As any prominent honors show draws close, one notices an outcry for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of fans who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies currently feature classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: the architectural riddles from a specific release, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Which classification works between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked that year
- Just some puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often modest productions, yet the craft of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience challenges famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait decades.
