Whenever a prominent honors show draws close, you'll find an outcry to include fresh award types to acknowledge overlooked contributions and fill the hearts of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial above others. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.
