Whenever a major prize-giving event approaches, one notices a clamor for introducing of new categories to honor unsung work and fill the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all 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
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked that year
- Just some brain-teasers barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences worldwide maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
