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Whenever a prominent awards ceremony approaches, one notices an outcry for the addition additional classifications to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the spirits of fans dedicated to specific genres.

A fellow writer previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would rule. The same goes for board games, this being someone's personal cause. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front since similar to single-minded supporters, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial above others. The demand is this: We need a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Organizing artistic expressions isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and inevitably start arguments resulting in unclear classifications. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains an essential concession in the world of interactive entertainment, which are so diverse they barely qualify one unified medium.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Together, these classifications actually cover many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.

Different situation exists for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, all very different: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them among existing types? Unfortunately, nowhere.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• One classic puzzle game got overlooked in any category during that awards season
• A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
• A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers scraped into niche award types

Significance of Puzzle Games

Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games rank among most popular titles in the world maintaining this status for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game challenges famous sandbox experiences for the title of highest-selling title ever; it additionally competes for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with almost every other genre.

Proposal and Rationale

Puzzle games wouldn’t have that issue. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.

Restating the point, these represent titles lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the challenging frontier of video game design, developing some of most fundamental forms within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.