and a vote, I’m pleased to announce that the AME membership has elected me (Andarian) to serve as the AME’s new Chairman, and Tybae to serve as our new Vice-Chairman.

I’ve noticed that we’ve had a fair amount of traffic to the site recently, which I hope indicates that people are starting to check it to see if we’re ready to make any announcements yet. We haven’t had time to update the front page recently, so I just want to let everyone know that we’re still working hard on our awards! We’re just finishing the nominations phase for the NWN1 awards now, and should be in a position to start announcing the finalists fairly soon. Our NWN2 nominations phase is still ongoing, and the NWN2 finalists will be announced a little later in the year. We’re also still actively recruiting new members for the NWN2 awards, so if you’d be interested in volunteering to help us, feel free to drop me a PM on our forums. :)

Thanks for your attention, and good gaming!

Sincerely,

Andarian
Chairman, The Academy for Modding Excellence

Looking back at 2008 (iii)

Our look back at 2008 continues…

August

August saw a furious burst of NWN2 winner interview posting, culminating with an interview with Zach Holbrook, a double Golden Dragon winner for Best Sound and Debut Author with Harp & Chrysanthemum. All told, 8 NWN2 Golden Dragon winners granted us interviews.

Also in August we closed a poll of over 800 people on the most important Golden Dragon award that was running on the Vault. Topping the charts were Best Roleplaying Module, Best Adventure Module and Best Custom Content. If you think otherwise, why not vote on the poll here on the forums?

And all this while the olympics were going on!

September

Not content with written interviews with the Golden Dragon winners, we teamed up with NWNPodcast to produce a series of winner podcast interviews with several of the 2007 winners. We also got together with a number of the NWN2 winners for a public IRC chat and then followed that up with the NWN1 winners, which was a blast!

October

DA
In October I took a break from looking at NWN works, and headed over to Edmonton, Canada, for a top secret look at Dragon Age. Together with a handful of other lucky NWN modders (including 3 Golden Dragon winners), we not only saw the game, but got a first exclusive hands-on with the toolset. I then returned to Greece and tried to keep my mouth shut for the next few weeks while I waited for Bioware to go public with the news!

December

In our final NWN1 Golden Dragon Award winner interview of the year, we tracked down savant, winner for Best Action Module with his final instalment of the Aielund Saga. His interview marked the final of 8 2007 NWN1 Golden Dragon winner interviews for the year.

The AME members then took some well deserved downtime, with a few of us heading over to the NWNPodcast for a roundtable, where we answered what we really get up to inside the private forums of AME!

I finished the year with something of a fall to earth though, following riots in Greece. But we all survived to make it to Christmas, and to gear up for…

The 2008 cycle!

 

About AME

The AME (Academy for Modding Excellence) is a group... for Neverwinter Nights.