Each time a significant honors show approaches, you'll find a demand for the addition fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the spirits of followers who have specialized interests.
Another commentator has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand is the most urgent above others. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations don’t do it. But it is an essential concession in the world of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.
Acknowledgment Issues
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked completely in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- Popular arranging title got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often compact experiences, yet the craft behind logic titles holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games rank among the most-played games globally maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. You could fill five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.
