The XYZZY Awards

by **RetroRomper** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:15 am

A bit off topic, but I'm really enjoying playing through the archives of older XXYZ entrants and especially glad because its simple to pick the winners from the last (five, ten years?) of 1st through 3rd place games and know that there is at least a bit of quality inherently present.

Another function of the awards: presents a standard of quality for future players who wish to quickly parse through the (arguably according to this thread) best of the best of the large number of text games released each year.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:41 pm

Hey, so Sam (who did a great job this year) organized some reviews of games nominated for XYZZY Awards. He asked people to look at the nominees in certain categories.

The results are HERE!

http://xyzzyawards.org/reviews/reviews2011.html

Specifics on all sorts of games, from many of your favorite IF people. Well, many of my favorite IF people. WELL, many of my favorite people.

by **loafingcoyote** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:23 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: I really appreciate this - thanks so much. Yeah, I've been coding it in since.... huh, probably 2000. I think I started A Crimson Spring in January of that year or something, and have stuck with it ever since.

2000, hmm...I had to look it up, but it turns out that I started with Hugo at about the same time. I took it up a couple of weeks before the Dino-Comp, in March of 2000. I would have never thought that more than ten years would pass between that time and now; when I'm finally able to get more serious about writing IF. Between a demanding work schedule and a child, I had almost no spare time. Not that I didn't do anything at all during that time. Every year or so I would code up a few things, nothing too complex; just enough to get frustrated and quit.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I got to that point where I stopped banging my head against the language before I started Crypto, and it's been nice. I've never had this much fun with a language because I've never had 12 years with one before. :)

I understand this completely. With a little hard work and lots of patient help from Roody I've reached a point of near-competence. It's very nice!

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:40 pm

loafingcoyote wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:The transcript has been posted! Check it out here: http://xyzzyawards.org/transcripts/xyzzys2011.html
All Right!

I've been completely swamped by non-IF related matters for the last week so I just now finished reading the xyzzy awards transcript. When I reached the game-of-the-year part I literally jumped out of my chair!

I know they were voting for the game itself, but I can't help but feel a little pride for Hugo right now. I've been a(quiet)fan of the language for a long time and am trilled that a Hugo game is receiving such well deserved recognition. Way to go!

I really appreciate this - thanks so much. Yeah, I've been coding it in since.... huh, probably 2000. I think I started A Crimson Spring in January of that year or something, and have stuck with it ever since. I got to that point where I stopped banging my head against the language before I started Crypto, and it's been nice. I've never had this much fun with a language because I've never had 12 years with one before. :)

by **Roody_Yogurt** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:22 pm

Well, the serious answer is, I voted for what is most useful to me. TADS 3.1 does some interesting things, but I won't know for certain its usefulness until I see non-MJR games online (I know getting games online sounds fairly trivial; still, I am disappointed that TADS 3 authors haven't been putting games online- just because) and games and libraries that make use of the dynamic compilation feature in cool ways.

Had I not voted for Hugor, I probably would have voted for Vorple, just because the proof-of-concepts have been pretty good and I am all for bells-and-whistles in IF.

Just the same, it was nice to have such a strong year with so many worthwhile nominees.

by **RealNC** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:16 am

Roody_Yogurt wrote:Good to see you stop by, Nikos! I voted for Hugor for Best Technological Development, as it is so very much appreciated.

Thanks. But too bad I didn't win. I spent seven days writing it. Mike spent over a year for TADS 3.1. I should have won :-D

by **loafingcoyote** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:18 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:The transcript has been posted! Check it out here: http://xyzzyawards.org/transcripts/xyzzys2011.html

All Right!

I've been completely swamped by non-IF related matters for the last week so I just now finished reading the xyzzy awards transcript. When I reached the game-of-the-year part I literally jumped out of my chair!

I know they were voting for the game itself, but I can't help but feel a little pride for Hugo right now. I've been a(quiet)fan of the language for a long time and am trilled that a Hugo game is receiving such well deserved recognition. Way to go!

by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:11 pm

Good to see you stop by, Nikos! I voted for Hugor for Best Technological Development, as it is so very much appreciated.

by **RealNC** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:56 am

Sir, you suck. As do your games. There's a game that took 5 years to make because you just suck at it, full of shitty music and butt-ugly actors, as well as a plot that is offensive to decent Christians and the teaching of the bible.

