As any significant awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a demand for the addition additional classifications to honor unsung work and satisfy the spirits of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. So would board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front just as with other blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that movie academies don’t do it. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications successfully include many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category that year
- Another creative title was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Just some puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
