Voting Begins for Smithsonian Videogame Exhibit

[Nooners]

Space Invaders. IT's about as classic as they get, still fun, and really a benchmark in gaming.
Legend of Zelda. (would've given it to Super Mario Bros 1, but only 3 was an option. WTF?)
Chrono Trigger. Never played it, but its reputation is legendary.
4th era was a real pain. Way too many great games. Considered DOOM II for a LONG while, for the same reasons as Space Invaders, but eventually had to Deus Ex, because it simply is the better artistic experience.
5th era also had a lot of decent choices (and some really stupid ones. Both World at War, AND Black Ops? Wow.) Once I saw Bioshock, I knew what was getting my vote. Hands down my pick out of the games I'd actually seen or played.

TL;DR
Space Invaders
Legend of Zelda
Chrono Trigger
Deus Ex
Bioshock

 

[Ghengis John]

Oh no don't open this to the public. It's going to be an all final fantasy and call of duty exhibit.

 

[FungiGamer]

I'm surprised and excited that Earthbound made the list, too bad it'll probably lose to Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger since few people have actually played the godly masterpiece

 

[Nouw]

Good to see them taking video games seriously. However, I'm suspecting to see a few holes in their choices.

 

[Low Key]

The games load for me after I tab away and do something else for about 20 minutes.

 

[fierydemise]

I rather hope that some of the era 5 stuff doesn't turn into a fanboy battle like I suspect it may. If it was up to me I'd make the cutoff about 5 years back so we can actually look back with some semblance of perspective. Yeah that means some good games of recent years wouldn't be on the list but on a project like this perspective is key.

On the upside from what I've been able to get to load, Crimson Skies is on the list, such an awesome game.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Damn you Playstation 2 and your excellent library.
I really, really cannot choose between Shadow of the Colossus and Kingdom Hearts 2.
Screw you.

It's easy, just ask yourself, "which of these games starts with Sh and ends with adow of the colossus"

Seriously, anyone who doesn't vote for shadow of the colossus and/or votes for any of the COD games will have their IP backtraced and have assasins dispatched to their address.

 

[Lordmarkus]

I have to choose between Baldur's Gate, Grim Fandango, and Fallout?

Wow, these guys are evil.

Era 3 are tough as fuck. Can't decide between Fandango, Fallout and Deus ex.

Era 5 is a bit easier following the grace of multiplattform, but who the fuck considered CoD: World at War and Black Ops as art?

 

[Fitzcaraldo]

How am I supposed to decide between Portal and Minecraft?

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I left the era page open for a bit and it eventualy loaded.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Finished voting and I must say that overall the selected nominees were very good choices. Certainly there is some video game "pop-art" in there as opposed to real artistic endeavour (yes, I'm equating CoD to a painting of a soup can), but for every one of those choices the other nominees in the category were always more worthy options.

Personally, I would have liked to see voters given 4 votes based upon console in general as opposed to only having one choice per genre per console. While this probably would have meant less "artistic" genres such as strategy titles would have received less votes overall, it would have allowed for a better representation of truly artistic titles. You could have had, for example, Silent Hill 2, Ico and SotC all as choices under the PS2 umbrella instead of potentially being played off against each other in the same genre. (I know only SotC was there, but I'm assuming the reason at least Ico wasn't included is because SotC was). Under a 4 votes per console approach, each of these games many would agree are worthy of inclusion could have received a vote if the voter chose as opposed to only one of them getting a vote and the other PS2 votes being "wasted" on, well, anything in the Target or Strategy genres (other than maybe MGS2).

The only notable omissions I found (that I can recall off the top of my head anyway) were the aforementioned Ico and Silent Hill 2. These are two games that (almost) always come up when games are discussed as art so it's odd they didn't make the cut. As said above, I'm guessing Ico didn't make it because it was either Ico or SotC for the spot and SotC won, but I'm really not sure why SH2 was excluded.

Anywho, my biggest personal issue came when I found myself having to choose between a game I considered great and a game I considered good but perhaps better as an artistic achievement. For me this is best exemplified by the choice between Limbo and Mass Effect 2 (Era 5, Xbox 360, Adventure Genre). I love ME2 and consider it one of the best video games of all time, but beyond some intriguing moral choices and the choose your own adventure story I can't say it really strikes me as the best example of game as art. I really like Limbo and consider the instantly memorable visual style and the thought provoking ambiguous setting/story to be a near perfect example of game as art, but as a game it's short, a little repetitive and loses some steam in it's latter half. In the end I chose Limbo, but I could have easily gone either way. Kudos to those arranging this exhibition for not only creating it in the first place but also for making the selection process one that engages the gaming public in further examination of their own hobby.

 

[Trogdor1138]

I'm doing it at the moment, some of these choices are really shit though.

 

[JEBWrench]

Please let Impossible Mission win.

A broken game with hilariously bad voice acting - on the Commodore 64. Just shows how far we've come!

 

[Kateness]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/6965-Stolen-Pixels-156-2009


TBFH

 

[Tiswas]

Glad to see Okami and Shadow of the Colossus are in.

But WHY are Halo, COD, Mass Effect 2 etc in? Especially when they seemingly omitted Red Dead Redemption.



Also 'good' to see that the DS and other handhelds don't count.

 

[FungiGamer]

How am I supposed to decide between Portal and Minecraft?

.......... you do realize you can vote for one game per category per console per era right? a total of around 80 games you can vote for

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Anyone else getting an error when they load up the page? I made sure to allow the page in NoScript but it's not helping.

Me too..

Damn it, i'm not done voteing from yesterday.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Ahh the Smithsonian Institute. The only reason I would ever willingly move to the East Coast.