The 2023 Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees (museumofplay.org) 44
Slashdot reader Dave Knott shares the four class of 2023 inductees into the Video Game Hall Of Fame. They were announced today at The Strong National Museum of Play. From the press release: Barbie Fashion Designer : "The 1996 hit Barbie Fashion Designer emerged at a time when many games were marketed to male players. Published by Digital Domain/Mattel Media, it proved that a computer game targeted to girls could succeed, selling more than 500,000 copies in two months. The game helped greatly expanded the market for video games and in the process opened important -- and ongoing -- discussions about gender and stereotypes in gaming. Barbie Fashion Designer was also innovative in bridging the gap between the digital and the physical, allowing players to design clothes for their Barbie dolls and print them on special fabric."
Computer Space : "Nutting Associate's Computer Space appeared in 1971 and was the first commercial video game. Inspired by the early minicomputer and previous World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee -- Spacewar! (1962) -- the coin-operated Computer Space proved that video games could reach an audience outside of computer labs. While not a best-seller, it was a trailblazer in the video game world and inspired its creators to go on to establish Atari Inc., a video game giant in the 1970s and 1980s."
The Last of Us : "Released by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2013, The Last of Us jumped into an oversaturated field of post-apocalyptic zombie games and quickly stood out among the rest with its in-depth storytelling, intimate exploration of humanity, thrilling game jumps and cutscenes, and its memorable characters. More than 200 publications named it the game of the year in 2013. Its story has since made the jump to Hollywood, inspiring an HBO adaptation in 2023 watched weekly by millions."
Wii Sports : "Wii Sports launched with the Nintendo Wii home video game system in 2006 and introduced motion-based technology to living rooms across the world. With a simple swipe of the controller, players could serve a tennis ball, hurl a bowling bowl, throw a left hook, or drive a golf ball. The simple mechanics made the game accessible to almost anyone -- allowing it to be played by young children and seniors alike -- and helped to redefine the idea of who is a "gamer." Ultimately, the game helped Nintendo to sell more than 100 million Wii consoles worldwide." These titles managed to beat out several other incredibly popular titles, including Angry Birds, Age of Empires, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, GoldenEye 007, NBA 2K, FIFA International Soccer, Quake, and Wizardry.
Computer Space : "Nutting Associate's Computer Space appeared in 1971 and was the first commercial video game. Inspired by the early minicomputer and previous World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee -- Spacewar! (1962) -- the coin-operated Computer Space proved that video games could reach an audience outside of computer labs. While not a best-seller, it was a trailblazer in the video game world and inspired its creators to go on to establish Atari Inc., a video game giant in the 1970s and 1980s."
The Last of Us : "Released by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2013, The Last of Us jumped into an oversaturated field of post-apocalyptic zombie games and quickly stood out among the rest with its in-depth storytelling, intimate exploration of humanity, thrilling game jumps and cutscenes, and its memorable characters. More than 200 publications named it the game of the year in 2013. Its story has since made the jump to Hollywood, inspiring an HBO adaptation in 2023 watched weekly by millions."
Wii Sports : "Wii Sports launched with the Nintendo Wii home video game system in 2006 and introduced motion-based technology to living rooms across the world. With a simple swipe of the controller, players could serve a tennis ball, hurl a bowling bowl, throw a left hook, or drive a golf ball. The simple mechanics made the game accessible to almost anyone -- allowing it to be played by young children and seniors alike -- and helped to redefine the idea of who is a "gamer." Ultimately, the game helped Nintendo to sell more than 100 million Wii consoles worldwide." These titles managed to beat out several other incredibly popular titles, including Angry Birds, Age of Empires, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, GoldenEye 007, NBA 2K, FIFA International Soccer, Quake, and Wizardry.
Quake Deserves More (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm amazed that Last of Us won out over Quake, but people seem to really love that game for some reason. Personally I've never liked that genre of console "action" games. They're essentially long cutscenes, occasionally interrupted by minigames.
Re: (Score:2)
Totally. It's like the Nobel committee overlooking Borges in favor of Bob Dylan.
These sorts of honors should be reserved for influential works, not Zombie Game #1256.
Re: (Score:3)
The Nobel committee didn't overlook Borges in favour of Dylan. Dylan was awarded the prize 30 years after Borges died, and they don't award it posthumously.
Re: (Score:2)
Like any of this matters.
Re: (Score:3)
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has a rule that you have to have been releasing music for at least 20 years to be considered.
I don't know if the game hall has a similar rule, but they probably should.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm amazed that a platform-locked game won. It was Playstation-only for a LONG time.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. And Computer Space as well. Another platform-locked game.
Re: (Score:3)
They have Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, with the latter being a re-skin of the former and adding little in the way of innovation. Overall it seems like a very strange list.
Barbie Fashion Designer suggests they have little knowledge of the history of video games. It was a Western knock-off of a type of game that had been popular in Japan for some time. In fact, a year earlier Casio released it's Loopy console, which was exclusively marketed to girls. It featured many dress-up games, and a built in thermal printer
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I remember EB. They stopped carrying Amiga games so I stopped going in there some time in the mid 90s.
Re: (Score:2)
They eventually merged with the other similar chain Babbages and became Gamestop.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
And then that whole habid id software has/had of the Free-ing of the game engine after later versions were released...
