Whenever a major awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a demand for the addition of new categories to honor unsung work and delight the passions of fans who have specialized interests.
My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and it will always start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies steer clear of genre categories. But it is an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.
For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
- Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment recently
- Limited numbers of logic titles managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent small games, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and engaging across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent so many good games out.
Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, developing some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Comparable to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay decades.
