Whenever a prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: 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 generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. But it is an essential concession for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies presently include classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles in the world and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
