Perhaps Best Game in English instead, so us Yanks (and Australians and others!) have a shot 
6 Likes
Side note: would you want to consider the convention of substituting the word outstanding for best? That avoids the connotation that ābestā is subjective and ephemeral. Like āOutstanding Game Involving Pet Fishā instead of āBest Game Involving Pet Fish.ā
Especially if there are potential awards that span outside the current year like āOutstanding Debut Gameā. (Although I assume this is meant to be yearly?)
16 Likes
This is not a category suggestionāmore like food for thought. There can be a difference between how technically impressive, or skillfully written, or groundbreaking, or important a game is, vs. how much you actually enjoy it. It might be nice to be able to vote for games or rate them (even in another context, not necessarily as part of these awardsābut I donāt know where) on the basis of how much you like themāmore like āfavoriteā than ābest.ā
3 Likes
Iām trying to figure out a way to work in a golden banana-style award, which in IFComp is calculated by standard deviation (which feels less personal and potentially less offensive than voters willingly saying āi found this game equally good/bad, fun/obnoxiousā etc. Itās my favorite award in IF because it means a game provoked strong reactions, but it might just not be transferable to a non-numerical voting system?
9 Likes
Canāt wait until I release Milliways (the game that will never happen, which is also the one Iām obsessed with), then. It would be my first.
2 Likes
I mainly relate this to watching Citizen Kane. When I watched it, I thought it was OK but not as amazing as everyone said that it was. I had to watch Mank to realise how groundbreaking it actually was.
2 Likes
How about a category like:
Best Game for First Time IF Players
Or even:
Best game to learn a foreign language
Complementary there could be:
Best game for advanced IF players
7 Likes
Best Underappreciated Game.
This is basically a way of doing āBest Game That Didnāt Receive Nominations or Awards from a comp, jam, or festivalā, but which avoids defining what counts as a nomination or award. It lets anyone nominate a game they feel deserved more love.
18 Likes
I think you could do āMost Divisive Gameā and let people vote for whichever games they felt were most divisive (based on discussions around the games).
4 Likes
I like this:
But Iām wary about this:
as, to me, it implies a degree of inaccessibility that may be off-putting. What skills does an advanced player need to have that a novice player wonāt? Patience perhaps.
Anyway, just my gut reaction.
5 Likes
Best worldbuilding.
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Best implementation in [insert specific authoring system here].
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Most original use of the medium (parser)
Most original use of the medium (choice)
[Most original use of the medium (other)?]
(Alternatively: most innovative parser etc game, which boils down to the same thing)
7 Likes
Game players would most like to see a sequel to.
(Except more elegantly expressed than that - a neater form of words escapes me right now)
15 Likes
Best User Interface.
9 Likes
Best Graphics
8 Likes
Best Voice
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Best Multiuser
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Favorite (or most enjoyable, or something) Inform game*
*If there are at least N Inform games published during the year
10 Likes
Favorite (or most enjoyable, or something) Adventuron game*
*If there are at least N Adventuron games published during the year
(Feel free to add more authoring systems.)
8 Likes