As any major honors show approaches, one notices a demand for the addition additional classifications to honor underappreciated efforts and delight the spirits of followers dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Categorizing art by genre is not a science; it remains highly personal, and inevitably spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories actually cover many game types, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition completely in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
- Only a few puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.
To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait decades.
