As any major honors show draws close, there’s always a demand for the addition of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.
Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents a necessary evil within the realm of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types successfully include many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, however the design of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences globally and have been for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
