Whenever a major prize-giving event draws close, you'll find an outcry to include additional classifications to acknowledge unsung work and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. So would board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Consider three of outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; 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 across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.
