Tetris Didn't Succeed at This Gaming Ceremony — A New Category Could Fix That
Whenever a prominent prize-giving event approaches, one notices an outcry for introducing additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the hearts of fans with niche passions.
My colleague made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize just as with other single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal stands as crucial and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.
The Genre Classification Challenge
Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. Yet it remains a necessary evil within the realm of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they hardly constitute as a single art form.
For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.
Current Gaming Award Categories
Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications successfully include many game types, allowing placement for numerous titles.
This doesn't apply to brain-teasing titles. No suitable classification appears to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, intense tile-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Simply put, no category fits.
The Representation Problem
There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.
- An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything during that awards season
- Another imaginative release was excluded during that ceremony
- Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment that year
- Just some puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories
Significance of Puzzle Games
Commonly they're small games, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games globally and have been for an extended period.
The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences competing to become most purchased experience; it’s also in the running for best game of all time. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with diverse game types.
The Solution and Justification
Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.
To emphasize again, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.