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Each time a prominent honors show nears, you'll find an outcry to include of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and fill the passions of followers with niche passions.

A fellow writer made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. However, I must insist if I try to elbow in front because like all dedicated enthusiasts, I have a cast-iron argument backing this proposal stands as crucial and important of all. This is the request: There should be a classification for brain-teasing titles.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; opinions vary greatly, and typically generate discussions concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies don’t do it. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise within the realm of gaming, that demonstrate such variety it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

For comprehensive acknowledgment of interactive entertainment excellence to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital.

Existing Game Classification System

Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature award types recognizing Action-oriented games, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these six categories successfully include many game types, allowing placement for most games within them.

Not so for puzzle games. There’s simply nowhere to put them. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, each quite distinct: the architectural riddles of one title, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, engaging interpersonal challenges from additional release. Which classification works among existing types? Simply put, no category fits.

Recognition Challenges

Many instances occur excellent brain-teasers launched regularly lacking appropriate categories at major award shows, except when they manage to fit award groups including Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive Indie races.

• An iconic brain-teaser wasn’t nominated for anything that year
• A different innovative game was excluded that year
• A beloved organization game got ignored in 2021
• Just some logic titles barely qualified for independent or mobile categories

Value of Brain-Teasers

Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art behind logic titles carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as most engaged experiences worldwide and have been for over a decade.

The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles for the title of highest-selling title ever; it’s also in the running as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones to the art of video games, and they are in conversation with diverse game types.

The Solution and Justification

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. It would be easy to populate a field of five interesting, varied, worthy titles annually without trouble — or rather, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.

Restating the point, these include experiences that otherwise have no home during prominent ceremonies. Brain-teaser creators are working at the hard edge of video game design, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Just like cinema stunt performers, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting 35 years.