As any significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a demand for the addition additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for board games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case 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
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, making space possible for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary game development, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
