Whenever a significant awards ceremony approaches, there’s always an outcry for the addition fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
Another commentator has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types successfully include a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition completely that year
- Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games in the world and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges 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 they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
