As any major awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a clamor for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and fill the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
A fellow writer made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for board games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
Recognition Challenges
There are dozens outstanding logic titles launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely that year
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment that year
- Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles in the world and have been for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience competes with well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. One could readily select a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge game development, producing among most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.
