This upcoming March the New York Museum of Modern Art will be installing a permanent video game exhibition. So, there you have it — video games are art. I expect to hear no more about it. No no, I don’t care what Roger Ebert says — art! Debate over!
Anyways, hit the jump for the 14 games MoMA has chosen to exhibit…
- Pac-Man (1980)
- Tetris (1984)
- Another World (1991)
- Myst (1993)
- SimCity 2000 (1994)
- vib-ribbon (1999)
- The Sims (2000)
- Katamari Damacy (2004)
- EVE Online (2003)
- Dwarf Fortress (2006)
- Portal (2007)
- flOw (2006)
- Passage (2008)
- Canabalt (2009)
Not a bad line-up. A good mix of high concept indie stuff, early formative games you can’t ignore (even if art was probably the last thing on their creators’ minds) and more substantial games more remarkable more for their interesting mechanics than their slick art styles.
Eventually the plan is to expand the collection to over 40 games. These are some of the titles the museum has earmarked…
- Spacewar! (1962)
- Pong (1972)
- Space Invaders (1978),
- Asteroids (1979)
- Zork (1979)
- Tempest (1981)
- Donkey Kong (1981)
- Yars’ Revenge (1982)
- M.U.L.E. (1983)
- Core War (1984)
- Marble Madness (1984)
- Super Mario Bros. (1985)
- The Legend of Zelda (1986)
- NetHack (1987)
- Street Fighter II (1991)
- Chrono Trigger (1995)
- Super Mario 64 (1996)
- Grim Fandango (1998)
- Animal Crossing (2001)
- Minecraft (2011)
Hey MoMA — I know a pretty good flea market where you could probably get all those games for under $150 total. Hit me up on Paypal and I’ll get this exhibition finished for you (and slip Super Metroid in while I’m at it).
via PC Gamer & Inside/Out
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Suck it monkeys!
Ugh. Some of these are good, but calling really old video games “art” simply because they’re the classics does not help the argument that video games can be art. I mean… Pac Man? Pong? Are they important to gaming history? Absolutely. But “The History of Video Games” and “The Art of Video Games” should not overlap this much.
What part of “debate over” don’t you understand?
The part where Tetris and something called “Spacewar!” are considered art because… reasons, but titles/franchises like Metal Gear Solid, MediEvil, Max Payne, LA Noir (that have things like plot, character development, themes, etc) are not mentioned.
No one is debating whether or not games are art. Larry’s pointing out the sketchy claim that Pac-man and Pong deserve to be counted as such. I’m leaning toward agreeing with him that they should definitely be included in the history of gaming, but as art? I don’t see the artistic merit of Pong at all. It wasn’t intended as art, and it’s just a ball moving back and forth on a screen. It’s important, but I don’t see it as art. If those kinds of games are going to be included, we’re sort of cheating somehow in order to shoehorn in classics, or at least it seems we are.
If a signed but otherwise unmodified urinal can be art, then so can Pong. Anything can be art. Welcome to the past century.
That’s just stupid. Doing crap like that lessens the meaning of art, so someone can *say* it’s art, but is it really?
While I agree with the opinion that games like Pong and Pac-Man are not what I would consider art, how can including these games lessen the meaning of art, a field that is absolutely subjective?
Even if you dont think videogames are art this is important for another reason. MOMA is going to preserve the original code and hardware that these games were created on. This is the first step in making a physical historical record for videogames and their culture.
Well, the Pinball Hall of Fame and Twin Galaxies were kinda the FIRST step.
i don’t see Metal Gear Solid. this list means nothing.
I’m incredibly surprised that Shadow of the Colossus has been left off, especially since Katamari made the first cut.
I would like to see an exhibit of destroyed controllers representing Battletoads and/or Dark Souls.
A performance art piece where a guy plays the hoverbikes level over and over until his head literally explodes.
So, two or three times, then?
Art was definitely on thatgamecompany’s mind when they made flOw (finally gonna get to play that soon yay). Probably ditto Myst and Vib-Ribbon. It’s cool that Canabalt’s on there, I got that recently from… some kinda bundle, I think; had never heard of it so I figured it was probably nothing special. But it would appear that I was wrong in some fashion. And yay for Mario and Zork and Tempest and Grim Fandango and Minecraft.
flOw is pretty good, but I’d argue that thatgamecompany’s other game, Journey, fits even better. It’s the go-to counter-example for me whenever idiots try to claim that video games are not capable of art.
Good call on slipping in Super Metroid, Birch. Pretty much killed it when it first came out.
What, no “Shadows of the Colossus”?
What, no ICO?
I wonder what the most artistic game of all time is, scored on artistic merits such as graphics, music, acting, and plot, thus removing items such as gameplay, controls, and replay value. I think Grim Fandango has to be considered. Also Castlevania Symphony of the Night, the music is that game was head an shoulder above everything else that came out in that same timeframe.
I think Psychonauts is the best game Schafer ever made and would place it above Grim Fandango.
That’s a great submission! Psychonauts was artisticly stunning, with art acting as a backbone for much of the story (The early black and white level, and the “Spanish” level come to mind).
I think gameplay should be considered. That’s how the art is experienced, and frequently the result of a deliberate choice on the part of the designers.
If a composer wrote a piece of music that was deliberately so quiet you almost couldn’t hear it, no one would doubt that it was a conscious choice on the part of the artist. When you enter a new screen in Resident Evil 2 and the camera is fixed at one point while your character stumbles around in a dark hallway, that also forces your experience in a particular way.
I think Zelda: Wind Waker could be considered.
While aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, the lack of voice acting forces me to eliminate all Zelda games. Don’t hate me, I’m a fan of Zelda but in this era to still have to read text boxes is redicilous.
You’re right, anything that can’t talk isn’t arty in the least. In the trash with you Mona Lisa.
Fair point Sir, fair point. But in a medium that allows you to convey so much artistic expression, and to tap into so many senses, I think its a shame to not to utilize it fully.
Unless it is done so on purpose by the artist for artistic merit. Schindler’s List being in black and white for example.
The Sims beat out Shadow of the Clossus as art? These people have no souls.
I’m sure which games got (or are getting) included partly has to do with whether publishers were willing to cooperate. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony just didn’t bother to return MoMA’s calls.
Shadow of the Colossus? Ullo? Somebody….somebody?
I’m amazed there’s no Journey on that list (which I just read the other day is the first video game to ever be nominated for a grammy. holy shits).