As any significant awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences in the world and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
