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Whenever a major prize-giving event nears, one notices a demand for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of enthusiasts with niche passions.

Another commentator previously argued for a horror game category. That would rule. The same goes for strategy board titles, this being someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: We need an award type for logic-based games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre is not a science; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an unavoidable compromise in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types successfully include a lot of ground, and you can find room accommodating various experiences.

Different situation exists for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. What category would fit them within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.

Recognition Challenges

Many instances occur outstanding logic titles launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything in 2014
• A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
• A beloved organization game got ignored that year
• Only a few logic titles barely qualified for 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 the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for over a decade.

The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Just like cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.