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Whenever a prominent honors show nears, there’s always a demand for the addition of new categories to honor overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of fans dedicated to specific genres.

My colleague previously argued for a horror game category. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are tabletop games, this being a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance for pushing forward because like all dedicated enthusiasts, there's a strong justification supporting my request is the most urgent above others. This is the request: We need a classification for brain-teasing titles.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Organizing artistic expressions defies precise measurement; it’s very subjective, and typically generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why film award organizations avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil within the realm of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.

Existing Game Classification System

Prominent interactive entertainment events offer these genre categories for Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these classifications successfully include many game types, and you can find room for most games within them.

Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Think about these this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: the architectural riddles in a particular game, the pulse-pounding block-matching of another game, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. What category would fit them among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

Recognition Challenges

Numerous examples exist of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive independent game categories.

• One classic puzzle game wasn’t nominated completely that year
• A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
• A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021
• Just some puzzle games scraped into independent or mobile categories

Importance of Logic Titles

These are often compact experiences, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games in the world maintaining this status for many years.

The famous puzzle experience rivals famous sandbox experiences claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it also contends as greatest title ever. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks for gaming as medium, and engaging with diverse game types.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter this problem. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude so many good games out.

Restating the point, these represent titles without proper classification during prominent ceremonies. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, producing among essential manifestations of the video game form. Similar to cinema stunt performers, they deserve recognition. Let’s not keep them waiting generations.