Whenever a major honors show nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: 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 inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles launched regularly lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
