MoMA Adds Video Games to Its Collection

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/moma-adds-video-games-to-its-collection/

by rpm4321 • 14 years ago

38 36 14 years ago

artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

dwerthen• 14 years ago

How nice it was to see Dwarf Fortress on that list!

kibwen5• 14 years ago

DF, Another World, and NetHack were three pleasant surprises out of that list (though I might have preferred Rogue or DCSS in place of NetHack, depending on what their focus is).

Then again, in increasing order of bafflement: Canabalt (fun and beautiful, but not sure if it's world-class-museum-quality), Animal Crossing, and Passage (what the hell??).

Fargren• 14 years ago

I think both Canabalt and Passage are great exponents of current schools of game making (if you can call the "indie game" and the "art game" a school). They show what people with similar interest to those that made Katamari Damacy are doing on much lower budgets.

Animal Crossing does seem odd though, specially considering The Sims is already there. Seems redundant at best.

danso3• 14 years ago

I love Passage. It really is a game as a piece of art, even if it is not fun by traditional gaming standards. But I've seen few games so effectively show how the viewer's interactivity can add a whole new, thoughtful dimension to experiencing art.

Steuard2• 14 years ago

I've always had the impression that Nethack had pretty much the best attention to detail of any roguelike game, and the most thoroughly developed game world (though much of that only becomes apparent about halfway through the game). Rogue clearly would have been a great choice from a historical standpoint, but I can't argue with their choice that Nethack is pretty amazing as a work of art. (I can't comment on DCSS.)

sanxiyn2• 14 years ago

I have a question. I understand Pac-Man and Tetris in the collection. But what does it mean to collect EVE Online? I presume it does not mean MoMA has collected its server code and data?

Steuard2• 14 years ago

From close to the end of the article:

"some of the games we have acquired (for instance Dwarf Fortress and EVE Online) take years and millions of people to manifest fully. To convey their experience, we will work with players and designers to create guided tours of these alternate worlds, so the visitor can begin to appreciate the extent and possibilities of the complex gameplay."

(Dwarf Fortress is clearly more about the "years" than the "millions of people", mind you.)

bhousel• 14 years ago

Slate article has a little more info: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/11/29/moma_s_new_vi...

"As with their film collection, MoMA aims to obtain the games in their original format—as well as acquiring the source code."

sanxiyn2• 14 years ago

It would be also necessary to collect old hardwares or emulators.

InclinedPlane• 14 years ago

And in some cases old televisions. The NES light-gun, for example, only works with CRTs.

dmauro• 14 years ago

So is it more difficult for them to get Japanese games in their collection? The lack of Japanese games, save for Katamari Damacy, is pretty striking. Seeing Passage on the list also got a groan out of me.

dfxm122• 14 years ago

Pac-man, Tetris and Vib-Ribbon are also Japanese.

Their "wish list" includes many more Japanese games, like Donkey Kong, 2 Super Mario Bros. games, The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter II, Chrono Trigger and Animal Crossing.

larrik• 14 years ago

Tetris is Russian, not Japanese...

bennyg• 14 years ago

Ahh, about time I think. I'm very excited to see these in MoMA, if only for the discussion that was lingering around finally being brought to the forefront. Videogames (and now computer programs) are an art form. Some certainly deserve getting discussed and becoming part of a dialogue that treats them as such before diving in critically. Maybe it opens up entirely new dialogues for when new-release games come out.

As an artist, and a person who really appreciates the context of Art History as it relates to war/political history, this is good news. Video games are a cultural phenomenon that deserve to be in the art discussion, similar to how it took a while for hip hop to earn merit in the music discussion, even though its proponents knew it was art from the get-go.

danso3• 14 years ago

I went to their exhibit last year which featured Dwarf Fortress (as a mural) and Passage (playable)...there were a few other games too, including he PS3's Little Big Adventure...I think Katamari is actually on display as part of their Century of the Child exhibit right now

http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com/post/9525690645/at-the-mom...

I hope the games are playable...what better way to cement the idea that gamess are art in the mind of kids who may see art initially as just paintings and Greek sculpture?

iron_ball• 14 years ago

I love Dwarf Fortress, but I would not characterize it as "playable."

pavel_lishin2• 14 years ago

I tried playing Dwarf Fortress over and over. I really want to love the game, but the UI is just miserable.

Different keyboard shortcuts for different types of buildings, that really aren't all that different. No easy way to manage your dwarves, or get vital statistics. I still have no idea how to actually get the little guys to get out there and beat something with a sword. I couldn't figure out how to trade with the damn caravan until I googled for it.

Aren't there any people out there as monomaniacally dedicated to crafting good UIs as whats-his-face is dedicated to building this huge world simulator?

lazerwalker• 14 years ago

Their selections show a lot of thoughtfulness, especially when it comes to negotiating the tricky balance between selecting for historical/cultural significance and selecting for artistic significance.

I never in a million years would have guessed they'd choose Vib Ribbon, but it totally deserves it.

lewispollard2• 14 years ago

I loved Vib Ribbon and I'm very glad to see it there too, it was groundbreaking at the time but never really gained any popularity and has long since been forgotten.

VonGuard2• 14 years ago

We have Vib Ribbon on display now at the MADE http://www.themade.org so come by and play it before it's changed out for another exhibit on December 17th.

pdknsk• 14 years ago

The creator of one of the exhibited games, Katamari Damacy, went there. You can read about it (in English) on his blog.

http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_fh_diary&...

lambda• 14 years ago

What's with the "word-break: break-all" in the CSS? It's really weird to wrap English text that way; and removing that doesn't seem to affect how the Japanese text is wrapped.

VonGuard2• 14 years ago

For those of you in the valley, the MADE is in Oakland http://www.themade.org

It is, to my knowledge, the only dedicated videogame museum in America. This MOMA thing was interesting because we've been designing an exhibit about visual artistry in gaming, and we're going to be showing some of the same games as the MOMA, all playable.

It was reassuring to see the MOMA picked some of the same games we did, because it proved to us that we were at least as competent as MOMA. It's been a difficult road to build this museum, and we were excited to see we weren't going in the wrong direction.

Our visual arts exhibit, Games you can Frame will be on display starting December 17, and at GDC next year.

jgv• 14 years ago

Notable that they chose to collect these games as design as opposed to art.

MoMA Adds Video Games to Its Collection

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