As any prominent awards ceremony nears, you'll find a demand to include additional classifications to recognize unsung work and fill the hearts of followers dedicated to specific genres.
Another commentator has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.
Organizing Gaming Categories
Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, which are so diverse they barely qualify a single creative category.
To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to be recognized, and to ensure all game types to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room for numerous titles.
Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, all very different: the architectural riddles of one title, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.
The Representation Problem
Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year lacking appropriate categories during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit classification types such as Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated completely in 2014
- Another creative title received no nominations that year
- A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
- Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types
Value of Brain-Teasers
Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games stand as most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.
The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, while interacting across multiple categories.
Proposal and Rationale
Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.
And to reiterate, these include experiences without proper classification in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the challenging frontier interactive creation, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay generations.
