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Tetris Wouldn't Succeed at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Might Solve This

Whenever a significant awards ceremony nears, you'll find an outcry for the addition fresh award types to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of followers with niche passions.

My colleague made the case supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is a dedicated supporter's campaign. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. The demand is this: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.

Categorizing Game Types

Classifying creative works is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is a necessary evil in the world of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

For the full spectrum of achievement in video games 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 classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.

Recognition Challenges

Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested independent game categories.

  • A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated for anything during that awards season
  • Another imaginative release missed out during that ceremony
  • A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment in 2021
  • Just some puzzle games managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles globally and have been for over a decade.

The legendary block-stacking game challenges popular creative games competing to become best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and engaging with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators operate at the demanding boundary interactive creation, developing some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait 35 years.

About the author

Yvonne Cruz

A tech journalist and digital strategist with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and consumer electronics.

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