The XYZZY Awards for the interactive fiction works of 2018 is now open for first-round voting. (Probably setting a record for the latest in the year; sorry about that.)
The XYZZYs use your IF Comp login; if you need to register an account with the Comp, or you’ve forgotten your account details, go here. You can log in here (you’ll get kicked back to the front page) and then vote here. In the nominee round, you can nominate two works in each category. You should not nominate works that you authored, and you should not direct voters to vote for particular games or slates of games.
The first round will remain open through the 19th of July (technically, with votes closing at 1 AM US-Pacific time on the 20th).
Is this purely a nomination round, or does the number of votes count towards some final score? Am I expected to nominate my two favourites in each category, or can I nominate any two games that I think qualify?
I’m making lists of games to nominate, but it’s difficult to trim some of them down to two entries. So it occurred to me that it’s probably safe to leave out some of the blockbusters that will surely be nominated by other people. Or, to avoid the bystander effect, to start with a larger list and then use a random number generator to select two entries.
I’m especially keen to learn if this is somehow against the spirit of the nomination round. The instructions ask me to participate in good faith, but it’s not entirely clear how to interpret that requirement.
My interpretation is that you’re being asked to nominate your two favourite entries. If you can’t choose, well, you’ll have to adopt some kind of tie-breaking mechanism, and then “choose the more obscure ones rather than the blockbusters” sounds like a perfectly okay mechanism to me.