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Whenever a significant prize-giving event nears, one notices a clamor for introducing of new categories to acknowledge overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.

Another commentator previously argued supporting a scary games classification. That would be fantastic. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, which is someone's personal cause. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward just as with other blinkered fanatics, I possess a compelling case for why my demand remains most pressing and significant. Here's the proposal: We need a category for puzzle games.

The Genre Classification Challenge

Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and typically start arguments concluding with vague boundaries. This explains why movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents a necessary evil in the world of video games, showing incredible range they barely qualify a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of achievement in video games to gain proper attention, and to ensure all game types to compete fairly, classification by type becomes crucial.

Current Gaming Award Categories

Prominent interactive entertainment events presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover a lot of ground, and you can find room for numerous titles.

Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. There’s simply nowhere for their placement. Examine these examples from this year’s best games, showing diverse approaches: building puzzles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, engaging interpersonal challenges in another game. Where could they possibly go between these six categories? Unfortunately, nowhere.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens excellent brain-teasers published annually without proper recognition at major award shows, if they accidentally match award groups including Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.

• An iconic brain-teaser got overlooked in any category in 2014
• A different innovative game received no nominations during that ceremony
• A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
• Just some brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications

Significance of Puzzle Games

These are often modest productions, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Well-known matching games stand as the most-played games in the world and have been for over a decade.

The famous puzzle experience competes with popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.

Proposal and Rationale

Logic titles wouldn't face such difficulty. It would be easy to populate five nominees with fascinating, diverse, deserving games annually without trouble — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.

And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories at major gaming awards. Brain-teaser creators function at the hard edge interactive creation, developing some of essential manifestations of the video game form. Just like film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. We shouldn't delay generations.