The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year prior to the award ceremony is eligible for nomination to receive an award. The decision process takes place in two stages: members of the interactive fiction community nominate works within specific categories and sufficiently supported nominations become finalists within those categories. Community members then vote among the finalists, and the game receiving a plurality of votes is given the award in an online ceremony. Since 1997 the XYZZY Awards have become one of the most important events within the interactive fiction community. Together with events like the

Interactive Fiction Competition The Interactive Fiction Competition (also known as IFComp) is one of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours pla ...

and Spring Thing, the XYZZY Awards provide opportunities for the community to encourage and reward the creation and development of new works within a genre that is no longer commercially lucrative.Davidson, Drew. ''Well played 1.0: video games, value and meaning''. ETC Press. 2009. The name of the awards comes from the magic word " xyzzy" causing teleportation from the popular early text adventure game ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

''.

Awards

The awards have been presented in the following categories.

Best game

The game which is the most enjoyable as a whole; other awards recognize merit in particular qualities.

Best writing

A game which rises above the others in the quality of its descriptive text.

Best story

The game with the deepest or most original story.

Best setting

The most original or best-described locations.

Best puzzles

The most well-crafted, clever, and appropriate puzzles.

Best NPCs

Appropriate, amusing, and well-written casts of non-player characters.

Best individual puzzle

The most inspired, well-crafted, and intriguing puzzle.

Best individual NPC

A particularly well-implemented and well-written non-player character.

Best individual PC

A particularly well-defined and well-written player character.

Best use of medium

The category had no specific criteria given to voters; many chose to interpret this award as a recognition of particularly daring interpretations of the limits and abilities of interactive fiction, especially as regards the relationship between the

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

, narrator, and player character. This award was retired in 2010, when Best Implementation and Best Use of Innovation were introduced as replacements.

Best implementation

Introduced in 2010 along with Best Use of Innovation, to replace the Best use of Medium award. It recognizes "completeness of implementation, excellence in parser messages, etc".

Best use of innovation

Introduced in 2010 along with Best Implementation, to replace the Best use of Medium award. It recognizes the "most innovative game".

Best technological development

Recognizes "interpreters, authoring systems, libraries, utilities, and so on".

Best supplemental materials

Outstanding non-game content ("

feelie Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone''. Infocom was founded on ...

s") created to accompany specific games. Eligibility is based on the year when the supplemental materials were released, regardless of the year of release of the game. * 2010: ''Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7'' (Aaron A. Reed) * 2011: PDFs and screencast tutorials for ''Kerkerkruip'' * 2012: Feelies for ''Muggle Studies'' * 2013: Multimedia – ''Dominique Pamplemousse''

Best use of multimedia

References

External links

Xyzzy Awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xyzzy Awards Fiction awards Interactive fiction Video game awards Video game lists by reception or rating Xyzzy awards for interactive fiction puzzles XYZZY