Whenever a prominent awards ceremony nears, you'll find a demand for introducing fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, however the design behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles globally and have been for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
