[game_preservation] International Video Game Hall of Fame

[Stuart Feldhamer]

Let me take a contrarian position here for a minute (in Andrew's defense).

While Walter Day certainly has an important role in the "history and lore"
of video games, I can definitely see someone refer to him as a "fanboy".
After all, basically what he did is establish high score records for video
games and promote his records as the official ones. He was very good at
publicity and marketing, which is why he succeeded to the extent that he
did, but basically he promoted himself and his arcade and made them
something more than they were. You said it yourself when you wrote "He's
also been trying to push Ottumwa as the 'Video Game Capital' because of
this." Ottumwa the video game capital?

This whole hall of fame looks like another attempt at self-promotion to me.
You say the list is "a
pretty balanced list of older to modern and from industry and player (the
competitors)", when in fact it is very weighted to the competitors. And you
refer to these competitors as "longstanding legendary competitors, many of
whom are icons themselves and brought as much fame to the games as the games
themselves". I can see saying that about some of these guys, like Billy
Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, and Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, but some of these
other guys?

Listen, this is only my opinion, but I personally am not very impressed with
this list of initial inductees for an "International Video Game Hall of
Fame". You are of course entitled to your own opinion, and I can tell from
your posts that you know a whole lot about the history of video games, and
probably much more than I do, but I felt compelled to come to Andrew's
defense. The fact that he was born in 1986 does not make him unqualified to
give his opinion.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Martin Goldberg
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 9:18 AM
To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] International Video Game Hall of Fame

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

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>

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