Whenever a major awards ceremony nears, there’s always a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of followers who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist for pushing forward because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise for the industry of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Only a few brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, yet the craft behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most popular titles in the world continuing this trend for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles competing to become 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 they are in conversation with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.
