As any major prize-giving event draws close, there’s always an outcry to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and fill the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. So would board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request remains most pressing and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible accommodating various experiences.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: building puzzles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.
- A renowned logic title received no recognition completely in 2014
- Another creative title missed out in 2019
- Popular arranging title got ignored recently
- Only a few logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for an extended period.
The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.
