As any major awards ceremony approaches, there’s always a demand for introducing additional classifications to honor unsung work and satisfy the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, making space possible for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Just some puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
