[game_preservation] Game Canon

Jose P. Zagal jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu
Tue Sep 14 17:32:28 EDT 2010






> One idea that I've had for a long time is an encyclopedia of video

> games. But not like a Britannica or World Book where it's ostensibly a

> collection of facts presented in a neutral voice, but like some of the

> film encyclopedias which present a series of essays on each of their

> subjects. This allows for more interesting opinions, more diverse forms

> of writing or argument, and, at least conceptually, a sort of

> user-generated canon. Maybe I don't care about, say, The Legend of

> Dragoon, but one of its fans can write convincingly about why it's

> interesting or important. Likewise, a game like Starcraft is important

> in completely different ways to completely different people. One essay

> could talk about its role in competitive gaming, while another focuses

> on its interesting use of narrative for a strategy game.



Although it's arguably more academic in tone, the Well-Played series
published by ETC Press (and also available for free in PDF via a
creative commons license) captures a lot of what you're describing.

http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/wellplayed1.0



Jose


>

>

> Rowan

>

> On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 4:08 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org

> <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>> wrote:

>

> Replying to everyone here at once; I agree with everyone! Firstly;

> Canon should be expansive - why not if we can do so? :D However, the

> degree which it is classified Canon is just so that it isn't

> /everything/, and probably it'd take both influential (ala Bill and

> Matts work, although their website goes a lot deeper!) and the

> pioneers and tech instigators. Like other technology mediums, there

> is a lot of good first attempts, with the polishers really shining

> it later for real use, but both are important.

>

> Secondly; that list was just an example which sprung this idea again

> - that there are tons of appendixes and short lists of games without

> the kind of historical context most people here recognise, thus have

> massive flaws. Daikatana? Trespasser? Both perhaps good examples of

> some really poor design, even if it tries to pioneer some aspect or

> other, but otherwise only interesting at all in how bad they are.

> Even Lets Play's of these games are notorious! Not quite canon

> material perhaps, but it does depend...they'd have their place but

> it'd be low down the list.

>

> The IGN list is actually surprisingly interesting for noting the

> pioneers and influencers, even if it is very boring, and also oddly

> not really complete or in depth (it again is like a book appendix,

> and has similar issues with the choices in games perhaps, but so

> does anything!).

>

> Thirdly; That is great news Henry that you've still got it on your

> mind. I'm certainly up for helping whatever effort. It would be the

> case that a great step would be to get the LoC to consider games

> properly. I could check out the UK scene on it too, and I am sure

> some other European institutions might be interested since they

> preserve films but not games as such (we can assume the actual game

> museums/archives will protect them but they of course need to be

> notified of these important games too :) so a list is always good).

> Even just getting them on board to protect the actual media if not

> much ephemera would work wonders for posterity.

>

> In any case, glad there is some interest, however minor! I think the

> easiest part for many people is arguing why a game is really, really

> important in a good way - which is the major first step. I said

> perhaps start small, and this is mainly because if anything, the IGN

> list shows that even a small few-paragraph description of "why" is a

> good starting point for further investigation.

>

> Andrew

>

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--
José P. Zagal
Assistant Professor
College of Computing and Digital Media
DePaul University

http://www.ludoliteracy.com/

http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal


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