Whenever a prominent honors show approaches, there’s always a demand to include additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of fans dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types actually cover many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
