Each time a prominent prize-giving event approaches, there’s always a demand for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge unsung work and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
Another commentator has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence 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 offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored that year
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals well-known building titles competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
