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Whenever a prominent honors show draws close, there’s always a demand for the addition fresh award types to honor underappreciated efforts and fill the hearts of followers who have specialized interests.

My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. That would rule. So would tabletop games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all single-minded supporters, I possess a compelling case backing this proposal is the most urgent and significant. This is the request: There should be an award type for logic-based games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason cinema institutions avoid this approach. But it is an essential concession within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, genre categories are essential.

Current Gaming Award Categories

The major gaming awards offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, and you can find room for numerous titles.

Not so for puzzle games. No suitable classification appears to put them. Examine these examples from outstanding current releases, 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. Which classification works between these six categories? Nowhere, that’s where.

Recognition Challenges

Numerous examples exist excellent brain-teasers released every year without proper recognition in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category that year
• Another creative title received no nominations in 2019
• A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
• Limited numbers of puzzle games barely qualified for niche award types

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent modest productions, yet the craft in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for many years.

The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences competing to become best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

The Solution and Justification

Logic titles wouldn't face this problem. You could fill five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.

And to reiterate, these represent titles without proper classification in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the demanding boundary of video game design, developing some of essential manifestations within interactive entertainment. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay decades.