Designing "The Western Cannon"
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Dec 6th 2005 at 6:32AM }
Yesterday we suggested that school-age children be forced to play certain video games as part of a program of cultural literacy. That was a little premature. Before we can ask parents to make sure their kids are playing important games, we need to define exactly which games are worthy of parent and educator endorsement.
A canon is a collection of books with such immense literary merit that they simply must be read in order for a person to consider himself educated. The Western Canon (as determined by tweed-jacketed Ivy professors such as Harold Bloom) includes works such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dante's Inferno, just about all of Shakespeare, plus a lot of other books by dead guys including Tolstoy, Ibsen, Dickens, Proust, Joyce, Kafka, and Beckett. These are the works that my professors endeavored to teach me about and that I subsequently endeavored (with the aid of beer) to forget.
Shouldn't the games industry have its own canon (or cannon, in a nod to both the industry's violence and general inability to spell)? Shouldn't game critics develop our own list of must-play games that any self-respecting game-snob must not just play, but understand through deconstruction and careful thought?
Assuming that it should and we should, questions remain. What games deserve a place in the canon and why? What's the process for adding to the list? What non-digital game media deserve a place in it because of their importance to the evolution of video games?
Anybody fired up about the idea? TheWesternCannon.org/com/net is available. It's totally a book waiting to be written.
Anyway, while we wait for the game industry's Bloom to step up to the plate, let's see whether we can cobble together a starting point for the list. Fire away!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
justchris @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
If nothing else is on that list, Oregon Trail should be at the top.
Logic Bus @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
One problem with adding console games to this Western Canon is that people often don't own old consoles -- either because they are too young to ever have owned, say, a Super NES, or because they sold their Xbox to pay for their Xbox 360. So games on this list need to be available for play via an emulator on PC, or available in a PC version. Not always easy.
The first game on the list? Super Mario 64.
Nova Quinn @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I dunno. I'd say that at this point in time, the very first game on the list is Final Fantasy VII. It's still easily playable, widely considered to be both one of the best and most influential games from several sources...
But that's just my opinion.
Vice Lexington @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Well, just like "all of Shakespeare" is on the literary Western Canon, just about every classic Nintendo game deserves to be on the gaming one. If someone actually decides to make this (which would be great), they have an obligation to include Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc- all the unforgettable classics that will never die. Those are givens.
Crummy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I think the most difficult task, and yet the most essential, would be being ruthless. Only one Mario game - take your pick, you can't have SMB3 and SM64. Take a Zelda, but cut Metroid (I'm sorry Samus :( )
Would there be a single game from each genre? An RPG, a fighter, etc? And what about the non-genre games, Katamari Damacy, Rez?
I would truly love to see the day when kids must play classic games as part of their education :)
Stephen M @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
It is totally a good idea - how do people know what are THE games, if they weren't raised on them?
I would say it should be, rather than one game from each genre or whatever, all of the games that defined or drastically altered things. Mario Kart, for inventing the character-kart genre, Space Invaders for, well, just being Space Invaders, right up to Half Life for the tightly scripted in-game delivery of its story.
Although I'm sure there's a lot of games that should really be played, but didn't change much. It's tricky!
Oh, and 'cannon' isn't funny. Don't you think our little 'nod' to video game violence just makes us say "yeah, they are all violent, the myth is true"? :)
Lemonman @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I think it's a great idea, ofcourse I think you should look for the oldies. Such as Arkanoid, Pong , Pacman etc. and ground breaking games for their time such as Prince of Persia (the very first) and Civ1, Outrun, that stuntgame I forgot the name of.
And build onto the sequals and spin offs.
Just my 2 cents.
Merus @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I've sort of been informally doing this myself, but I recall a GameSpot feature that's been almost lost to the archives that was a comprehensive quiz of everything to do with gaming up until the PlayStation, which might be a starting point.
I wouldn't confine the list to just console games, because I wouldn't consider a person a cognoscenti of games if they'd never played Planescape: Torment, for example.
And "Metroid" doesn't stand the test of time, sorry. Super Metroid would be a better addition. "The Legend of Zelda" probably does, and Super Mario Bros. definitely does.
The question is, do you add games that are significant only for their reputations or impact? Is Daikatana or Night Trap a part of the gaming canon?
Ian Gibson @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
katamari, the sims, nintendogs - make sure to include the games that break/create genres and really liven up the gaming world
GlitchCog @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Two things:
First, if we are to accept the current, short history of video games as something to be measured like this, the quintessential "classic" can't be a game for the N64 since there are far older games. However, if you consider three dimensions to be a qualifier for video game maturity (which many connoisseurs would argue against) then Mario 64 could definitely be such a title.
