Each time a significant awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a clamor for the addition of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and fill the spirits of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. So would tabletop games, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.
Not so for logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, intense tile-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated in any category that year
- Another creative title missed out during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some logic titles scraped into small studio or handheld classifications
Value of Brain-Teasers
These are often small games, but the art of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for an extended period.
The famous puzzle experience rivals well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers function at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
