🔗 Share this article Tetris Couldn't Win at The Game Awards — A New Category May Address This Issue Each time a prominent awards ceremony approaches, there’s always a clamor for the addition fresh award types to recognize underappreciated efforts and satisfy the passions of followers with niche passions. My colleague has already made advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me for pushing forward since similar to blinkered fanatics, I have a cast-iron argument supporting my request is the most urgent and significant. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games. Organizing Gaming Categories Categorizing art by genre isn't exact; it remains highly personal, and it will always generate discussions and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies don’t do it. But it is a necessary evil for the industry of gaming, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category. For comprehensive acknowledgment of achievement in video games to receive acknowledgment, while allowing diverse titles to compete fairly, specific award classifications remain vital. Present Award Structure The major gaming awards presently include award types recognizing Action, Action/Adventure, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, and Sports/Racing games. Together, these award types actually cover numerous genres, making space possible accommodating various experiences. This doesn't apply to logic-based experiences. No appropriate category exists to accommodate them. Consider three of recent excellent titles, showing diverse approaches: structural challenges from a specific release, the pulse-pounding block-matching in a different title, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. What category would fit them within current classifications? Unfortunately, nowhere. Acknowledgment Issues Numerous examples exist outstanding logic titles released every year without proper recognition at major award shows, except when they manage to fit for categories like Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions. A renowned logic title wasn’t nominated completely that year Another creative title received no nominations that year A beloved organization game was overlooked in 2021 Limited numbers of brain-teasers scraped into independent or mobile categories Value of Brain-Teasers Commonly they're modest productions, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games rank among most engaged experiences in the world continuing this trend for over a decade. The iconic tile-matching title challenges popular creative games claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation across multiple categories. The Solution and Justification Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. You could fill multiple candidates with fascinating, diverse, deserving games each ceremony simply — actually, with challenge, because you’d have to leave many worthy titles. To emphasize again, these are games that otherwise have no home at major gaming awards. Logic title developers operate at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of essential manifestations of gaming itself. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Let’s not keep them waiting decades.