As any major awards ceremony nears, you'll find an outcry to include of new categories to honor unsung work and delight the spirits of followers with niche passions.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition completely in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
