Special Hugo Award For Videogames

techno-vampire writes "Every year, the Hugo Awards are given out at the World Science Fiction Convention, and each year's convention is allowed one special category. This year's convention, LACon IV, has decided to honor The Year's Best Interactive Video Game. As the announcement explains, games have changed over the years. 'No longer the simple flickering photons of Pong or Asteroids, the improvement in computer chips has given games not only better graphics but the capability of more involving, fully developed stories.' The time may have come that they deserve such a honor, and this year's special award is a test, to find out if they're ready."

What about comics?

[xanderwilson]

I think it's great that they're trying something new, but I'm surprised video games gets a category before sequential art, since the latter has actually been nominated for existing category awards in the past.

Alex.

Re:What about comics?

[challlen]

I totally agree that if Hugo awards are given to games, they should be given to comics as well.

There are really excellent comics, and with a Hugo award, it would be so much easier to find quality material.

Re:What about comics?

[Kelson]

This reminds me of the time that an issue of Sandman won the World Fantasy Award, and the committee immediately changed the rules to prevent a comic book from ever winning again.

As for the Hugos, it looks like one comic actually managed to win: They created a one-off "Other Forms" category [worldcon.org] in 1988 for Watchmen.

Re:Nominations?

[techno-vampire]

Only members of the convention can nominate or vote. That's what makes them so prestigious: they're awarded by the fans. Not the authors, or the publishers, or the retailers or the critics, but the people who actually buy and use the books, films, games etc. are deciding what's best. However, if you can't attend, you can buy a supporting membership, for less money. You get all the progress reports, the program, the handouts that the attending members get and voting rights, including the right to vote on

Re:Nominations?

[techno-vampire]

It's been tried. Back in '84, a number of Scientologists bought supporting memberships and voted for Battlefield Earth. Although they were from all over the country, all the checks were from the same account in sequential order. After discussion, the votes were rejected and the checks returned. Not one of them objected.

I won't say it can't be done, but you'd probably need several hundred votes. That's at least $100/"member" for the supporting membership, possibly more, so there's ten to twenty thousan

Re:Nominations?

[Pluvius]

Since it's for this year's games, I'd say Shadow of the Colossus would be the easy guess. (I believe Hugo Awards also apply to fantasy works, which is a good thing because there are very few recent video games could be considered "science fiction.")

Rob

This should drive Gregory Benford insane

[Kelson]

After all, he walked out of the hugos over the rise of fantasy [benford-rose.com]. Now video games? Bah!

What if the top game is not Sci-Fi related?

[Andy_R]

While a huge number of games have Sci Fi plots, a lot of the contenders for the title of 'best' do not. Will they ingore the next tetris/nintendogs/gran turismo/WWII Fps game or will they give the award to something inferior that fits into the right genre?

Re:What if the top game is not Sci-Fi related?

[techno-vampire]

It all depends on what the members of the convention vote for. The concom doesn't decide who gets the Hugos, the members vote on it, just like for the Oscars.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Nominate Kingdom Hearts 2!

[2nd Post!]

It has transdimensional travel!

Original and released in 2005

[Anm]

From the nomination form, the game must be original (not a remake of another story/game, or a port from a different platform) and it must have been released in 2005. I can't think of a single game that meets those criteria and deserves the right to be the first Hugo winner for video games.

That said, I also second the above opinion that sequential art deserves its own category first.

Anm

Re:Original and released in 2005

[Jonny_eh]

How about Indig Prophecy/Faranheit, Death to All Humans, or ...

Ya, sequential art should be a category instead.

Cyan should get a special award...

[Stormwatch]

They deserve one of those "lifetime achievement" awards for the Myst series.

Oh Lord No...

[costik]

If they want to give a Hugo to best SF-themed game, I'm all for that... though I'll probably nominate something from Cheapass.

I nominate Darwinia!

[biovoid]

It's science fiction, released in 2005, and an awesome game as well.