Each time a prominent honors show approaches, there’s always an outcry for introducing fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences globally continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators are working at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among most fundamental forms of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
