Whenever a prominent awards ceremony nears, there’s always a clamor for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for board games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent above others. This is the request: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories actually cover many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything that year
- Another imaginative release missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as the most-played games worldwide and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier game development, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
