Smithsonian Snubs Space Sims (February 17, 2011)

[ChrisReid]

Victor Amaya reminded us that the Smithsonian American Art Museum is running a special exhibit on video game art next year. They are now taking votes for feature games for the project. Candidates are broken out by 'era': '70s to early '80s, '80s to '90s, mid '90s to early 2000s and current day. Shockingly, DOS & Windows don't become an option until the "1995 to 2002" category, which removes a huge swath of games from consideration. No Ultima or Wing Commander games make the cut, nor any classics from Sierra Online or similar contemporaries. Almost no sims of any kind are included. I remember when you couldn't make a list of top games of the millenium without at least throwing in some Myst, MechWarrior or Master of Orion. Disappointed? They have a comment board for you to let them know what you think about this.

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Original update published on February 17, 2011

 

[criticalmass]

Many entries in the comment board are asking for the reasons for the very limited and sometimes senseless selection - and most of them are insightful, well-formulated and fun to read. I guess the academic reception of video games as an art form, as good as that move may be, still has a lot to cover. Some people simply haven't done their homework.

 

[ChrisReid]

I can understand it's super super hard to make a list like this, and you can't please everybody, but no DOS category prior to 1995? Come on...