Tetris Didn't Succeed at This Gaming Ceremony — Another Award Type Could Fix That

Whenever a prominent awards ceremony approaches, one notices a clamor for introducing of new categories to acknowledge underappreciated efforts and delight the passions of fans with niche passions.

Another commentator made the case advocating for terror-themed awards. It would be amazing. So would board games, which is a passionate advocate's mission. Yet I need to apologize in advance when I prioritize since similar to single-minded supporters, there's a strong justification supporting my request stands as crucial above others. This is the request: We need an award type for logic-based games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Classifying creative works defies precise measurement; opinions vary greatly, and inevitably spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. This explains why movie academies avoid this approach. Yet it remains a necessary evil within the realm of gaming, showing incredible range it's challenging to consider them one unified medium.

For the full spectrum of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, classification by type becomes crucial.

Present Award Structure

Leading game ceremonies offer these classifications covering Action, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Fighting, Sim/Strategy, plus athletic and racing experiences. Collectively, these six categories effectively encompass numerous genres, making space possible for most games within them.

Different situation exists for brain-teasing titles. No appropriate category exists to put them. Think about these this year’s best games, each quite distinct: structural challenges in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition from another release, and the sweetly sociological logic puzzles in another game. Where could they possibly go within current classifications? Nowhere, that’s where.

Recognition Challenges

There are dozens of brilliant puzzle games launched regularly that have no home in entertainment awards, if they accidentally match classification types such as Mobile Game, VR/AR Game, or the extremely competitive small studio competitions.

• An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category in 2014
• Another creative title was excluded in 2019
• A beloved organization game was overlooked recently
• Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into niche award types

Significance of Puzzle Games

Frequently they represent modest productions, but the art in brain-teasers holds tremendous importance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles globally maintaining this status for an extended period.

The iconic tile-matching title competes with well-known building titles competing to become highest-selling title ever; it also contends as greatest title ever. Puzzle games are foundational within interactive entertainment, and they are in conversation with almost every other genre.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter such difficulty. It would be easy to populate multiple candidates interesting, varied, worthy titles every year with ease — perhaps, with difficulty, given the need to exclude many worthy titles.

And to reiterate, these are games lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers operate at the hard edge game development, developing some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to movie stunt professionals, they deserve recognition. Don't make them wait 35 years.