Whenever a major honors show draws close, there’s always an outcry for the addition fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would board games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. 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 concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay generations.
