Whenever a significant prize-giving event approaches, you'll find a demand to include additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of fans with niche passions.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are tabletop games, which is someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: There should be a category for puzzle games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
- Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
These are often compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience challenges popular creative games for the title of highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have this problem. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification in important events. Logic title developers operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.
