by Randomizer » Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:27 pm
Who can state for certain how others might perceive plugging your own work. Authors and movie stars do this all the time with book signings and talk show appearances so are these merely the perks of celebrity?
I think that any nomination for awards or for official recognition are perhaps best left to third-party submissions to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest since for some at least, these things have value and the entire process should be seen as being scrupulously fair and open. That said, it is probably impossible to predict how you nominating a CMANO scenario that you authored for the proposed Scenario Of The Year Award would play with the voters. For myself, the work stands on its own merits and creative people frequently have egos that need to be stroked. Celebrities frequently thrive on self-promotion but for the rest of us, those outside of our immediate circle may find it in poor taste.
I suspect that the vast majority of CMANO players just consume the scenarios without thought for the many hours of work that goes into creating them. We should consider ourselves grateful if we get an AAR or two out of the community or even just some positive feedback in a public or PM format. Note that it would seem that most of the people who do this are other scenario authors and I suspect at least part of the reason for this is that we have a sense of the effort involved in writing CMANO scenarios.
So I do not see a "conflict of interest" outside of the specific observation regarding potential awards but I suspect that it might be seen as being in poor taste by at least some segments of the Community. Am not convinced that I would think any less of a scenario author recommending his own works with the caveat that I also agreed with them on the quality of the scenario. Otherwise I would probably just shake my head and move on.
Sorry for the text wall...
-C