The Museum Of Modern Art is adding video games to its collection of exhibits.
Let’s begin by stating this fact: the Museum of Modern Art is adding video games to their collection of exhibits. Let that sink in for a moment and then I'll continue. Good, Ok. The Museum has decided to select 14 games as their first batch of games for their permanent collection. Eve online, the sci-fi MMO released in 2003, has made the cut for the first group. Other games that made the cut were Pac-Man, Tetris, and The Sims, just to name a few. The games were picked based on examples of interactive design as well as other as well as other artistic criteria. In other words the games weren't picked just because they were classic video games; they were picked because they show off their artistic side better than others.
"As we are poised to enter our second decade of growth and prosperity, it is an indescribable honor for us and for everyone who's ever worked on EVE to even be considered alongside these fellow revolutionary games" said Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP. "We're proud of our developers for envisioning and shaping EVE Online's unique game universe and most humbly thankful to our players for bringing true substance to it."
The Museum of Modern Art looked at many aspects of these games to deem them as art. They studied the time and space of each game. What they mean is how long each experience is as well as where each experience takes place. It sounds like this is one of those "has multiple meanings but doesn't need to have multiple meanings" type thing. If the game revolutionized an era, then it should be concidered art such as Pong, Super Mario 64, Pac-Man, and Legend of Zelda. Those games, to most gamers, changed an era of gaming and as such, should be considered works of art. The Museum plans to add more games over the next few years so the collection should eventually have at least one game that everyone likes.
