Each time a significant awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor to include additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. This is the request: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of video games, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards currently feature classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely that year
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
