The Iconic Puzzle Game Wouldn't Triumph at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification May Address This Issue
As any prominent awards ceremony nears, you'll find a clamor for the addition additional classifications to recognize unsung work and satisfy the spirits of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would board games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games worldwide and have been for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.