As any major awards ceremony draws close, there’s always an outcry to include additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types successfully include a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often small games, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games globally and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
