As any significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked that year
- Just some logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier game development, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
