Hades Is The First Game To Win A Hugo Award

Yo Hades still winning awards? Well Deserved!

Hades is the best game in the list imo, deserves every success with all the love put into it. I'm smarter for playing it.

"A new game award was a one-off for that event, as The Hugo Awards typically focuses on science fiction and fantasy works"

Why is this written as if those games aren't sci fi/fantasy?

Well deserved. Hades is just simply a masterpiece.

Hades, game of the generation. Probably.

@Fiskern i wouldn't tend to call animal crossing either of those genres

well deserved as the first winner.

Why was AC nominated though? It is certainly not scifi/fantasy even in the slightest. And what the heck is Blaseball?

One of the best games ever.

I don't really understand why ACNH was even in consideration for the award. Spiritfarer and Hades I think were the only games on the list that should've been up for the award.

Although it's probably not the best sci-fi game of 2020, the amount of dialog in the game (often witty or informative) is just ridiculously impressive and deserves to stand as an interactive sci-fi work alongside the others. Glad there are efforts to include video games as a respectable art platform, despite how the innovation tends to be confined to the indie sphere.

Don't understand why ACNH was nominated when it's as far away as you could from an award that honors story and writing.

@Mando44646 @somebread Where do you two live? Where I come from, living on a tropical island where your neighbours are anthropomorphic animals would definitely be considered fantasy 😂

I've played this for all of ten mins and couldn't get into it. Clearly, I need to persevere and crack on! Mind you, I was the exact same with Isaac, once I got fluid with it, I couldn't put it down

I'm still on the fence about this one. The accolades left and right coupled with my fondness of Greek/Roman mythology would normally be enough, but the fact that it's a roguelike gives me pause; I haven't had the best experiences with the genre.

@Tyranexx You might wanna youtube it. I can say Hades is the only roguelike that I can tolerate, but as soon as I got end credits and the main story beats were gone, I dropped it like a hot potato. It really overstays its welcome in some points but the story and characters are fun.

A very prestigious award, and well-earned! Whenever I need some new sci-fi to read, I would turn to Hugo winners and not once have I been disappointed.

While WSFS rules state that it should be considered a HUGO award, they did not win a HUGO award and the HUGO awards do not include gaming now. They won a semi-promotional one off that the venue insisted the WSFS have this year. Because it followed the same nomination process, this was 50 year old sci-fi geeks voting on "best" video game with absolutely no guidance as to what should be considered in "best". Did Blaseball's (a browser game) nomination for GOTY not tip you off?

BEST VIDEO GAME

(A one-off category created as per WSFS rules by DisCon III)

Hades (Publisher and Developer: Supergiant Games)

The rules for additional categories:

...such action by a Worldcon Committee should be under exceptional circumstances only; and the special category created by one Worldcon Committee shall not be binding on following Committees. Awards created under this paragraph shall be considered to be Hugo Awards.

@somebread talking animals is pretty Fantasy and Sci Fi for me.

@HeadPirate You don't have to put Hugo in ALLCAPS. It's not LEGO.

Also, why would "50 year old Sci-fi geeks" need guidance about what constitutes a good game? Plenty of 50 year old sci-fi geeks play video games.

@Fiskern Author also says awards were “unfocused”. It’s not unfocused it’s literally the best games from 2020. They seem to be more confused than the readers.
Congrats Hades! Well deserved.

@RubyDevilNine From who’s POV? Hugo is a very prestigious award, and video games really has nothing like it, so it’s great for gaming. Young people don’t read since you can’t stream it, so it may pulls some eyes onto the scene, which makes sense for Hugo.

What don’t you get?

@Tyranexx It’s depends what you don’t like about rogue-likes. It really transcends the genre but plenty of people have an aversion they can’t get over.

@Kayvoo Had to put Hades down. I kept waiting for it to get better but the abilities are limited and I got bored.

The last of us 2 is the best on that list. I own all the games on that list except for whatever blaseball is

@Ryu_Niiyama I might do that. I've seen a video or two, but not in major detail; I usually move on lol. May grab it on discount at some point. Thanks!

@Spiders Most of my experiences were with the earlier Pokemon Mystery Dungeon titles. The procedurally generated levels wore out their welcome for me, especially the longer repetitive dungeons. Losing a significant amount of items when I died wasn't fun either. I lost a Friend Bow once, which was essential for recruitment. Even if I made it to the bottom legendary Pokemon, that more often than not wasn't enough to recruit it either. I felt like I'd wasted hours of my time either to die or show nothing for my efforts.

