As any significant prize-giving event draws close, you'll find an outcry for the addition of new categories to recognize unsung work and delight the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
A fellow writer previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences in the world and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
