As any major honors show approaches, you'll find a demand for introducing additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications successfully include many game types, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- Popular arranging title was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
Restating the point, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
