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Tetris Wouldn't Win at The Game Awards — Another Award Type Might Solve This

As any prominent awards ceremony nears, there’s always a clamor to include fresh award types to recognize overlooked contributions and satisfy the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.

Another commentator has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing and important of all. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass a lot of ground, allowing placement for most games within them.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.

Acknowledgment Issues

Many instances occur of brilliant puzzle games published annually without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.

  • One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category that year
  • Another imaginative release was excluded that year
  • A beloved organization game got ignored recently
  • Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications

Significance of Puzzle Games

Commonly they're compact experiences, yet the craft of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences worldwide continuing this trend for an extended period.

The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, since numerous excellent many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these are games without proper classification at major gaming awards. Logic title developers function at the demanding boundary interactive creation, producing among most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they warrant appreciation. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.

By

Tara Smith

Urban planner and writer focusing on sustainable city development and global urban trends.

World Urban Blog

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