Each time a significant awards ceremony approaches, there’s always a demand for introducing of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some logic titles scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, however the design of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, while interacting with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.
