Each time a significant prize-giving event draws close, you'll find a demand to include additional classifications to recognize overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles launched regularly lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked in any category during that awards season
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
