Each time a major honors show draws close, there’s always a demand for introducing additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
