As any major prize-giving event draws close, you'll find a clamor for the addition fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and fill the hearts of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil in the world of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year that have no home in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
