Each time a significant awards ceremony approaches, there’s always an outcry for the addition of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- Another creative title was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
