As any major awards ceremony nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to recognize unsung work and satisfy the passions of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and typically generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most popular titles globally and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
