As any prominent awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a clamor for introducing additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything that year
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