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was picked specifically because they want to use the success of the tv show to draw attention to their stupid hall of fame and make it the one source of truth over all previous attempts to do the same in the past 40 years.
Re: (Score:1)
At this point, I'm convinced that video game critics love TLoU so much because its middling gameplay means no one can berate them for saying the game is bad because they're bad at it *cough* DOOM *cough*, and the emphasis on being "cinematic" makes them feel like artists instead of like failed journalists.
Meh (Score:2)
Most of the classics will be inducted eventually (Score:2, Insightful)
some games keep showing up in previous years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The induction of "Barbie Fashion Designer"over the likes of Elite, Portal, Quake, Civ and Goldeneye does raise a few questions about the objectivity of these awards.
Re:Most of the classics will be inducted eventuall (Score:4, Insightful)
The induction of "Barbie Fashion Designer"over the likes of Elite, Portal, Quake, Civ and Goldeneye does raise a few questions about the objectivity of these awards.
Yep. The thought process went no farther than "females involved thus good" and "barbie movie in theaters, we should make ourselves relevant".
That literally any of these games made it in before Quake proves it's all a shit show.
Re: (Score:3)
Can anyone recommend a "real" video game of Hall of Fame list that's compiled by actual gamers instead of publicists?
Re: (Score:1)
Elite and Civ certainly deserves to be in there before Quake. Elite due to the procedural generation, simulation etc that is still relevant even today, all without sacrificing gameplay. Civ likewise raised the bar for simulation aspects that did not impair gameplay, and also had some nifty tricks up its sleeve.
Meanwhile, very few things about Quake were really worth the hype. Underworld came out with a full 3D environment with limited 6DOF ability already in 1992, and Descent beat Quaketo the punch with a f
Re: (Score:2)
What spread Quake wasn't technical excellence or its rather lacklustre gameplay. It was purely the name iD Software due to Doom and Doom II.
That's what you would think if you didn't know at all what you were talking about. What spread Quake was how easy it was to mod.
Re: (Score:1)
If you knew what you were talking about, you'd know that Quake was not unique in that aspect either. If Descent had been made by iD Software, that's what would have become popular instead.
Re: (Score:2)
If you knew what you were talking about, you'd know that Quake was not unique in that aspect either.
In fact, it was unique in that regard. It was possible to mod other titles, but it was harder. I know what I'm talking about because I did some modding of both Quake and other games. This is the primary reason Quake deserves HoF status. It brought on the era of moddability when other devs saw how it boosted Quake.
If Descent had been made by iD Software, that's what would have become popular instead.
Descent was massively popular. Everybody I knew had both games. In fact, we were playing Descent at a LAN party in the garage of the Marshmallow Peanut Circus (a scruz geek house) the first time Wi
Re: (Score:2)
Not really, other games were moddable as well. DOOM being one of them with people creating custom maps from the get-go. And DOOM is already in the museum, inducted in 2015 - https://www.museumofpla [museumofplay.org]
Re: (Score:1)
That's a really generous way of saying "it was slightly more advanced than the Wolfenstein engine." (Okay, that's a bit harsh, but it was still 2.5D with 90-degree walls and tank controls. Even DooM was more advanced in some aspects)
I think you've grossly misunderstood the appeal of
Re: (Score:2)
Civ is already IN the Hall of Fame, I checked.
Re: (Score:2)
Barbie Fashion Designer sold more copies than Quake did, seriously. Part of the reason for that was that it was about designing outfits for Barbie that one could print out and make for the actual dolls.
Civilization is already IN the hall of fame, I checked. As are games like Starcraft, Halo, DOOM, Colossal Cave Adventure, World of Warcraft, Kings Quest.
And may I gently suggest that a Video Game Hall of Fame shouldn't just be "brown shooters for 90's edgelords"
Re: (Score:3)
Quake is important-er than all of the other brown shooters. It was the dawn of a new age of highly moddable truly 3D FPSes that took on their own life separate from the ideas of the creators. I think I may have actually spent more time in UT (mostly Tactical Ops, but also I played a lot of vanilla low-grav CTF) but I wouldn't argue it's as important as Quake, nor would I claim Quake is more important than doom.
When it comes to Civ, though, I admit I misspoke.
Odd choices (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
For me Quake was "one of the games that would define my gaming life". I played it multuplayer on Quakeworld, which lead me from DM/FTC to Team Fortress, which lead me to TF clans and the local TF community, which lead me to LAN gaming, and so on.
From a technical point of point, Quake could be said to to the one of the most influencial (if not the most influencial) FPS game for its engine.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/w... [wikimedia.org]
Source 2 (plus other contempory game engines) is in that family tree.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
If that was the only deciding factor, then Half-Life would probably beat every other game (combined).
Note: For Doom/Quake/Half-Life I normally don't try to rank them and try to say any specific game is better than the other two, as they had so much influence on my gaming life and the lives of others.
Just like the Rock and Roll hall of fame (Score:1, Troll)
Just like the Rock and Roll hall of fame (Score:2, Insightful)
And Wii Sports is still the best, we still play it (Score:2)
We were happy that the Switch sort-of-version of Wii Sports was going to have the same golf courses, but the game play just isn't as good. The Wii motion controls were just better.
Other sports games may be technically "more realistic", but Wii Sports hit just the right balance of great controls, realism-enough, and game play.
Re: (Score:1)
The Last of Us? (Score:1)