Whenever a major awards ceremony nears, you'll find a demand for the addition of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. So would board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing above others. This is the request: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked for anything that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- Popular arranging title was overlooked that year
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
