As any major honors show draws close, there’s always an outcry for the addition additional classifications to honor unsung work and satisfy the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Leading game ceremonies currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types successfully include numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Consider three of recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category that year
- Another imaginative release missed out during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title got ignored that year
- Only a few logic titles managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games claiming status as 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.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
