As any significant awards ceremony approaches, you'll find an outcry to include fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. So would board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of video games, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types successfully include many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything that year
- Another imaginative release received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
