Whenever a prominent honors show nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge unsung work and fill the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. So would board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession 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 receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often small games, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences globally and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — 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 challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
