Tetris Wouldn't Triumph at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Could Fix That
Whenever a significant honors show approaches, you'll find a demand to include of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would strategy board titles, this being a dedicated supporter's campaign. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute one unified medium.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.
Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
Acknowledgment Issues
Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title got overlooked completely in 2014
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications
Importance of Logic Titles
Frequently they represent small games, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend 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 within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the hard edge game development, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait 35 years.