Hugo Award
for
Best Game or Interactive Work
WE DID IT!!
On September 4, 2022, the WSFS Business Meeting at Chicon 8, the 2022 Worldcon, voted OVERWHELMINGLY in favor of our proposal for a Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work!
But we're not done - it needs to be ratified at next year's Worldcon in Chengdu to become law.
The campaign's gonna take a bit of a break, but stay tuned for updates on ratification and any next steps.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
Hades won the first ever Hugo Award for Best Video Game — But the Category was Temporary and the Fight is Far From Over!
After years of research and campaigning for a Games Hugo, DisCon III agreed to use its discretionary Hugo category on a Best Video Game award. Supergiant's hit Hades won on December 18, 2021, becoming the first game to win a Hugo Award. The full ballot of finalists included major studio (AAA) titles, indie masterpieces, and even a free browser game, displaying the breadth of WSFS members' interest in and passion for games. The work to create a permanent Games Hugo category continues in 2022! Here's how you can help!
What's This All About? What are the Hugos?
The Hugo Awards are a speculative fiction award given out yearly at that year's Worldcon, recognizing outstanding speculative works and contributors to speculative fiction fandom. The Hugo Awards have been awarded every year since 1955, and are voted on by World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) members. That means most Worldcon attendees, and many other people — if you nominated, you're a WSFS member already. Anyone can be a WSFS member, but not everything can get a Hugo Award.
Right now, there is no Hugo Award category for games. We're working to change that.
It's Time for a Hugo Award for Games — All Games
Games, whether digital or analog, are a thriving site of speculative fiction work today and are major innovators in the genre. Whether it's video games or tabletop RPGs, board games or interactive prose, amusement park installations or VR experiences, if it's interactive it's doing something totally unique, something that deserves to be recognized alongside other speculative fiction work.
Interested In Making it Happen?
To make a new Hugo Award category, the WSFS Constitution must be amended to define the new category. This is done by proposing a constitutional amendment at a WSFS Business Meeting, which is open to all attendees of that year's Worldcon. If the amendment passes there, then it must be ratified at the next year's Worldcon. Each Worldcon also has the prerogative to run one discretionary category of its own choosing. New categories are more likely to pass if they have had a successful trial run at a recent Worldcon — which we just did!
At the 2019 WSFS Business Meeting, Ira Alexandre brought a proposal for a medium-neutral Best Game or Interactive Experience category, which was referred to the Hugo Award Study Committee. In 2020, DisCon III agreed to use its discretionary category on a medium-specific Best Video Game award. After reviewing the data from the trial category, the subcommittee of the Hugo Award Study Committee devoted to the proposal is returning to the next Business Meeting (Chicon 8 in 2022) with a new medium-neutral Best Game or Interactive Work proposal that incorporates everything we've learned.
At this stage we are seeking public feedback from anyone who has thoughts on the proposal, as well as additional subcommittee members to work on the proposal in a more concentrated fashion as feedback rolls in. Join the conversation on any platform, but if possible please use the #GamesHugo hashtag on Twitter and link us to your thoughts there!