Second, you could argue that some of the "classics" people suggest aren't really classics, but the very beginnings of a not quite matured industry. Would Pong qualify, or is Pong more like some early author's adventure in prose which didn't amount to any great literature except that it was the foundation for Chaucer centuries later? Clearly there needs to be different qualifiers for video games, but, when using a strict literary parallel, Pong and Space Invaders are like the first written sentence.
Wintrode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
The Gamer's Canon - Love this idea!
This would be a huge project. There are so many great games out there, as well as platforms. Do we limit ourselves to consoles? What about original arcade hits? What about early PC games? Pinball?
With more modern games, I guess you would have to pick the best games as well as the best implimentation on a given platform.
There should be a big huge Gaming Wiki, and the 'best' games should be based on independent nominations.
Contra keeps coming to my mind, just for the sheer fact that I to this day I can recite "up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A" Start
vc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
No platform is off limits.
Here are a few that I think must be on there:
1. Pong (widely recognized as the first video game, includes a good history lesson)
2. Oregon Trail
3. Street Fighter II
Wintrode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I think games like Space Invaders and Pong, merit inclusion just for the sheer fact of there being nothing like them before.
What about quirky gaming add-ons, like the intellivision voice box (or whatever that thing was called?) add-on, that attempted to add higher quality audio content like real voices and such? Does this merit inclusion/mention for the fact that it pioneered higher quality sound on gaming consoles? Who knows? Like I said this is a huge wide open topic.
GlitchCog @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I guess I'm arguing that a "Western Cannon" (shouldn't it be more Eastern?) of video games can't exist yet. The matured games are too new, and the old games are too basic. Give it 75 years, and THEN we'll have some well-defined classics.
Paul @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
This is the list of games I think any well rounded gamer should have played in the past 20 or so years to get the best view of where games have been and where they are going: Pong, Pitfall, Super Marion Bros., The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario 64, Super Smash Brothers, Goldeneye, A Final Fantasy Game, A Madden Game, Nights Into Dreams, Doom, Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid, Soul Caliber, Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Ridge Racer, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Burnout, Halo, Halo 2, Tetris, Tempest, Lumines, Metroid Prime, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, NBA2K, NFL2K, NBA Live, MLB2K, FIFA, House of the Dead, Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, Vectorman, Crash Bandicoot, Mario Party, Dance Dance Revolution, WCW vs. NWO, Raw vs. Smackdown, Synasty Warriors, Afterburner, Knights of the Old Republc, Civilization, Age of Empires, The Sims, World of Warcraft, Perfect Dark, Duke Nukem, Pokemon, Elder Scrolls, Project Gotham Racing, Mario Kart, SOCOM, Star Wars: Battlefront and you have to have played something, probably Halo, on Xbox Live. I'm sure this is not a comprehensive list by any means but it was all the games I could think of to best represent the past 20 or so years of gaming.
Paul @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I forgot Space Invaders and Galaga.
Paul @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
And a bunch of games with Donkey Kong.
Gimbal @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I'd like to also see a video game phylogenetic tree that traces game concepts and implementations back in history. That way we could better understand where the core concepts of current video games stem from and what outside or inside factors instigated evolutionary change in the gameplay we enjoy today. Are certain game types endangered species (point and click adventures, text based games)? What are some groups doing to save these endagered species, and should they be saved? What happens to games when they compete for the same limited resources, such as free time or amount of disposable income? Can movie licensed games be considered invasive exotics? Comparative anatomy: How many game share the same genetic code Grand Theft Auto's 'sandbox' style of free roaming gameplay, and can this bit of video game DNA also be found in older games like Starflight? Or is this just a case of convergent evolution?
Hmmm...sounds like an amusing blog project. Now I have to come up with a video game genome sequencing method to build my phylogenetic tree.
Steven @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Given how many classic games came from the East, I hope people aren't planning to call this gaming list the "Western" Canon!
Droopox @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
let's not even forget Pac-Man
Robert @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I've always thought to categorize it as literary snobbery instead of a literary canon. Books that people read and then tell other people they've read them in order to feel like they fit in with that crowd. The books may still have merit, but it's mostly an ego thing. With this in mind, I would consider these games to deserve a place in the "canon."
1. Ico
2. Katamari Damacy
3. Final Fantasy VII
4. Zelda: Ocarina of Time
5. Grim Fandango
6. Starcraft
And the list goes on. Mainly I just wanted to get Ico in there. I hate that game.
swordsman24 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
You also need to consider Railroad Tycoon and / or Civilization. They gave us the foundation of a lot of what we see in today's Real Time and Turned Based strategy games. I also agree that Starcraft needs to be on the list due to the changes that it introduced to a proven genre.
On the console front I'd have to go with Pitfall, Super Mario 64, and the original Legend of Zelda as some of our early titles of note.
