Each time a major awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor for the addition fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would board games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types successfully include numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition completely during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences globally and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
