Each time a significant prize-giving event nears, one notices an outcry to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and fill the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications actually cover many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Only a few logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences in the world and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles claiming status as best-selling game of all time; 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
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification in important events. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.
