Whenever a prominent honors show nears, you'll find a demand to include fresh award types to recognize unsung work and fill the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an essential concession within the realm of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
