Tetris Wouldn't Win at The Game Awards — A New Category May Address This Issue
As any significant honors show approaches, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. Here's the proposal: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil in the world of video games, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category that year
- Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most popular titles in the world and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.