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Saturday, October 10, 2026
Plainly Media

Tetris Wouldn't Triumph at The Game Awards — An Additional Classification Might Solve This

Whenever a prominent honors show approaches, you'll find an outcry for introducing fresh award types to recognize unsung work and satisfy the hearts of followers with niche passions.

My colleague has already made for a horror game category. It would be amazing. Equally deserving are strategy board titles, representing a passionate advocate's mission. But they will have to forgive me when I prioritize because like all blinkered fanatics, there's a strong justification for why my demand is the most urgent above others. Here's the proposal: There should be a category for puzzle games.

Organizing Gaming Categories

Categorizing art by genre defies precise measurement; it remains highly personal, and typically generate discussions resulting in unclear classifications. There’s a reason cinema institutions don’t do it. But it is an essential concession within the realm of video games, which are so diverse it's challenging to consider them a single creative category.

To recognize the complete range of interactive entertainment excellence to be recognized, and for games of all stripes to receive proper recognition, genre categories are essential.

Present Award Structure

Leading game ceremonies presently include genre categories for Action-oriented games, Adventure-action titles, RPG experiences, Combat games, Simulation and strategy titles, and Sports/Racing games. Collectively, these classifications effectively encompass numerous genres, allowing placement for most games within them.

This doesn't apply to puzzle games. No appropriate category exists for their placement. Consider three of outstanding current releases, all very different: the architectural riddles in a particular game, fast-paced pattern recognition in a different title, thought-provoking social scenarios from additional release. What category would fit them between these six categories? Simply put, no category fits.

Acknowledgment Issues

Many instances occur outstanding logic titles published annually without proper recognition in entertainment awards, unless they happen to qualify classification types such as Mobile Game, Virtual reality experiences, and the highly challenging independent game categories.

  • An iconic brain-teaser received no recognition in any category in 2014
  • Another imaginative release was excluded that year
  • A beloved organization game received no acknowledgment recently
  • Limited numbers of brain-teasers managed to sneak into small studio or handheld classifications

Importance of Logic Titles

These are often compact experiences, but the art behind logic titles is of massive significance. Well-known matching games count as most popular titles worldwide maintaining this status for many years.

The legendary block-stacking game challenges well-known building titles claiming status as best-selling game of all time; it’s also in the running for top gaming experience. Brain-teasers form essential building blocks to the art of video games, and they are in conversation across multiple categories.

Recommendation and Reasoning

Brain-teasers wouldn't encounter that issue. You could fill multiple candidates engaging, different, qualified experiences each ceremony simply — or rather, with difficulty, because you’d have to leave so many good games out.

And to reiterate, these include experiences lacking appropriate categories in important events. Puzzle game makers function at the hard edge interactive creation, creating some of the purest expressions of the video game form. Similar to film action specialists, they merit acknowledgment. Don't make them wait generations.

The writer

Robert Johns

A tech journalist and digital culture writer with a background in software development and media analysis.

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