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Each time a significant honors show nears, there’s always an outcry for the addition additional classifications to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the hearts of followers who have specialized interests.

My colleague made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. The same goes for tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front just as with other single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request stands as crucial and important of all. Here's the proposal: It's essential to create an award type for logic-based games.

Categorizing Game Types

Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. It's understandable that cinema institutions steer clear of genre categories. But it is a necessary evil in the world of video games, which are so diverse they hardly constitute one unified medium.

For the full spectrum 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 currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, making space possible for numerous titles.

Not so for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, each quite distinct: structural challenges of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Which classification works among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.

The Representation Problem

Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested Indie races.

• A renowned logic title got overlooked for anything that year
• Another imaginative release was excluded in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience received no acknowledgment that year
• Limited numbers of logic titles scraped into niche award types

Significance of Puzzle Games

These are often compact experiences, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among the most-played games worldwide continuing this trend for over a decade.

The legendary block-stacking game competes with famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and engaging with almost every other genre.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have such difficulty. One could readily select multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles.

To emphasize again, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.