I totally agree with you Frank, reputation comes from the demos/projects no matter what the name is.

However if the publishers are fed up with templateshooters and get a good game submission with acknex.dll in it, it's more likely, that the submission gets a warm place in the recycle bin next to the 10 other template games - without beeing noticed at all. Shure thats the publishers fault then, but prejudices is as i said part of human nature.

Making a good demo for the engine would be a very nice idea, this could raise the reputation and show what the engine can be used for! Just look at the old car demo wich is still at the downloadpage and looks so outdated.