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As any major awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a demand to include of new categories to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.

My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. So would board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.

Categorizing Game Types

Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. It's understandable that film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession for the industry of video games, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these classifications successfully include numerous genres, making space possible for numerous titles.

Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears for their placement. Consider three of outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: building puzzles from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify for categories like Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• One classic puzzle game received no recognition for anything that year
• A different innovative game was excluded in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience got ignored recently
• Just some logic titles barely qualified for niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Famous handheld logic titles stand as most popular titles worldwide and have been for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game rivals well-known building titles competing to become best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with almost every other genre.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. One could readily select five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.

To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Logic title developers function at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.