As any major honors show nears, there’s always a clamor for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games competing to become highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these include experiences without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.