XYZZY Award
Encyclopedia
The XYZZY
Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction
, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards
or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. The XYZZY Awards have been presented yearly in the early spring since 1996 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 in the winter, and sufficiently supported nominations become finalists within those categories. Typically there are four or five finalists in each category. Community members then vote among the finalists, and the game receiving a plurality of votes is given the award in an online ceremony at ifMUD
.
The XYZZY Awards have recognized a wide variety of games, and are seen by many as a contrast to the Interactive Fiction Competition
, which favors short works and uses a different structure for judging and voting.
XYZZY Awards are given in ten categories:
The name of the awards comes from the password command "xyzzy" from the popular early text adventure game Adventure
; see Colossal Cave Adventure#Xyzzy.
Xyzzy
Xyzzy is a magic word from the Colossal Cave Adventure computer game.In computing, the word is sometimes used as a metasyntactic variable or as a video game cheat code, the canonical "magic word"...
Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. The XYZZY Awards have been presented yearly in the early spring since 1996 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 in the winter, and sufficiently supported nominations become finalists within those categories. Typically there are four or five finalists in each category. Community members then vote among the finalists, and the game receiving a plurality of votes is given the award in an online ceremony at ifMUD
IfMUD
- External links :**...
.
The XYZZY Awards have recognized a wide variety of games, and are seen by many as a contrast to the Interactive Fiction Competition
Interactive Fiction Competition
The Interactive Fiction Competition is one of the best known 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 playing a game before deciding how many points to award it...
, which favors short works and uses a different structure for judging and voting.
XYZZY Awards are given in ten categories:
- Best GameXYZZY Award for Best GameThis is a list of XYZZY Awards results, grouped by award rather than year. The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given by the publication "XYZZYnews" to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film...
- since 1996 - Best Individual NPC - since 1996
- Best Individual PC - since 1997
- Best Individual Puzzle - since 1996
- Best NPCs - since 1996
- Best Puzzles - since 1996
- Best Setting - since 1996
- Best Story - since 1996
- Best Use of Medium - since 1997
- Best Writing - since 1996
The name of the awards comes from the password command "xyzzy" from the popular early text adventure game Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
; see Colossal Cave Adventure#Xyzzy.