[game_preservation] Game Canon
Jose P. Zagal
jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu
Tue Sep 14 17:32:28 EDT 2010
> One idea that I've had for a long time is an encyclopedia of video
> games. But not like a Britannica or World Book where it's ostensibly a
> collection of facts presented in a neutral voice, but like some of the
> film encyclopedias which present a series of essays on each of their
> subjects. This allows for more interesting opinions, more diverse forms
> of writing or argument, and, at least conceptually, a sort of
> user-generated canon. Maybe I don't care about, say, The Legend of
> Dragoon, but one of its fans can write convincingly about why it's
> interesting or important. Likewise, a game like Starcraft is important
> in completely different ways to completely different people. One essay
> could talk about its role in competitive gaming, while another focuses
> on its interesting use of narrative for a strategy game.
Although it's arguably more academic in tone, the Well-Played series
published by ETC Press (and also available for free in PDF via a
creative commons license) captures a lot of what you're describing.
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/wellplayed1.0
Jose
>
>
> Rowan
>
> On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 4:08 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org
> <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>> wrote:
>
> Replying to everyone here at once; I agree with everyone! Firstly;
> Canon should be expansive - why not if we can do so? :D However, the
> degree which it is classified Canon is just so that it isn't
> /everything/, and probably it'd take both influential (ala Bill and
> Matts work, although their website goes a lot deeper!) and the
> pioneers and tech instigators. Like other technology mediums, there
> is a lot of good first attempts, with the polishers really shining
> it later for real use, but both are important.
>
> Secondly; that list was just an example which sprung this idea again
> - that there are tons of appendixes and short lists of games without
> the kind of historical context most people here recognise, thus have
> massive flaws. Daikatana? Trespasser? Both perhaps good examples of
> some really poor design, even if it tries to pioneer some aspect or
> other, but otherwise only interesting at all in how bad they are.
> Even Lets Play's of these games are notorious! Not quite canon
> material perhaps, but it does depend...they'd have their place but
> it'd be low down the list.
>
> The IGN list is actually surprisingly interesting for noting the
> pioneers and influencers, even if it is very boring, and also oddly
> not really complete or in depth (it again is like a book appendix,
> and has similar issues with the choices in games perhaps, but so
> does anything!).
>
> Thirdly; That is great news Henry that you've still got it on your
> mind. I'm certainly up for helping whatever effort. It would be the
> case that a great step would be to get the LoC to consider games
> properly. I could check out the UK scene on it too, and I am sure
> some other European institutions might be interested since they
> preserve films but not games as such (we can assume the actual game
> museums/archives will protect them but they of course need to be
> notified of these important games too :) so a list is always good).
> Even just getting them on board to protect the actual media if not
> much ephemera would work wonders for posterity.
>
> In any case, glad there is some interest, however minor! I think the
> easiest part for many people is arguing why a game is really, really
> important in a good way - which is the major first step. I said
> perhaps start small, and this is mainly because if anything, the IGN
> list shows that even a small few-paragraph description of "why" is a
> good starting point for further investigation.
>
> Andrew
>
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--
José P. Zagal
Assistant Professor
College of Computing and Digital Media
DePaul University
http://www.ludoliteracy.com/
http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal
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