[game_preservation] International Video Game Hall of Fame

[Martin Goldberg]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 8:36 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org> wrote:

> No, I know of them - most of them at any rate (and know of the photo) - just

> that competitors matched with a more limited set of designers for any kind

> of list seems disturbingly unbalanced, but fair enough, theme each year I

> guess! We'll see next year.


Understand, Walter's background is in coin and in professional
competition.  Starting things out from a coin and coin competition
perspective seems a pretty obvious "slant".

Hence the museum trying to seriously archive coin-op games:

http://www.prlog.org/10730567-international-video-game-hall-of-fame-launches-campaign-to-collect-every-video-game-ever-made.html

And the gearing towards building "a state-of-the art interactive
facility containing historical archive exhibits describing the
historic milestones of the video game industry, and preserve
significant video gaming relics, memorabilia and artifacts of the
times past and present."


>

> I'll not get into a discussion here on the importance of competitors in

> videogame history either; the words "it depends" spring to mind, and intent

> has a lot to do with it.


The word "context" comes to mind as well.  I understand you were first
born in 1986, and may not understand the importance of these
activities to the industry at the time compared to say now, where it's
much more common.

Likewise, his reasoning behind supporting Ottumwa is a pretty valid
one in the context of the early industry:

http://www.ivghof.com/about-us/history


>

> I used the term fanboy basically because there's the Xbox development group

> there for some reason (because they'd come? who knows?) and not people who

> designed much more relevant, interesting and more historically important

> consoles.


That's pretty subjective though.


>I suggested that whoever helped compile the list simply loves that

> console (thus fanboy), oddly for this hall of fame which seems to be much

> more in favour of older related things.


It could have just as easily been the PS, ala Jerry Jessop and company
who also runs in the same circle.  I don't really see an issue with
that for a first inductee.



>This wasn't anything to do with the

> choice of game competitors in the list though, and I am sure Walter Day

> didn't just do it all himself!


He's the major force, though as it clearly states there's an
"objective, independent panel of Industry Experts" involved with these
decisions as well.  And Walter is well connected to the industry
greats to be able to have such a panel.  I just see a lot of this as a
non-issue around a growing museum and organization.  I know Walter is
not aware of many of the more well established and organized
archiving, museum, and preservation efforts.  But I'd much rather see
a show of support in helping him (now a fellow archiver and curator)
succeed in his endeavors rather than rank skepticism and claims of
"fanboyism" thrown to the mix.  Otherwise, what's the point of this
discussion list and SIG?

Marty



>

> Andrew

>

> On 21/07/2010 14:18, Martin Goldberg wrote:

>>

>> Yes, that's Walter Day.  He founded that around his leaving Twin

>> Galaxies, with the idea of creating a hall of fame/museum in his

>> hometown (coincidentally where Twin Galaxies and competitive gaming

>> were also founded).  He's also been trying to push Ottumwa as the

>> "Video Game Capital" becuase of this.  The list looks like it has a

>> pretty balanced list of older to modern and from industry and player

>> (the competitors).  And it's Walter Day, hence the inclusion of many

>> of these longstanding legendary competitors, many of whom are icons

>> themselves and brought as much fame to the games as the games

>> themselves.  The theme of this years ceremony is "Celebrates the

>> History of Competitive Gaming", which is explained here:

>>

>> http://www.ivghof.com/the-big-bang/2010-induction-process

>>

>> Part of the ceremonies include recreating the legendary Life magazine

>> photo from its 1982 spread on video games, which the original is

>> covered here for those not familiar:

>>

>> http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/contests/Nov1982/

>>

>> Many of those people are the competitors being inducted.

>>

>> Walter is hardly a "fanboy", and I'm a little shocked to see that used

>> in the same sentence Andrew.  If you're not familiar with him or the

>> importance of a lot of these people (who were just as much a part of

>> the history and lore of video games), that's not exactly their fault.

>>

>>

>> Marty

>>

>> On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 4:05 AM, Andrew Armstrong<andrew at aarmstrong.org>

>>  wrote:

>>

>>>

>>> Anyone else heard of it? I don't actually recall them starting, and

>>> presumably they're not on here!

>>>

>>> They recently announced a Video Game Hall of Fame; with 2010 inductees:

>>> http://www.ivghof.com/the-big-bang/inductees (via /.

>>> http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/07/21/059236 )

>>>

>>> Perhaps not surprisingly these people all appear to be still alive. I

>>> wonder

>>> if that is a condition of entry. Tons of champions too...is it really

>>> valid

>>> to add those kinds of people to a Hall of Fame over the creators of the

>>> games that they in fact are champions of? (I guess it might be held they

>>> are

>>> the "sport players" of the game world, rather then passive watchers as in

>>> film or TV, so fit there). Lots of Xbox creators too...hmmm...site

>>> branded

>>> with Master Chief...I do wonder who compiled the list, sounds

>>> very...fanboy-ish.

>>>

>>> In any case, we need a bit more activity on this list :) Anyone else got

>>> interesting news to post? I want to post about the meeting several

>>> organisations had held by the National Videogame Archive in the UK - we

>>> discussed and raised a lot of "not commonly discussed" items, and might

>>> well

>>> lead somewhere which is nice. I'll see if I can get permission to post

>>> the

>>> minutes - unless someone from the archive is on the list and gives

>>> permission.

>>>

>>> Given that those discussions were strictly UK only, of course, we could

>>> well

>>> use input just generally on the kind of topics that were raised in our

>>> whitepaper and other issues which are barriers or just simply

>>> difficulties

>>> with preservation.

>>>

>>> Andrew

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>> game_preservation at igda.org

>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>

>>>

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_preservation mailing list

>> game_preservation at igda.org

>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>