🔗 Share this article Tetris Wouldn't Win at This Gaming Ceremony — Another Award Type Might Solve This Each time a significant prize-giving event draws close, there’s always an outcry for the addition of new categories to acknowledge unsung work and delight the passions of followers dedicated to specific genres. My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would tabletop games, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent and important of all. Here's the proposal: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles. The Genre Classification Challenge Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of interactive entertainment, that demonstrate such variety they barely qualify a single creative category. For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, genre categories are essential. Current Gaming Award Categories The major gaming awards offer these award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass many game types, allowing placement for most games within them. Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to put them. Examine these examples from recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles from additional release. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits. Recognition Challenges Many instances occur outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition during gaming ceremonies, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions. One classic puzzle game got overlooked for anything that year A different innovative game was excluded in 2019 Well-received sorting experience got ignored that year Just some puzzle games scraped into small studio or handheld classifications Importance of Logic Titles Commonly they're compact experiences, but the art of the puzzle game is of massive significance. Iconic mobile puzzle games count as the most-played games in the world continuing this trend for an extended period. The iconic tile-matching title rivals well-known building titles claiming status as highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks within interactive entertainment, and engaging with diverse game types. Recommendation and Reasoning Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate a field of five engaging, different, qualified experiences annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out. Restating the point, these are games lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the hard edge of video game design, producing among essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.