Whenever a prominent honors show nears, there’s always a demand for introducing additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles launched regularly lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything in 2014
- Another imaginative release received no nominations that year
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Just some logic titles barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often small games, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators function at the challenging frontier of video game design, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
