As any significant awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor for introducing fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types successfully include many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences globally and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
Restating the point, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
