Whenever a prominent awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor to include additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of followers with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything that year
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Popular arranging title was overlooked recently
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, however the design of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge game development, producing among most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.