Each time a prominent awards ceremony draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition fresh award types to recognize unsung work and delight the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types successfully include many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category that year
- A different innovative game missed out during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world and have been for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with well-known building titles claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification in important events. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.