This year, due to the large number of eligible games, there will be two rounds of judging to determine the winners of the AIFAs.   The list of eligible games can be found here.

Round 1: The first round takes place in February and involves a small group (5-10) of judges who will first vote and then discuss the merits of the results of that vote.  Acting as a panel, the judges will nominate four or five games from each category.  Those nominations will be made public in the AIF Newsletter and on this web site on February 28, 2005 .

Round 2:  The second round of judging is to be conducted by a public vote.  Members of the AIF authoring and playing community are strongly encouraged to vote on the nominated games.  Authors of nominated games are also encouraged to vote.  A text file ballot will be made available on numerous web sites.  Voters will be asked to complete the ballot and e-mail it to the2004erins@yahoo.com by the end of the day on March 20, 2005 .

Voting and Tabulation:

The voting form will ask each voter to list each entry in each category in order of preference.  In other words, if the voter believes Game A is better than Game B but not as good as Game C, he would vote for Game C as his first choice, Game A as his second and Game B as his third. 

Instant runoff voting will be used to tabulate the winner in each category.  Runoff voting will ensure that people can vote for their favorite game in a particular category, but be rest assured that if their obscure vote doesn't win, their second or third choice still has a shot.  Runoff voting is most accurate when a large number of voters participate, so we are encouraging everyone to vote. For an example on how instant runoff voting works, please visit http://www.fairvote.org/irv/muppets/.