As any significant awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor for the addition additional classifications to recognize unsung work and delight the passions of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're modest productions, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.
