Each time a significant prize-giving event draws close, there’s always an outcry for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out that year
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles globally and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
