As any major prize-giving event approaches, one notices a clamor for the addition additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition 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 excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
