Each time a prominent awards ceremony approaches, one notices a clamor to include additional classifications to recognize unsung work and delight the spirits of fans with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles worldwide and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
