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Eat this, Roger Ebert 18 Feb, 2011 / 5 comments

Along with Myst, Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, and World of Warcraft, The Secret of Monkey Island will be in an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 16, 2012 - September 30, 2012. Fully playable too!

The exhibition will feature eighty games through still images and multimedia elements, and five playable games—Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and World of Warcraft. In addition, the galleries will include video interviews with developers and artists, large prints of in-game screen shots, and historic game consoles. Visitors will be able to connect with the content of the show across generations, from those who remember the classics such as Pitfall! to those playing contemporary games like Flower.



You can also vote on what other games will be shown in the exhibit (though, not playable).

Now, let's all ask the most important question: What version of the game will they have on display?

Source: Ronzo's Twitter

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5 Comments

  • Avatar
    MarioColbert on 18 Feb, 2011, 22:57…
    Sorry for double-post: Psychonauts can be voted on, so get on to it.
  • Avatar
    MarioColbert on 18 Feb, 2011, 22:39…
    First off: Ebert's has withdrawn his statements since making them. Secondly, in light of interactive computer music, interactive sculpture, interactive installations, and interactive dance the notions that art REQUIRES NARRATIVE and that INTERACTIVITY HINDERS ARTISTIC DESIGN are silly, vacant, and so obviously false that it's surprising that any "debate" lasted as long as it has. What art requires, however, is artistic intent (thank you Duchamp) and many of modern games are just as devoid of that as most of modern films, music, and whatever else.

    In terms of the exhibition: far from the best of what the medium has to offer. I personally hope for the VGA version of SoMI as it's the best looking version of the original vision. Lack of Rohrer / Blow / Carlsen-Jensen / Chahi / Ancel / Ueda / and countless others that altered, matured, and developed the medium beyond the cookie-cutter clichés is worth questioning.

    Don't get me wrong - I love Super Mario Brothers, and I enjoyed Myst quite a bit. It's just it's 2011 right now, and we've sort of had developments in the last 20 years that aren't at all embodied by World of Warcraft.
  • Avatar
    BillieJoe86 on 18 Feb, 2011, 20:49…
    Off-topic: IGN has revealed Telltale's new games already

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1150947p1.html
  • Avatar
    Haggis on 18 Feb, 2011, 18:43…
    The thing about this exhibition is that you probably shouldn't view it as an art exhibition, but as an exhibition detailing the history of video games (as a cultural phenomenon). As for games as art, well there are plenty of examples of interactive art out there that are fun to play with, so anyone who says games can't be art is stupid and has their head firmly up their backside. It's just that those art installations are a different type of game than the video games we play, just like going to the opera is not the same as listening to a jukebox, or having a poster on your wall being different from going to look at paintings in a museum.
  • Avatar
    Capn_Nacho on 18 Feb, 2011, 18:28…
    To be honest, and I'm super-excited that SoMI is one of the selected playable games, I find this whole exhibition pretty repulsive and I honestly think the poorly-thought and pandering nature of its presentation would probably help Ebert's case upon closer examination. Though Ebert's almost certainly wrong, his argument raises some interesting and valuable points about the intersection of gameplay and narrative, and more importantly the intersection of authorial intent and player agency. Putting up a gallery of games "with a focus on striking visual effects" seems completely beside the point.

    That, or maybe I'm just cross about having to choose between Grim Fandango and Fallout. ;)

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