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As any prominent honors show draws close, one notices an outcry for introducing additional classifications to honor unsung work and delight the spirits of followers with niche passions.

My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. The same goes for board games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: It's essential to create a classification for brain-teasing titles.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Classifying creative works isn't exact; it’s very subjective, and it will always spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason film award organizations steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of gaming, which are so diverse they barely qualify as a single art form.

For the full spectrum of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to have a chance for representation, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these award types actually cover many game types, and you can find room for numerous titles.

Different situation exists for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of this year’s best games, all very different: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges of a third title. Which classification works within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere.

The Representation Problem

Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly without proper recognition in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

• A renowned logic title got overlooked in any category in 2014
• A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year
• Just some puzzle games barely qualified for independent or mobile categories

Significance of Puzzle Games

Frequently they represent modest productions, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among most engaged experiences globally maintaining this status for many years.

The famous puzzle experience rivals popular creative games for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for best game of all time. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, while interacting with diverse game types.

Proposal and Rationale

Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. One could readily select 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.

And to reiterate, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers are working at the challenging frontier game development, creating some of most fundamental forms of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait generations.