As any major awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor for the addition of new categories to honor unsung work and fill the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types successfully include numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some brain-teasers barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as the most-played games globally and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge interactive creation, developing some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait decades.
