Each time a significant awards ceremony approaches, there’s always a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and delight the hearts of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Popular arranging title was overlooked that year
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
