Whenever a prominent honors show nears, you'll find a clamor to include additional classifications to honor unsung work and satisfy the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Just some logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, however the design of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
