Whenever a major awards ceremony nears, there’s always a demand for introducing of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games in the world and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge game development, producing among essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
