Each time a significant honors show draws close, one notices an outcry to include of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer has already made supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case supporting my request stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these award types actually cover numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles of one title, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything in 2014
- Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored recently
- Only a few logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world maintaining this status for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
