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Tetris Didn't Win at This Gaming Ceremony — A New Category May Address This Issue

As any significant awards ceremony approaches, you'll find a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of enthusiasts dedicated to specific genres.

Another commentator previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case for why my demand remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.

Different situation exists for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: building puzzles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles of a third title. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.

Recognition Challenges

Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

  • A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
  • Another creative title was excluded in 2019
  • A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
  • Only a few brain-teasers barely qualified for small studio or handheld classifications

Significance of Puzzle Games

Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games count as the most-played games globally maintaining this status for over a decade.

The iconic tile-matching title competes with popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, while interacting with diverse game types.

The Solution and Justification

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave numerous deserving experiences.

Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. We shouldn't delay 35 years.

KH
By

Kimberly Huffman

A tech futurist and innovation strategist with over a decade of experience in analyzing emerging technologies and their impact on society.

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