As any significant honors show approaches, there’s always a clamor for introducing additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.
My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal is the most urgent and important of all. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Categorizing Game Types
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications successfully include many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything that year
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
- Just some puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, but the art in brain-teasers is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles in the world and have been for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational for gaming as medium, while interacting with diverse game types.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these represent titles that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary game development, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.
