After multiple emails to @maga as well as personal DMs on Intfiction over the period of about 2-3 months, I think we don’t want to have a situation like last year when it took a whole year to get it started. I think May would have been a good time to start, but that’s nearly passed.
In essence, what I’m proposing is that if we haven’t heard back from Sam by the end of May, that we host our own.
Maybe this won’t happen. Maybe he responds a little too late, and we’ve already done it. But I think that it would make sense, considering he was talking about the handover from the start of the 2022 awards.
Yes, go ahead by the end of May
Yes, but wait until more like September/October
No, wait for Sam’s approval
Other (please mention in the thread)
0voters
Another thing I would need to talk about it method. In past XYZZY Awards, there was one long list of all games that year. But I honestly don’t think that’s a great idea. I would think that a text box in which you enter your choice is better. Then I (and other volunteers) would read through them and match them to existing games. This shouldn’t be too hard. It also leads to less “I randomly clicked on an option because I had to choose something”. Also, I don’t know what site to use. I would assume something like Google Forms. It could be more like the quadrennial Interactive Fiction awards, where you post on the forum/DM/email the main person.
I’m not sure on these points. Please give your ideas below.
The IFDB Awards serve a similar purpose to XYZZY awards, and were designed to allow anyone to “do it yourself” in case the organizers were unavailable.
Making another DIY award seems beside the point. And calling the new award “XYZZY” is basically a hostile takeover. And for what benefit?
“According to Cain” won both the “Best Game” IFDB Award in its year and the last XYZZY award. The winner of the next XYZZY award will almost certainly be one of the IFDB Award winners, even if XYZZY voting for 2023 doesn’t start until January 2025.
All that @maga has left now is the name “XYZZY awards” and the domain name. We’ll just have to let him be, and see if he decides to give those up at some point, or use them in a timely fashion.
I think having the list of games for the year would ensure that the less “seen” ones don’t get overlooked. Sure the list would in all probability be swamped with games from the Comps, but there will still be some that fall outside this. Give people a cutoff to add any others to the list and vote.
That’s not exactly my point. The point is, he talked about handing them over after the 2022. (I was one who volunteered, but he hasn’t talked to anyone as far as I know beyond saying he’d hand it over.) The XYZZY Awards aren’t the same as the IFDB Awards: the categories are different, and a lot of other things.
The most important point, however, is that the XYZZY Awards are more than just “awards” to some people. To a lot of people they don’t mean much, but they’re one of the longest-running videogame awards ceremonies. That’s a pretty big deal. To me, at least. I would be really sad to see them be let go.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s meaningful to speak of doing our own. The XYZZY Awards are Sam’s. His having talked about handing the reins over to someone else doesn’t change that.
I hope he’ll consider talking to the IFTF about turning over administration to them (and I hope the IFTF would be interested) but in the meantime, anyone could create the Melbor Awards or something.
If I ruled the world and could tell everyone how to feel, I’d say we just create a task force and host the XYZZY awards. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this, since the whole community is affected here. But I know there are a significant number of people who feel like this is unethical and unfair to Sam, and I respect that opinion even if I don’t share it.
The point being that there isn’t going to be harmonious accord about this, and this should be a thing that we are in accord about. There’s no reason to create bad feelings and division. So I think we’re just going to have to shrug our shoulders until Sam gets motivated to do it or hand it over.
I like the first and especially the second. The third conflicts a bit with the website with the same name.
With a different name we would have the benefits of both: Continuing the tradition of XYZZY and not disrespect Sam. We could tell explicitely that the awards are a continuation of XYZZY.
The PLUGH Awards! The statuette is a Grue (a “Grue-ey?”). It would be either an empty pedestal (you can’t see a Grue if there’s light) or possibly a block of translucent black glass representing darkness with a pair of light-up red LED eyes that glow inside? (speculation just for fun).
I don’t connect a pyramid with IF (though it may be from a game I’m not familiar with).
It could be like a brand name of a product vs. a generic store-brand name, where XYZZY is the brand name, and we come up with a generic name that means the same thing. I don’t know–the “Magic Transportation Word Awards.”
