Each time a major honors show approaches, there’s always an outcry for introducing of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
Another commentator previously argued advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent above others. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- Another creative title missed out that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games globally continuing this trend for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
