Tetris Wouldn't Triumph at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Might Solve This
As any major honors show draws close, there’s always a clamor for the addition additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and delight the spirits of fans with niche passions.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. The same goes for tabletop games, representing someone's personal cause. However, I must insist for pushing forward just as with other single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify one unified medium.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Different situation exists for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.
Recognition Challenges
Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely during that awards season
- A different innovative game received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're modest productions, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for many years.
The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as most purchased experience; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
Restating the point, these are games without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the hard edge game development, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay generations.