Whenever a major honors show draws close, there’s always a demand to include additional classifications to honor unsung work and delight the spirits of enthusiasts with niche passions.
Another commentator previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards currently feature genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories successfully include numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category that year
- Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked recently
- Only a few puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.
