Tetris Didn't Succeed at The Game Awards — Another Award Type May Address This Issue

Whenever a significant honors show draws close, you'll find an outcry to include of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and delight the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.

My colleague made the case 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 just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify as a single art form.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.

Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.

Recognition Challenges

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

• An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything that year
• Another creative title was excluded in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
• Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications

Value of Brain-Teasers

These are often small games, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences globally and have been for over a decade.

The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles for the title of most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.

The Solution and Justification

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter 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 numerous deserving experiences.

And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.