Smithsonian Votes are in!

[shado_temple]

The Smithsonian Art Museum had a voting session during the month of April for their new "The Art of Video Games" exhibit, and the results were released a few minutes ago.

You can find the results here [http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/winninggames.pdf].


What do you think of the choices that were made? Anything you'd rather have there than those listed?

 

[Sixcess]

Very interesting list. I was glad to see Doom in there, of course, and overall I can't argue with most of the choices.

I was a bit sad to see Tomb Raider didn't even get a runner up mention in the PS1 category. Seems like noone remembers just how good those games were back in the day.

Picking Fallout 3 instead of World of Warcraft is just damn silly. WoW is not only unarguably the single most influential game of the last decade across any platform, but as far as design and distinctive art style goes it's miles ahead of FO3.

And I laughed out loud at seeing them pick Minecraft over Starcraft 2 (though I agree with that choice entirely.)

 

[Neverhoodian]

Not a bad selection. You've got the usual suspects of well-known franchises (Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy), but it's also nice to see more obscure titles like Desert Commander and Utopia in there.

Still, I'm kind of disappointed some of my favorite games with distinctive visuals like The Neverhood and Team Fortress 2 weren't chosen. Ah well, it's still a good selection of titles.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Disagree entirely with the C64 titles...but the rest are pretty good.

Actually I better not look at them again, I can feel the rage building.

YOU DIDN'T WANT TO INCLUDE PARADROID??????

 

[DaHero]

Whoa BS on Deus Ex falling into the "action" category. You can tell nobody played it first. (it's more adventure)

Little surprised at Minecraft winning...but not TOO surprised.

But seriously? WoW for only a few minutes? What're they going to do get to level 5?

But on a side note: HELL YES! Portal won over MW2!

Other than that, I am very proud that our gaming roots will enshrine the true classics. Though given what the Smithsonian gave us, I kinda wonder if they actually played these games first. Case in point: Halo 2 but not Halo 1? First one had a good storyline, the 2nd will forever be known for "Finishing this fight"

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

Despite the often odd grouping of games (MGS, Crash Bandicoot, Abe's Oddysee, Halo, Psychonauts and Jet Set Radio Future all classed as action!?!? Of course, some of those titles are but....*rolls eyes*), Most of the winners are worthy, in my eyes.

It still makes me chuckle that E.T. was nominated...it should have a whole exhibition of own: "the art of potentially destroying a whole industry".

As it stands though...fair enough. Next time they need to sort out their genres though. Who would have guessed that Tony Hawks Underground 2 could be classed as the same type of game as Metal Gear Solid 2...?

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I don't think Halo 2 should've beaten out Psychonauts, or even have been grouped together, but whatever.

I agree with pretty much the rest of the list though.

 

[Raddra]

I am very happy FFX got beat out of a spot in the smithsonian.

 

[Bags159]

What is the "target" genre? First person shooters?

Minecraft as the best combat / strategy over Starcraft II or any other RTS? Weird as it's not even released or a strategy game. Also surprised that Fallout beat out WoW considering WoW has an enormous fanbase and Fallout 3 was a steaming pile of buggy crap with poor production quality(I really wanted to like it, too).

Other than that nothing really stood out as being a horrible choice.

 

[GiantRaven]

Isn't the Atari Pac-man an absolute piece of shit? I understand the artistic merit of Pac-man in general, and it should be honoured. But they could've picked a better version.

anyone else think that having a "Art" exhibit about videogames is more then silly?

No. Why would it be silly?

 

[Twilight_guy]

Well they have atari pac-man but not ET. I'd think they'd have both since explaining the crash of gaming pretty much involves both and there is no other reason to have them.

Ah well. It's inevitably doomed to fail. You can't exhibit games without people playing them and you cant really play them in a few minutes. Museums aren't the place to admire games but at least people care.

 

[Anarien]

Halo 2 over Psychonauts and Heavy Rain over Dragon Age: Origins were puzzling to me, but fewer people played Halo 2, so that may just be the effect of the masses.