As any significant prize-giving event approaches, there’s always a demand for the addition of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as the most-played games worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
