Whenever a major awards ceremony draws close, there’s always an outcry for introducing additional classifications to recognize unsung work and delight the passions of followers with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, however the design of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge game development, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
