As any significant awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a clamor for introducing of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. So would board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge interactive creation, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.
