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Tetris Couldn't Win at The Game Awards — A New Category Might Solve This

As any prominent honors show approaches, you'll find an outcry to include additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and fill the passions of fans who have specialized interests.

Another commentator previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Present Award Structure

Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, allowing placement for numerous titles.

Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.

The Representation Problem

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

  • An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely that year
  • Another creative title was excluded during that ceremony
  • A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
  • Just some logic titles scraped into niche award types

Importance of Logic Titles

These are often compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for many years.

The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.

To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.

About the author

Brianna Gill

A philosopher and cultural critic with a background in Scandinavian studies, focusing on existential questions and societal trends.

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