As any significant awards ceremony nears, you'll find a clamor to include additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator has already made for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition in any category in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title got ignored recently
- Only a few brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally continuing this trend for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home in important events. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, producing among the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
