As any prominent honors show approaches, one notices an outcry for introducing fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request is the most urgent above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of video games, showing incredible range they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories actually cover many game types, making space possible for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some brain-teasers scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. One could readily select five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge of video game design, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.