Congratulations, Rob! When I first went to xyzzyawards.org to check out the results, I thought I was still on my voting page :mrgreen:

Edit:
You also suck at forum administration. There I click on the smiley presented to me on the left, and all I get is Mr. Green. Jesus Christ...

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:13 pm

What I remember reading is that he has sort of backed away slowly from all this Stiffy Makane stuff and is doing everything possible to keep all of us at arm's length.

The LEGEND OF MARK RYAN

by **bruce** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:47 pm

.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Thanks, man. Congrats to you to for fleshing out the best goddamn player character of all-time. You winning an award with Stiffy Makane is like Drew Brees winning a Super Bowl with the Saints.

Except you don't have a weird birthmark on your face.

Snerk.

I wish I knew how to find Mark Ryan, so I could tell him.

Bruce

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:40 pm

The transcript has been posted! Check it out here: http://xyzzyawards.org/transcripts/xyzzys2011.html

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:34 pm

bruce wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:So yeah, voting has closed: the winners will be announced starting at 1:00 PM Pacific this Sunday. There is a ceremony involved and everything. If you'd like to logon to the ifMud and be there, this page should give you the info you need to connect:

http://ifmud.port4000.com:4001/

(Personally, I use putty.exe and telnet in.)
Congrats all over the place on your multiple awards, sir.

Thanks, man. Congrats to you to for fleshing out the best goddamn player character of all-time. You winning an award with Stiffy Makane is like Drew Brees winning a Super Bowl with the Saints.

Except you don't have a weird birthmark on your face.

by **Roody_Yogurt** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:48 pm

Congrats to you, too, bruce!

by **bruce** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:30 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:So yeah, voting has closed: the winners will be announced starting at 1:00 PM Pacific this Sunday. There is a ceremony involved and everything. If you'd like to logon to the ifMud and be there, this page should give you the info you need to connect:

http://ifmud.port4000.com:4001/

(Personally, I use putty.exe and telnet in.)

Congrats all over the place on your multiple awards, sir.

Bruce

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:01 pm

So yeah, voting has closed: the winners will be announced starting at 1:00 PM Pacific this Sunday. There is a ceremony involved and everything. If you'd like to logon to the ifMud and be there, this page should give you the info you need to connect:

http://ifmud.port4000.com:4001/

(Personally, I use putty.exe and telnet in.)

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:00 pm

(Voting is closed, so I feel all right in posting my thoughts about all this.)

pinback wrote:And the second question is, should "ChoiceScript" game be included? Again, I say yes, because there have been, and will be "proper" IF entries which in fact offer the player even LESS of a chance for interaction than a CYOA book. Flack's HugoComp entry, "Spinning", would certainly not be out of place in a list of potential XYZZY nominees, and it offers no choice, and very little interaction at all.

You can type >xyzzy in Spinning, though. I'd say that should be the requirement (being able to type the thing the game is named for) but it goes beyond that.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:24 pm

Tdarcos wrote:
Flack wrote:For what it's worth, I think Bruce's "Spinning" got robbed.
I don't. A game that consists of exactly 4 moves, ends with the player dying, has every move forced so that you have no alternative, represents something that isn't interactive fiction. I don't see where it deserves any awards.

Wait, did you play all the other Hugo Comp games? What did you think of Retro-Nemesis? Like Google says, in a totally cunty way, "This stuff matters."

by **pinback** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:49 am

Tdarcos wrote:Thus, I don't think a CYOA should be eligible because it's a printed novel, not a computer game.

Man, you are on a ROLL today.

by **pinback** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:48 am

Tdarcos wrote:
pinback wrote:
Tdarcos wrote: I don't. A game that consists of exactly 4 moves, ends with the player dying, has every move forced so that you have no alternative, represents something that isn't interactive fiction. I don't see where it deserves any awards.

What's the newness, the spark of creativity, the unusualness, the difference from anything else out there?

It might as well have been an automated PDF with a "more" button at the end of each page. Or a document displayed in MSDOS with the command TYPE spinning.txt | MORE . There is no interactivity, you might as well be reading a short story, and what is the point of doing it as an Interactive Fiction game?
Ben, exactly what is your malfunction? My comment is exactly on point and is relevant to the discussion

No, your comment completely misses the point and is thoroughly irrelevant to the discussion. But if I explained Flack's post to you, then I'd have to explain every other goddamn post on this BBS to you, and I don't have that kind of time.

(Well, I do, but I'd rather spend it watching Day9 videos.)

The XYZZY Awards

Post a reply

Expand view Topic review: The XYZZY Awards