Each time a significant honors show nears, there’s always an outcry to include fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. So would board games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
