As any significant prize-giving event draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of fans with niche passions.
Another commentator previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically generate discussions 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 gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles worldwide and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
