Finalists Announced for the World Video Game Hall of Fame

Lizzy Finnegan

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Finalists Announced for the World Video Game Hall of Fame

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The Strong has announced the finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

In June of 2015 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141031-World-Video-Game-Hall-of-Fame-Gets-First-Six-Inductees], The Strong National Museum of Play inducted its inaugural class in its newly established World Video Game Hall of Fame. The games inducted were Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., DOOM, and World of Warcraft.

Today, The Strong announced a new batch of finalists to be considered for induction, including some snubs from last year. The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Invaders, The Sims and Pokemon Red and Green are once again vying for a spot on the list, alongside Elite, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto III, John Madden Football, Nurburgring, Sid Meier's Civilization, Street Fighter II, and Tomb Raider.

Nominations were accepted through February 29 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166108-World-Video-Game-Hall-of-Fame-Nominations-Accepted-Now], and games were considered based on the following criteria:

Icon-status - the game is widely recognized and remembered
Longevity - the game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time
Geographical reach - the game meets the above criteria across international boundaries
Influence - the game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general.

"These 15 World Video Game Hall of Fame finalists span decades, gaming platforms, and countries of origin-but what they all have in common is their undeniable impact on the world of gaming and popular culture," says Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games. "Whether it's an iconic game like The Legend of Zelda, a pioneering educational title like The Oregon Trail, or an innovator like Elite, which forever changed the design and development of other games, they're among the most influential games of all time."

The inductees will be announced during a ceremony on Thursday, May 5, and will be selected by a special advisory committee.

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Aerosteam

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Sep 22, 2011
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Pokemon is fucking eternal, I'm surprised it wasn't already on there whatever this is.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Said this before, but...How is Zelda not in there already?? How many generations old is it now? It has survived countless (hyperbole!) Yahtzee H-bombs and is still going strong. Though...that may be Nintendo's impressive persistence. Works for me!
 

Sniper Team 4

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Oh man, I do not envy the people who have to decide this. Those are some legendary games right there. While I haven't played quite a few of them--and I'm not sure I've even heard of 'Elite'--I know that all of them stand at the top. If I had to pick, Legend of Zelda for certain, along with Oregon Trail and then...ugh. I just don't know. I mean, how do you choose? Who hasn't heard of Space Invaders? Or Sonic? Street Fighter II is still considered one of the best fighting games, and possibly the best in the series. Final Fantasy blew up the world when it was released. Lara Croft is an icon because of that game.

Too much pressure. Too. Much. PRESSURE!

On a side note, Pokemon Red and Green? I would have thought it would be Red and Blue.
 

Millky95

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Sniper Team 4 said:
Oh man, I do not envy the people who have to decide this. Those are some legendary games right there. While I haven't played quite a few of them--and I'm not sure I've even heard of 'Elite'--I know that all of them stand at the top. If I had to pick, Legend of Zelda for certain, along with Oregon Trail and then...ugh. I just don't know. I mean, how do you choose? Who hasn't heard of Space Invaders? Or Sonic? Street Fighter II is still considered one of the best fighting games, and possibly the best in the series. Final Fantasy blew up the world when it was released. Lara Croft is an icon because of that game.

Too much pressure. Too. Much. PRESSURE!

On a side note, Pokemon Red and Green? I would have thought it would be Red and Blue.
Red and Green were the original release for Japan

If Pokemon doesn't get in this year, this hall of fame is empty. Last year I could understand most selections but Pokemon and to a lesser extent Zelda needed to be in the first class
 

Timedraven 117

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No X-Com? I know it wasn't the most popular of game,s but it continues to have spin offs and spiritual successors, and has undeniably influenced gaming for the better.
 

Saltyk

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Yeah, these seem like worthy additions. I'm actually surprised a few of these weren't in the inaugural additions. Street Fighter II? Final Fantasy? Space Invaders? Zelda? Sonic the Hedgehog? These are some important games.

Final Fantasy, along with Dragon Quest, basically created the JRPG genre. Sonic put SEGA on the map. Space Invaders is up there with games like Donkey Kong and Galaga. Street Fighter II is basically the game that set the standard of fighting game.
 

Geisterkarle

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ok, lets check those:

The Legend of Zelda:
Here, we can be brief: All four, mentioned categories are meet BY FAR! Get this in!

Minecraft:
Well, it is genre defining and well known. But I still think it is too "young"! WoW I can understand in that direction, but Minecraft needs a few years to show, that it will hold up over the years! No vote for you from me!

The Oregon Trail:
The first "educational" game? Or "real life sim"? But actually I don't know how well known this game is... I took some time to hear from it. So I'm not sure about this ...

Sonic the Hedgehog:
Ok, here I thought: Why Sonic? because it was fast? If we go in similar directions (and I know I will be stoned after the next few words after this "similar"!): What about Mega Man? Or Metroid? This even started the "metroidvania" game! And damn, Samus being a women? The shock in those times! So, not sure I like Sonic in that regard...

Space Invaders:
No questions asked, that has to go on there! While not incredible in the "longevity" area (aside that I would love to play that right now :p) everybody knows it! It's an icon!

The Sims:
Ok, while I see why it is on that list, I have to be biased, because I never liked the Sims and never understood how people could sink hours over hours in this ... subjective no vote :p

Pokemon Red and Green:
Is there anything to buy, that has not yet seen a Pokemon theme? I think not ... so, it even influenced outside of the game! Get it in!

Elite:
One of the first flight simulators, open-world-exploring and even a little bit economy sim. Real influental to other series! But is it really THAT well known?