(This was mostly with post-game content though)

Is the writing of Hades that good?

The last of us 2 did something that has never been done before: The story was told from both the protagonist and antagonist side of view. You played as both and see the futile and pointlessness of war and fighting - a story that seems to verge on revenge turned into a tale of forgiveness. It's an important narrative, it should have won.

@Giggler The Last Of Us 2 is a master class of terrible writing and storytelling. The final scenes make absolutely no sense whatsoever in the context of everything that came before it……and it stole its best idea from Metal Gear Solid 2.

@Tyranexx I was in the exact same position as you a few weeks ago. Don't like roguelikes/lites/whatever the heck the genre is called, never played one for more than a few hours. Hades on the other hand is truly excellent, as well as being very well written and full of interesting characters (with a ridiculous amount of voiced dialogue in the game), the gameplay is rewarding even when you've just died and there's a ton of variety between the weapon/boon combinations to make each run feel different. I've gone way past the end credits now and I'm amazed at how much extra story is packed into this game.

This is by far one of the greatest games ever made this generation be it Indie or otherwise, and it deserves all the awards and praise it gets and more.

This along with Hollow Knight and Dead Cells are of a similar calibre.

@christofilth Decent writing and characters are a definite plus in my book. Same with the rewarding (and hopefully not too punishing) gameplay. I like a good challenge, but to me there's a fine line between challenging and games that outright troll the player lol. You've actually pushed me over (but not completely) the fence a bit. Appreciate the feedback!

@Tyranexx Don't be put off by the difficulty. For one thing, the game expects you to die. A lot. That's actually how you progress the story. There's also a "God mode" you can toggle on and off. It's not invincibility, it just gives you a damage resistance based on the number of times you've died. You can turn it off at any time, or back on again.

@Jadamson929 Useful information, thanks! To clarify, I'm not put off by the difficulty in this case; from what I've seen, I'd call the difficulty reasonable. It's more the genre, or more specifically previous experiences with it, that makes me hesitate.

@Tyranexx Yeah I totally get that. I don't like most rogue-likes either, I really tried to like FTL since everyone else loved it and I just couldn't get into it.

One thing that really helps is the persistent upgrades. You unlock permanent charms, get better boosts as your relationships with gods increases, and your weapon types / damage output all go up permanently when you upgrade them. It really helps to feel like you didn't just start back over from scratch with nothing to show.

@Jadamson929 That is good to hear! Starting almost from scratch if you die was previously a major mechanic that put me off the genre. At least the game seems merciful in that regard.

I'm so glad Hades is still getting awards.

@somebread yeah, you're right. Talking animals are everywhere

@Fiskern @Scrubicius @dmcc0 talking animals alone does not fantasy make, if anything it's closer to magic realism

@Tyranexx Hades is nowhere near as punishing. Really, it doesn’t punish the player at all. It’s an incredibly rewarding loop — especially dying.

I think I’d recommend for you.

@RubyDevilNine Well, look at it from Hugo’s POV and not your own and maybe you won’t be so perplexed at “the point of this award”.

Also, who says young people don’t read books? People who ask the question: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/08/teenagers-read-book

@Spiders I'm thinking of trying it when I find it on discount. The input is appreciated!

@RubyDevilNine Go outside yourself... literally. The true world is made up other people, not your thrashing, defensive individualism.

Maybe you don’t “follow the herd” like a sheep, but that doesn’t make you the wolf, mate. You’re a stubborn ass who doesn’t listen or learn. You don’t have to be wrong for any longer than you force yourself to be.

If you still don’t see “the point”, that’s fine. But digging in to a position that has no merit other than your own overdetermination to not be a “sheep” is such a willful kind of ignorance, I don’t understand why you think anyone ought to value your opinion.

If you don’t want to be a sheep, maybe be more curious, like the cat, or silent like the turtle.

@RubyDevilNine I meant go outside of yourself. Imagine another POV. Might be a nice vacation.

“You will never make me change my opinion, no matter what you say.”

I know you think that’s a statement that makes you sound strong. It’s heartbreaking to hear you feel that way.