Each time a major honors show draws close, you'll find an outcry for introducing additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications actually cover many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title got ignored recently
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier game development, producing among the purest expressions of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay generations.
