Whenever a significant honors show nears, there’s always a clamor to include additional classifications to recognize unsung work and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil within the realm of video games, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
