As any significant prize-giving event nears, you'll find a clamor to include additional classifications to honor unsung work and delight the passions of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
