Tetris Couldn't Succeed at This Gaming Ceremony — A New Category Could Fix That
As any significant honors show draws close, one notices an outcry for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, which is someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories actually cover many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as the most-played games in the world and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these include experiences without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.