As any significant prize-giving event draws close, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types actually cover numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world and have been for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
