Tetris Didn't Win at This Gaming Ceremony — A New Category Could Fix That
As any major prize-giving event nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition additional classifications to honor unsung work and fill the hearts of followers dedicated to specific genres.
A fellow writer has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. The same goes for tabletop games, 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 stands as crucial above others. Here's the proposal: We need an award type for logic-based games.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an essential concession in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, genre categories are essential.
Present Award Structure
Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for numerous titles.
Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
- Well-received sorting experience was overlooked in 2021
- Just some puzzle games scraped into niche award types
Significance of Puzzle Games
Frequently they represent small games, but the art of the puzzle game holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles worldwide and have been for many years.
The famous puzzle experience challenges well-known building titles claiming status as most purchased experience; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.
The Solution and Justification
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. One could readily select a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among the purest expressions of the video game form. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay 35 years.