Tetris Didn't Win at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Might Solve This

As any prominent prize-giving event nears, you'll find a demand for the addition additional classifications to honor overlooked contributions and delight the hearts of followers with niche passions.

Another commentator made the case for a horror game category. It would be amazing. So would board games, representing someone's personal cause. Yet I need to apologize in advance if I try to elbow in front because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand stands as crucial and important of all. The demand is this: There should be an award type for logic-based games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Organizing artistic expressions is not a science; it remains highly personal, and typically spark debates and end in fuzzy definitions. There’s a reason movie academies steer clear of genre categories. However, it represents an unavoidable compromise in the world of gaming, showing incredible range they hardly constitute as a single art form.

To recognize the complete range of gaming accomplishments to gain proper attention, while allowing diverse titles to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Present Award Structure

Prominent interactive entertainment events currently feature classifications covering Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, Role-Playing, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, plus athletic and racing experiences. Between them, these award types successfully include many game types, allowing placement accommodating various experiences.

Not so for puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Think about these outstanding current releases, each quite distinct: building puzzles of one title, the pulse-pounding block-matching from another release, thought-provoking social scenarios in another game. Which classification works among existing types? Nowhere, that’s where.

The Representation Problem

There are dozens excellent brain-teasers released every year lacking appropriate categories in entertainment awards, except when they manage to fit for categories like Handheld titles, Virtual reality experiences, or the intensely contested small studio competitions.

  • An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition for anything that year
  • Another creative title received no nominations that year
  • Popular arranging title got ignored that year
  • Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into independent or mobile categories

Significance of Puzzle Games

Commonly they're small games, however the design in brain-teasers carries substantial weight. Famous handheld logic titles count as most popular titles worldwide continuing this trend for many years.

The iconic tile-matching title challenges famous sandbox experiences claiming status as most purchased experience; it additionally competes as greatest title ever. Logic titles represent cornerstones within interactive entertainment, while interacting with almost every other genre.

Proposal and Rationale

Logic titles wouldn't face that issue. It would be easy to populate five nominees engaging, different, qualified experiences every year with ease — actually, with challenge, given the need to exclude numerous deserving experiences.

Restating the point, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories during prominent ceremonies. Logic title developers are working at the challenging frontier game development, developing some of the purest expressions within interactive entertainment. Comparable to film action specialists, they deserve recognition. We shouldn't delay 35 years.

Steven Gilbert
Steven Gilbert

A seasoned gaming analyst with over a decade of experience in the UK casino industry, specializing in strategy development and game reviews.