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Each time a prominent honors show approaches, one notices a demand to include fresh award types to acknowledge unsung work and delight the spirits of enthusiasts who have specialized interests.

Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would board games, representing someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case supporting my request remains most pressing above others. The demand is this: There should be a category for puzzle games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. Yet it remains an unavoidable compromise within the realm of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Leading game ceremonies currently feature award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types effectively encompass a lot of ground, and you can find room for most games within them.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles 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 among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games published annually that have no home in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging Indie races.

• A renowned logic title received no recognition in any category in 2014
• A different innovative game missed out in 2019
• Popular arranging title was overlooked recently
• Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent small games, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games competing to become most purchased experience; it also contends for best game of all time. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and engaging across multiple categories.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of the purest expressions of gaming itself. Just like movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.