Each time a prominent awards ceremony nears, one notices a clamor for introducing fresh award types to recognize unsung work and fill the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. So would strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it’s very subjective, and inevitably generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay generations.
