Whenever a prominent prize-giving event nears, one notices a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types successfully include many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely that year
- Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals 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 within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification in important events. Logic title developers function at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
