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As any major honors show approaches, you'll find an outcry for the addition of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and satisfy the passions of followers with niche passions.

Another commentator previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. The same goes for strategy board titles, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case 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 is not a science; it’s very subjective, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. However, it represents an essential concession for the industry of video games, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.

For the full spectrum of interactive entertainment excellence to receive acknowledgment, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these classifications actually cover a lot of ground, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.

Not so for logic-based experiences. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles from a specific release, fast-paced pattern recognition of another game, thought-provoking social scenarios of a third title. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.

The Representation Problem

Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging small studio competitions.

• One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated in any category during that awards season
• A different innovative game received no nominations in 2019
• Well-received sorting experience got ignored in 2021
• Just some logic titles scraped into niche award types

Importance of Logic Titles

These are often small games, however the design behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles stand as the most-played games worldwide and have been for an extended period.

The iconic tile-matching title rivals famous sandbox experiences for the title of best-selling game of all time; it also contends for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. You could fill a field of five with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — perhaps, with difficulty, since numerous excellent numerous deserving experiences.

Restating the point, these include experiences that otherwise have no home in important events. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of most fundamental forms of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they warrant appreciation. Don't make them wait generations.