It has come to my attention that there's a bit of confusion regarding the way categories are being handled this year.
I expected this since we're doing things slightly differently this year. In fact, I'm surprised things had been silent on that, and for a while I thought that the rules must've done a good job getting the idea across.
Well, apparently it seems questions indeed are being asked, but they're being asked among each other rather than here, which makes me sad panda. Please, if anyone has a question, speak up. Ask myself or Vlad directly, or post the question in this thread.
For the rules I aimed to explain it with as much brevity as possible to avoid the TL;DR effect, which of course left plenty of room for ambiguity or lack of clarity. So, let me try to clear some of that up.
And so, here we go:
Why are [the categories] split into two different sections [Prime and General]? Why not just combine them?
Because it made describing the changes easier and far shorter, though I’m seeing where the word “Prime” can lead to confusion.
I think the real question being asked is
what are the Prime and General categories?
Here’s the difference:
Prime Genres:
1) Each one is automatically going to be a “Finalist Category”.
2) Have some simple restrictions on how many entries you may submit.
General Genres:
1) Will each be paired with another General Genre (to be determined once all entries are received) to create a “Finalist Category”.
2) Have fewer restrictions on how many entries you may submit.
That's it!
The “Prime Genes” are called “Prime” because they’re the juggernauts. We get lots and lots and LOTS of them. The word “prime” isn’t meant to denote anything “upper tier” about them. In fact, the words “Prime” and “General” are discarded once we’ve got the Finalist Categories determined. In retrospect, “prime” probably wasn’t the best word to use since that seems to insinuate a higher tier or something, but that’s not the case. Primes are just really big juggernaut genres that won’t ever be going away. I might replace the word "Prime" with "Limited", and "General" with "Standard", but for now it is what it is.
Bottom line, there is no difference between Prime Genres and General Genres, except that there are limits on how many Prime Genre entries you may submit.
Is there going to be a showing for each genre or just the prime genres?
Each genre will be represented. As I said above, Prime Genres don't get any special treatment.
Hopefully this will make it clearer: There will be five (possibly six) Finalist Categories. Three of them are each Prime Genre. The remaining two (or three) will be created by pairing General Genres together, which we will determine once we’ve received and screened all entries.
I think the best way I can answer this is to give some examples of what a final competition may look like:
Why are the sections split up into duplicates? What's the difference between "Upbeat" and "Fun"?[
They aren’t duplicates. However, you've zeroed in on an inherent flaw in the very concept of categorization, which is that each person has different definitions for each category. It’s a problem with
all categories, not just “Fun” and “Upbeat”. One person's definition of "Fun" is another person's definition of "Upbeat”. Even still, another person’s “Upbeat” might be another person’s “Dance”. On that same note, one person's "Fun" is another person's "Comedy”, and vice versa. Thus, if we were to pre-specify a “Fun & Upbeat” category, we’re asking for trouble. This was a problem we discovered the hard way last year at AX and, to a slightly lesser degree, at SakuraCon. You’ll note that the category pairings we ultimately had at both events were
not as we originally specified in the rules.
That's why we set about making these changes.
Since genres skew very differently from year to year, we wanted to implement a way to be flexible. So, now we don't pair genres until after we see what the crop of entries is like. If "upbeat" skews more dance'ish, it could get paired with dance (like last year was). If Fun skews more comedy'ish (or vice versa) they could get merged together, again, like last year. That's the whole idea behind this method. It lets us determine how best to arrange the entries in the most competitive manner.
Again, what's the difference between "Upbeat" and "Fun"?
If
I were entering an AMV, here's how I interpret those two genres:
Fun entries are ones that are weird, strange, unique, and entertainingly experimental, though not quite to the degree of comedy.
Upbeat entries can be ones that that amp you up, and there's also ones that simply make you feel good. They straddle the nebulous border of action, dance, and perhaps even sentiment.
Ultimately though, it's up to you. The genre you specify is a
guide which lets us understand the intent of your entry, which we will use to aid us in placing your entry in the category where it will be most competitive.
Why do this?
Because changing the entire category structure last year well after the rules were released felt like changing the contest, and that felt extremely unethical to me. Thus, I wanted to codify it into the rules so that I could do so again the following year, but be transparent about how it would be done. As you can see though, it's not exactly something that can be clearly described in just a few sentences (though I spent two months trying).
I hope this clears some things up. As always, if any of you have any questions whatsoever, please ask.
"Understanding is a three-edged sword: Your side, their side, and the truth." — J. Michael Straczynski