Whenever a major awards ceremony draws close, one notices a clamor for introducing fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it’s very subjective, and inevitably generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and for games of all stripes 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, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games in the world and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
