Tetris Didn't Triumph at The Game Awards — Another Award Type Might Solve This
Whenever a prominent awards ceremony nears, there’s always a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything that year
- Another creative title was excluded in 2019
- Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
- Just some puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.