Whenever a major awards ceremony approaches, you'll find an outcry to include fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
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 in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Popular arranging title was overlooked that year
- Only a few puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games in the world and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. One could readily select five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.
