As awards season winds down, one aspect of music that is near and dear to me, once again, is overlooked. Maybe this genre of music is used to being ignored, since when it comes to video game soundtracks, there is so much more than a good score.

Attempted game award ceremonies in the past have always been short-lived. For example, The MTV Video Music Awards included “Best Video Game Soundtrack” from 2004 to 2006.

The Ivor Novello Awards in London also had a crack at video games, with “Best Original Video Game Score” in 2010 and 2011.

The single continuous award show honoring video game soundtracks was so poorly received it was technically cancelled and rebranded in order to gain more of the spotlight.

The Spike Video Game Awards from 2003 to 2014, renamed The Game Awards after cancellation is an ongoing annual tradition although it doesn’t have the same coverage as say, the Oscars. Winners of Spike’s and The Game Award’s Best Score/Soundtrack in the past 13 years have included titles like We Love Katamari, Red Dead Redemption and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Video games offer a more immersive experience than many other kinds of media, oh say, film. The difference between games and movies is in video gaming you the player are the sole source of narrative.

Your work in the game unravels the story and every element of the game is just assisting in this. But the soundtrack is as important as the characters, design and controls of the game. Video game soundtracks deserve a well-received award show.

Take for example some of my favorite musically enhanced games. Yoshi’s Island for the Super Nintendo was the sibling of the hugely popular Mario games, but the cute and goofy soundtrack helped solidify its slightly off-center and colorful setting.

Jak and Dexter is another childhood favorite of mine, having a soundtrack that changed slightly as you explored different villages and environments, but used congas and maracas to still keep you feeling at home in the fantasy world.

More current are games that are scored with whole orchestras, where composers put the same or even more time into creating music for a game like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim as they would for major motion pictures.

These are not just songs that are played over video game quests or boss fights. Soundtracks from games like Assassin’s Creed, The Elder Scrolls Series and Uncharted are scores that weave together the creative fabric of the game.

They put the cherry on top of ideas that were conceived years prior on idea boards and they do it perfectly.

Music as well as video games are two areas that are huge in my life, but also a considerable amount of other people’s lives as well.

From the endless of communities of Halo fans who know the chant like theme opening menu, to the Legend of Zelda fanatics who can recite the “Song of Time” by memory and beyond; game soundtracks need to be rewarded.

For how rewarding the music in these games have been for me, I just wish they could be more frequently rewarded in return.

In 2010, the Grammys made video games eligible to win under the category of “Visual Media Awards.” That following award season, the first song made for a video game won a grammy, with “Baba Yetu” from the game Civilization IV winning “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).”

Since then, besides an awards show that little people even know exists, video game music has continued to be ignored, with Grammys in the visual media awards category all going to movie related works this year.

The same year where the gaming world saw the release of soundtracks for The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4; both giving goosebumps and adding immersion to the gaming experience.