The XYZZY Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. The XYZZY Awards have been presented yearly in the early spring since 1996 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of XYZZYnews. Any game released during the year prior to the award ceremony is eligible for nomination to receive an award. The decision process takes place in two stages: members of the interactive fiction community nominate works within specific categories in the winter, and sufficiently supported nominations become finalists within those categories. Typically there are four or five finalists in each category. Community members then vote among the finalists, and the game receiving a plurality of votes is given the award in an online ceremony at ifMUD.
The XYZZY Awards have recognized a wide variety of games, and are seen by many as a contrast to the Interactive Fiction Competition, which favors short works and uses a different structure for judging and voting.
XYZZY Awards are given in ten categories:
The name of the awards comes from the password command "xyzzy" from the popular early text adventure game Adventure; see Colossal Cave Adventure#Xyzzy.
List of XYZZY Awards by category