Each time a significant honors show approaches, you'll find an outcry to include additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range 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 receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
