As any significant honors show nears, you'll find a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. The same goes for tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything that year
- Another creative title was excluded that year
- Popular arranging title was overlooked that year
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
