Whenever a prominent honors show nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition fresh award types to honor unsung work and satisfy the hearts of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely during that awards season
- Another imaginative release missed out in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