Final Fantasy:
Soooo many influence and spinn-offs and great games and whatever! And because I was biased before: I will be attending "Distant Worlds - Music from Final Fantasy" right next weekend! So get it on the list!

Grand Theft Auto III / Street Fighter II:
I'm not sure I like that we use the "best" installation and not the first. GTA1 was already sandboxing! And I liked that too. And Street Fighter was also already established. And shouldn't we look at Mortal Kombat too, because the "brutality" was quite well reknown!

John Madden Football:
Oh man! That was such a bad game ;) but yeah, it startet those sport-games! And it is still going! Definitely contender!

Nurburgring:
Out! I never heard of this game! So that can't be good!

Sid Meier's Civilization:
If we talking GTA3 and stuff, I would go with Civ2! While this is what started it all, Civ2 took off very high! I still play it to this date!

Tomb Raider:
I think we have to get this on the list; aside from being a gamechanging 3d-platformer, we always have to remember that you could do such games without removing the ability to look at the behind of Lara [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167046-Overwatch-Sexy-Tracer-Pose-to-Be-Removed]! *duck* (... maybe *duck* for all of it)
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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Jun 21, 2009
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I'm fine with all these choices

Well, except for maybe Nurburgring, because I have never heard of it. Pretty sure it's a racing game, but I have no idea in what ways it deserves a hall of fame spot.
 

Vigormortis

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A (mostly) fine list thus far, but I'm gonna be blunt:
Why in the hell are Elite and Nurburgring in there? I don't know that I'd consider them that influential. They don't have any meaningful longevity. And they don't seem that well known across international borders. In fact, I imagine I'd find more gamers who know of games like Dune II, Half-Life, Starcraft, Halo, Diablo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Portal. All of which meet the four criteria [footnote]With Dune II being a possible exception, though it pretty much defined what we think of as RTS, in much the same way Doom did for FPS. In fact, the core formula it created hasn't changed much over the years.[/footnote], most notably in Influence and Icon Status.



I mean, I suppose with these sorts of things there's almost always going to be some odd inclusions. Some outliers that seem out of place. But Elite and Nurburgring?
 

Gorrath

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Vigormortis said:
A (mostly) fine list thus far, but I'm gonna be blunt:
Why in the hell are Elite and Nurburgring in there? I don't know that I'd consider them that influential. They don't have any meaningful longevity. And they don't seem that well known across international borders. In fact, I imagine I'd find more gamers who know of games like Dune II, Half-Life, Starcraft, Halo, Diablo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Portal. All of which meet the four criteria [footnote]With Dune II being a possible exception, though it pretty much defined what we think of as RTS, in much the same way Doom did for FPS. In fact, the core formula it created hasn't changed much over the years.[/footnote], most notably in Influence and Icon Status.



I mean, I suppose with these sorts of things there's almost always going to be some odd inclusions. Some outliers that seem out of place. But Elite and Nurburgring?
For those who don't know, Elite was one of the most jaw-dropping creations of its time. I'm honestly quite surprised that it even stands in consideration given that gamers who started with the SNES or later probably would never have heard of it. The game is a masterpiece given the technology it was on but it existed on the first big wave of PC oriented systems like the Commodore 64 and the Apple 2. It's inclusion for consideration is a nod to the massive importance of PC gaming of that era even if that era became dominated by consoles. If video games were niche back then (and they were) PC gaming was especially niche. Elite may not be a well known game but if you played it, I'm sure you'd see how its longevity exists through its influence on the genre.

As for Nurburging, I am not a huge motorsports game fan so I can't say for sure, but I imagine it's the same as the reasoning behind Elite. If I were to select a motorsports game for inclusion, it'd probably be something like Pole Position, Need for Speed, Ridge Racer, Forza or Gran Tarismo.

Edit: Just to give everyone some idea about Elite's popularity, it sold 600,000 copies across platforms. That's in the 80s, on PC.
 

McElroy

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I vote for Dwarf Fortress. NO GRAPHICS MODS YOU PLEBS! They should make it the Video Game Dwarf Fortress of Fame. We'll allow in Nethack as a Runner-Up.
 

flying_whimsy

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I get that the limited nominations means not every deserving entrant will be inaugurated. What surprised me is that I can't think of a reason minecraft shouldn't be in there: I've been playing it for at least 5 years and it's had a bigger impact across both gaming culture and the way games are developed than anything else I can think of since WoW.

Too bad part of that legacy is early access.
 

Karadalis

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Guess anything that came on amiga or the C64 isnt considered?

To bad... would have loved to have Turrican up there... the genre father of sidescrolling on foot smups (shoot em ups) that really refined the its gameplay to an art.
 
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Chimpzy said:
I'm fine with all these choices

Well, except for maybe Nurburgring, because I have never heard of it. Pretty sure it's a racing game, but I have no idea in what ways it deserves a hall of fame spot.
Never heard of it before either. But judging from the picture it might be the first racing game with a cockpit view. From an era where most racing games had you view cars as a fistful of pixels from above. If it furthermore lives to it's name, and you can race on the actual "Nurburgring" race track, then i can definitely see why it's there.
 

Gorrath

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Karadalis said:
Guess anything that came on amiga or the C64 isnt considered?

To bad... would have loved to have Turrican up there... the genre father of sidescrolling on foot smups (shoot em ups) that really refined the its gameplay to an art.
Elite was on C64 and I presume Nurburging probably was too.

Edit: I should also mention I freakin loved Turrican. I was one of my all time favorite C64 games.