EDIT: Myst IS, in fact, going to be included in the Smithsonian's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit. Georgina from American Art, in response to my comment and several other worried Myst fans, said:

Quote:

I'm happy to inform you that Myst will be represented in the exhibition. There are a few games that will be in the exhibition but are not included in the vote.

So hold off on those letters and e-mails, people!


Mod Note: Thread Title changed at request of OP ~ Mystdee

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Kaveman
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Last edited by Kaveman on Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:07 pm; edited 2 times in total

Perfect place to post this, I'm sure many others on the forums will sent the e-mail. I did, in any case.

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"All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth." - Nietzsche

They replied me in FB and they confirm it.

their reply:
Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and the Renwick Gallery Dimitris, Myst will be one of five playable games in the exhibition. We want the public to understand that some games chosen for exhibition aren't included in the public vote, so if you don't see it on the site, it doesn't mean it's been excluded.



Myst will be playable loooooool

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ROTFL This is funneh! Here we thought Myst was being overlooked but, in fact, it was such an obvious choice that it didn't need a vote! AWESOME!

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Wow, that's just plain awesome!

Maybe they'll, I don't know... have some Myst Online accounts that people can play with

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Wowza!! Super Uber Awesome Mega Kewlness!! when you're going to present video games as an art form, it's obvious you must include Myst. that has been and shall always be the case. but for video games in general to make their way into a Smithsonian Institution Exibit has to be the best thing to happen to the video game industry culturaly in their entire history!!
if an acclaimed cultural institution like the Smithsonian is taking notice you know video games are being given some respect. and with impending surpreme court cases due to decide the fate of free speech in video games this couldn't have come at a better time!! Myst was the first game to make people take notice and give some consideration to video games as an art form. since then there haven't been many to reach Myst's high levels of artistic standards...

Why haven't I heard of this?!?!! i subscribe to many gaming publications and peruse websites and generally watch the industry closely and have heard no mention of this... i must check this out!! any links would be most appreciated!!

/me busily crafts his gold Atrus statue for the smithsonian

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Excited! More so than Myst is the fact that Video Games are finally being respected by the worlds largest museum as an art form! Myst is one of gaming's heights and should always be an industry hilight up there with Mario, Pac-Man, and pong. Great stuff! Wonder what Cyan thinks? I bet Rand and Robyn are very proud today.

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Trekluver wrote:

I bet Rand and Robyn are very proud today.

Oh Quite!! Quite So!! the numerous acolades Myst has garnered as to its cultural significance since its release aside, for their game to have made it to the smithsonian is a tremendous cultural acheivement!! when people critisize all the gta's and mortal combats out there, at least people can point to Myst and Cyan as a saving grace that everyone can understand is a prime example of interactive entertainment as a significant cultural artform. Rand and Robyn and the folks at Cyan should be very proud today, indeed!!

Today they put up an FAQ. http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/taovg_faq.pdf

They also included the names of the games which will have interactive displays: Myst (of course!), Pac-Man, The Secret of Monkey Island, Super Mario Bros, and World of Warcraft.

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in terms of artistic impact adventure games are prime canidates for inclusion as they focus more on story and environment and creative means of playing.

adventure games are more akin to interactive storytelling with their focus on character and environment and plot, symbolism, the like.

the only canidates i can think of from another genre would be the rpg genre. in fact, original pen and paper rpgs are interactive storytelling in the extreme. too bad their video/computer game equivilents have often been cited for dumbing down the experience. but still some notables come to mind. Interplay's Fallout serries took a great rpg system and wraped it up in a brutal and satirical post apocoliptic world that had a morbid sense of humor about the way of humanity. the rediculously over the top gore and violence in that game actually contributed alot towards its satirical nature.

great granddaddies Collossal Cave Adventure and Zork are notable as the first of the interactive text adventure games. essentially interactive novels. i'd vote on the games that are to be displayed but the site requires users register an account to do so. i haven't taken the time to do that yet.

despite the fact only some small, notable (yet no less significant) steps have been made towards cementing interactive entertainment as an artform, the medium still has massive potential. myst serries veterans seem to love it because of its artistic merrit. certain people are poised to curtial the medium before any other such notable artistic endevors such as myst even have a chance to be seen. the Smithsonian Institute is contributing greatly to getting interactive entertainment recognized as an artform. and they want people to contribute. i might encourage as many people to do so.

[offtopic] Narameh dreams away.... She learnt to read using interactive text adventures her father wrote especially for her... [/offtopic]

Sorry mods, what were we talking about?

