Each time a major prize-giving event approaches, there’s always a demand for the addition additional classifications to honor unsung work and fill the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would board games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
