Each time a significant honors show approaches, one notices a clamor to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of fans who have specialized interests.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession in the world of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications actually cover many game types, making space possible for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game 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 competes with well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