I kinda think they should include Pong, just for the heck of it. Not because it's very artistic, but as a show of humor . I personnaly also think The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind deserves a place there (I'm not sure if you can vote for it, but I'd like to see it playable). The Elder Scrolls series has a massive cultural backstory, and the storytelling is at some places very good, at some places just good. Oblivion was very beautiful, but it lacked the story/background/deepening of Morrowind due to the voice acting. The games before that were also very good, but don't compare to Morrowind for me, it just had that perfect mix and is still very playable today, graphicswise.

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"All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth." - Nietzsche

yeah, a game that pays attention to backstory and in game history, legends, culture, and so forth, are akin to Tolkein and other such pioneers of their genre in that they took their worlds, however unrealistic and friviously such material had been treated until then, and imbued them with a sense of cohesion and realness and time and place to make however fantastic an environment seem like a living breathing place. myst has done so, star wars as well, tokien's middle earth and many other fantasy writers since then. such is the mark of a serrious artistic endeavor. to place such serrious care and attention into ones work is to treat it as a work of art.

and i wonder, narameh, if your comment about having learned to read from IF games your father wrote you was an accurate reflection? i must say, for your father to write you stories you could play is quite facinating!! to have actually learnt to read by playing them is even more so given the fact that would make such material a serrious educational experience. if i was treated the same way, my head would be even further up and irreversiably stuck in the clouds than it already is and i would forever be drunk on the prentend and make believe fantasies of childhood (which i have yet to grow out of) learning to read and think and exercise ones imagination by actively participating in a story is just astounding!!

I haven't gone to vote yet, but, from the site, these are the games you will be able to play.

Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and World of Warcraft. I see the list of games you can play was also posted in a post above mine.

I knew about Monkey Island before, Tim Shaffer posted that it was included.

Excellent choices. I would have picked Myst (of course) and World of Warcraft, and maybe Grim Fandango instead of Monkey Island, but I think Monkey Island is the better choice. And Pac-Man and Super Mario Brothers are classics!

I can't wait to vote for the rest.

What wonderful thing this is

Just went back and looked at the game list (I registered). It's wonderful. Adventure games are mixed with RPGs -- that's their classification.

Be sure to click not just on the PC games, but on the console games to see all the games. It's a great list. I can only vote on era 3 and 4 because those are the games I am familiar with. There are a couple of other adventure games, and Zelda is there. Massive Effect (2 I think), is in the list, Oblivion (didn't find Morrowind), Deus Ex, Grim Fandango, Portal, Little Big Planet (2 I think), Call of Duty Black Ops, Flower (yes!), Fallout (3 I think, nice for Bethseda with at least 2 games), Diablo, Final Fantasy (some of them), Fable, Indigo Prophesy, Heavy Rain, Brutal Legend, Civilization (can't remember which one), Minecraft, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (Bioware is well represented), and many more. If you expect the list to be heavy on adventure games, it's not. Many genres are there. For you story driven folks, Bioware has more than one game -- which is great -- story is their thing.

The only thing that seems a little weird to me, no Sims games, though they have a strategy section, under combat/strategy. Simulation games in general are not well represented.

I also think it's weird that Grand Theft Auto is not on the list, other action games are -- the curator has no problem with action. The curator made an interesting decision to not, as far as I can tell (have to go back and look again) include at least one version of GTO. It's also interesting (and I like this) -- World of Warcraft got on the list but not Everquest. Coop games were there but massively multiplayer games were not well represented. MMOs are such a big market now, but a pretty new genre.

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GTA has enough notarity as it is...

Zelda 64 defined 3D adventures (congruently with Tomb Raider. Miss Croft deserves an honorable mention)

and quite honestly, as much as i've enjoyed *some* of the Final Fantasy games (breifly) and as cinematic and well written as they can be i'm not sure if they deserve anything beyond a passing mention...

Bioware has hands down the best true western style RPGs in existence. their use of exisiting rulesets (mostly D&D) coupled with existing franchises, extremely well written interactive stories and characters and supurbly executed worlds and environments really make me feel as though i'm playing my own part in a time and place... KOTOR really made me feel as though i was in the midst of my own Star Wars film and was better than any of the films in many respects...

the Civilization games are highly lauded by gaming geeks and history professors alike (mine can't get enough of em) and I agree... the Sims surely deserves a place on the list, and if not that then surely Sim City for being the first to be more of a "toy" or "sandbox" then a game...