The Iconic Puzzle Game Wouldn't Win at This Gaming Ceremony — An Additional Classification Might Solve This

As any prominent awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a clamor to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and fill the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.

A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.

Categorizing Game Types

Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.

Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

  • One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything in 2014
  • A different innovative game missed out in 2019
  • Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
  • Just some logic titles barely qualified for niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games globally continuing this trend for an extended period.

The famous puzzle experience competes with well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.

The Solution and Justification

Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.

Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.

William York
William York

Elena Hartwell is a digital marketing strategist and web designer with over a decade of experience helping brands thrive online.