[game_preservation] Project Discussion: Digital Game Canon

[Devin Monnens]

Good points, Andrew.

I actually want to compile a list of titles that might be included in a
library in an academic setting. This would obviously vary depending on the
institution and its focus, but there should definitely be a list of games
that would be included in a canon. One of my biggest interests at the moment
is what would be included in a collection of 'art games,' though this has a
broader range of titles than we might consider initially (Pac-Man and Space
Invaders, for instance alongside Ico and Katamari).
The reason for including a DGC article in Computer Game Studies and the like
would be not only venue but also peer review. The DGC would be more than a
list of titles. It would of course go into detail as to why the games were
chosen, but it should also cover territory such as some of the criteria that
were used for choosing the DGC, and also the need for a canon (along with
problems associated with it). As has been mentioned earlier, what goes into
the choosing of the DGC currently goes inside a 'black box.'

Having a canon also suggests a developed or developing field of critical
studies for games. The criteria that go towards including titles in the
canon would very much inform this field.

-Devin
On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


> This is a bump of the below discussion. The Digital Game Canon project

> needs input, and I was glad Stuart brought it up before.

>

> Thoughts on the need for this, if anyone is interested in helping, or just

> ideas about what a good future system would help.

>

> As Henry said, similar projects in film include the AFI (

> http://www.afi.com/ ) and also the National Film Preservation Board (

> http://www.loc.gov/film/ ) who run the National Film Registry (

> http://www.loc.gov/film/filmnfr.html ), as part of the Library of Congress

> A/V Conversation ( http://www.loc.gov/avconservation/ )

>

> There is no comparable project from the games industry or related

> organisations. Most organisations barely keep their own history preserved,

> to be honest. Even finding academic projects related to researching which

> games are important to preserve has come up, basically, entirely empty

> (there is some material on game preservation in general, but not much of

> that really). General preservation is great, but are those top games well

> preserved yet? I bet no one on this list knows the answer. :)

>

> I'd love for this to be the basis of some American (or hopefully

> worldwide!) project which actually could fund the preservation of certain

> games (and related media) as the National Film Preservation Board does. This

> is certainly also one of the main projects which has some good stuff to read

> for everyone - gamers, developers, academics, and even non-gamers to a

> degree (just like someone who watched few films would look at the Film

> Registry). It'd require some real lawmaking, funding, or other stuff though,

> but I'd be happy if it started as a collaboration of interested archives who

> can store the games independently! :) I hope they would be interested in

> acquiring titles specifically if listed, and would be forerunners involved

> in the project I presume.

>

> As for how it could be run now, I'm happy with experts. It'd be good to get

> another GDC session, or have something put online (audio, or filmed) related

> to the explanations behind the games. In the future, to have more input, we

> could have an active committee who runs the project with input from the

> public (lists of games they think need preserving - similar to the NFPB -

> http://www.loc.gov/film/vote.html ) as well as internal SIG suggestions. A

> set of guidelines (necessary age, the selection of a single title or a

> "range" allowed, and significance guidelines)  would be a good idea, made

> public so it has more credit.

>

> Suggestions from Devin include publishing the list in Computer Game

> Studies, or Gamastura (or both) as well as our site, which sound like a good

> idea if we can provide context and reasoning behind the decision (rather

> then just "a list" which is actually incredibly boring, see: most blog

> content ;) ). It'd be nice to advertise it further afield, but for starters

> - it really just needs to be got going again! The wiki needs finishing for

> the previous entries, or a new small website built to hold the information

> (I have the domains, and might be able to cook up something for this).

> Getting researched articles and lists of resources related to each chosen

> game is also important - when Wikipedia is the *best* description of a given

> historical game's content, you know something is wrong.

>

> These are only my ideas - the project is currently run by Henry, who's a

> lot more knowledgeable about game history in general, and why he decided to

> do this in the first place :)

>

> Please put forward ideas, it'd be good to get this going again in some way.

>

> Andrew

>

> Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>

>  This is coming on from our previous discussion over spring cleaning the

> SIG.

>

> *Digital Game Canon*

> http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/Digital_Game_Canon

> Status: *On Hold*

> Currently lead by: Henry Lowood.

> Short description: *Started for a GDC 2007 session. This project

> recognizes the importance of digital game culture. The Canon provides a

> starting-point for the difficult task of preserving its history. This

> project will need to be restarted in some capacity in the future.*

>

> Concerns raised previously:

> - Basis for choosing 10 games a year.

> - How to get it restarted without a GDC session

> - Who are the people choosing the games, and the criteria they choose them

>

> >From Henry, running the project: "Well, the criteria were discussed within

> the group, but not openly because there was no open forum.  Recall that it

> was a GDC event, then it became a website after that.  If we continue the

> project with a mode of presentation more focused on dissemination over the

> web and documentation, that would give us an opportunity to explain the

> criteria

>

> That said, the heart and soul of the enterprise is to create a list a la

> what the American Film Institute has done for U.S. cinema.   The AFI's work

> has been a basis for preservation activities, as well."

>

>

> You can look back to some of the older emails on some of the points raised,

> but I'd prefer if they were raised again by those who are concerned so we

> can get discussing them again a bit more on topic. I do have in mind a new

> website to build in my spare time (which might take a while) to host

> information and metadata on the different games we add, which is doable

> since we'll have a small list, and soon will have more collections for

> different videogame material on the IA.

>

> Bring whatever you can to the discussion, although Henry leads the project

> so it's in his ballpark where it goes from here.

>

> Andrew

>

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-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
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