Each time a major awards ceremony approaches, one notices a demand for introducing additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among most popular titles worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
