Whenever a significant honors show nears, you'll find an outcry for introducing fresh award types to recognize unsung work and delight the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.
