Each time a significant awards ceremony nears, there’s always a demand for the addition fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise 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 gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types successfully include many game types, making space possible for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything that year
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games in the world and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
