Whenever a prominent prize-giving event nears, there’s always a clamor for the addition additional classifications to honor unsung work and delight the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications actually cover many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything that year
- Another imaginative release received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
