As any prominent honors show nears, you'll find a demand for the addition fresh award types to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition completely that year
- Another imaginative release was excluded that year
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
- Just some puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, however the design of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most popular titles worldwide and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
