Each time a significant awards ceremony draws close, there’s always an outcry to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types successfully include many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything that year
- Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
