Whenever a major honors show approaches, one notices a clamor to include of new categories to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would board games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request stands as crucial above others. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category in 2014
- Another creative title missed out that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Just some puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, however the design of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the hard edge game development, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
