As any significant awards ceremony approaches, there’s always an outcry to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and fill the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications actually cover many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.
