As any prominent honors show draws close, you'll find an outcry for the addition of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, 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 isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
