Whenever a major awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor to include additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an essential concession in the world of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
