Each time a prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find a clamor for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of followers with niche passions.
A fellow writer made the case for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: It's essential to create a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason movie academies avoid this approach. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Which classification works within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another creative title was excluded that year
- A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.
