Each time a major honors show draws close, there’s always a clamor to include fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. The same goes for board games, which is someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game missed out that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
