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As any prominent awards ceremony draws close, there’s always a demand to include additional classifications to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of fans with niche passions.

My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would rule. Equally deserving are board games, which is someone's personal cause. However, I must insist when I prioritize since similar to blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand remains most pressing above others. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. It's understandable that cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is an unavoidable compromise for the industry of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, specific award classifications remain vital.

Current Gaming Award Categories

The major gaming awards presently include genre categories for Action, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Between them, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, making space possible for most games within them.

This doesn't apply to puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to accommodate them. Consider three of this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

Recognition Challenges

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers launched regularly that have no home at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the intensely contested Indie races.

• An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything that year
• Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
• Popular arranging title received no acknowledgment recently
• Only a few puzzle games managed to sneak into niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Commonly they're small games, however the design behind logic titles is of massive significance. Famous handheld logic titles rank among the most-played games worldwide maintaining this status for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game competes with popular creative games for the title of most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these are games without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the hard edge game development, creating some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Comparable to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay decades.