Each time a significant awards ceremony approaches, one notices a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
Another commentator has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for many years.
The famous puzzle experience 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. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
