Each time a significant awards ceremony nears, you'll find an outcry to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
