Whenever a significant awards ceremony draws close, you'll find a clamor for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
Another commentator has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are 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 dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition for anything that year
- Another creative title received no nominations during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title got ignored in 2021
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
