Tetris Didn't Succeed at The Game Awards — Another Award Type Might Solve This
Each time a prominent honors show approaches, you'll find a clamor for the addition of new categories to recognize unsung work and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most popular titles globally and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.