Whenever a significant honors show approaches, one notices a clamor for the addition of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would board games, representing someone's personal cause. However, I must insist for pushing forward since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I possess a compelling case for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: We need a category for puzzle games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil in the world of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No suitable classification appears to put them. Think about these outstanding current releases, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release missed out in 2019
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment recently
- Only a few logic titles scraped into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
These are often modest productions, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games stand as most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges well-known building titles for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.
