Each time a significant honors show draws close, there’s always a clamor for introducing fresh award types to recognize unsung work and delight the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.
My colleague has already made supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are board games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. There’s a reason film award organizations avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.
Existing Game Classification System
Leading game ceremonies offer these genre categories for Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, making space possible for most games within them.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.
- One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything in 2014
- A different innovative game was excluded during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment that year
- Limited numbers of puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Importance of Logic Titles
Commonly they're small games, yet the craft behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for many years.
The legendary block-stacking game rivals well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
Recommendation and Reasoning
Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.
