As any major awards ceremony nears, one notices a clamor for introducing of new categories to honor unsung work and fill the hearts of followers with niche passions.
Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front just as with other dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent above others. The demand is this: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and inevitably generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. However, it represents an essential concession within the realm of video games, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Only a few logic titles scraped into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Commonly they're compact experiences, however the design in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most engaged experiences in the world and have been for many years.
The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.
Proposal and Rationale
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill five nominees interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.
Restating the point, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, creating some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.
