Tetris Wouldn't Succeed at The Game Awards — Another Award Type Could Fix That
Whenever a major honors show nears, one notices a clamor to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are 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 dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why cinema institutions avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often small games, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.