Whenever a significant honors show nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to honor unsung work and fill the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. But it is an essential concession in the world of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Just some logic titles managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're small games, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