White Rose Duelist @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
GlitchCog has the right of it. We are way too early in the history of video gaming to be deciding what would qualify as a "classic". If nothing else, anyone who has played a game when it was first released is not qualified to make this decision. When my grandchildren are debating the merits of Xbox282110990745600000000 vs. PS10 vs. Nintendo Xtreme and trying to decide which portable system to implant into the last expansion slot in their brain, it might be time to produce a canon for video games.
Also, the "cannon" joke is the worst one I've seen/heard in months.
Jody Anthony @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Suikoden 2!
Great story. The world around you has so much back story as well. It actually feels like a real world.
eugaet @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Planetfall, Zork I, Enchanter, et al.
Infocom should have its own section in the canon.
Brian Zednick @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I see being able to take "video game appreciation" in universities in 30-40 years, much like film appreciation is taught today. Hmm... it would definitely require new methods of teaching, and more cooperation from the gaming industry. But to have a teacher say "Your homework for this week is to finish Super Metroid and don't forget the paper on Final Fantasy VI is due on the 30th!" would make my day.
Wintrode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I sooooo smell some grad student in one of those video game colleges using this for his doctoral thesis. Can we at least get a bibliographic reference pointed here in the final thesis?
Wintrode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Here's some games that expanded the genre:
Gauntlet - for puting the original multi in multiplayer play.
Utopia (Intellivision) - For being Sim City/Earth/whatever, before people even knew what a Sim game was.
Doom and Marathon - For making LAN gaming exist on PC's and Macs respectively. (Although you could argue about Marathon being derivative).
Pole Position - For making moving backgrounds cool and creating the racing game genre.
rodan32 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Ok, here's my PC-centric list.
X-Com: UFO Defense
Wing Commander
MechWarrior 2
Descent 2
Quake 3
Baldur's Gate
Civilization (the original)
Starcraft
And maybe a couple of Sega titles:
Phantasy Star
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (ok, I kid)
Sonic the Hedgehog
Pretty canoninical, I think.
C @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Arcade:
Pac-Man
Space Invaders
Robotron 2084
Mortal Kombat
Virtra Fighter
Street Fighter II
Nintendo:
Super Mario Brothers
Super Mario World
Mario 64
Donkey Kong
Mario Kart
Legend of Zelda
Super Metroid
Mega Man
Pokemon
Sega:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Marble Madness
Sony:
Final Fantasy VII
Gran Turismo
Resident Evil
Metal Gear Solid
Microsoft:
Halo
Xbox LIVE (I know its not a game persay, but has effected the game industry pretty drastically and the way games are being made)
PC:
Doom
Zork
Age of Empires
Starcraft
World of Warcraft
Quake
Half-Life
Unreal Tournement
Mech Warrior
and throw Pong in there for good measure
Toast @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I think if you're going to build a canon, similar to what is happening in literature, you have to look at more than just how much fun a game is to play. Fun and interesting books are not necessarily part of a respectable canon.
Literature that you are taught in school is mostly because it had some kind of cultural impact (Microsoft has has beat its competition in a machiavellian manner... Who's that guy ;) ). Another reason is also because it defined a genre. Yet another great reason to include something in your canon is because its theme appear constantly in current literature (bible).
That is what I would use to define the video game canon as well. Not what games are fun, but which games can give you a broader perspective of the gaming industry and current video games after having played them.
Bret @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Gradius Anyone? What about all the great shooters? Radien II? Ummmm Silkworm?! =)
Geometry Wars!!!!! Woo! Cann'a get a holla?
Gimbal @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Rogue/NetHack
Empire
Zyll
Artillery/Scortched Earth
Starflight and/or Star Control II
Falcon4
MS Flight Simulator
M1 Tank Platoon
688 Attack Sub
If time permitted I would probably just end up with a huge list. Thinking back on all these games, where did I find the time to enjoy all of them? Those were the days.
And what about those crappy portable game systems your grandparents would get for you on the holidays? You know, like that Radio Shack football game that was just some odd series of red LED lights and a little "_" indicating the ball. I have no idea why but that stupid thing was oddly compelling to me at the time.
Cyborg771 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Wow this book would be like 75-90% nintendo games. Not that games like Halo aren't fun but they just aren't snob gamer material.
Bud @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Lemonade Stand.
Alkaiser @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Hell yeah! Lemonade Stand like a mofo!
Honestly, I think a book would be lame. I think a better idea would be to get this list built, get all the proper emulators on a DVD, plunk it in your PC and let your 5 year old sit there.
This way everyone involved gets licensing fees, and your kid actually plays the games and doesn't just read about them.
Mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
My additions:
X-Com: UFO defense (I actually just started playing this again, it is still a blast)
Red Storm Rising
Zork (how have we gotten so far down this list with no one mentioning Zork??)
Doug teh H-Nut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I don't think there should be just one game from each series. There should be the first three Mega Man games, the first two Sonic games (and possibly Sonic and Knuckles), Pac-Man, Pong, and DEFINENTLY We Love Katamari. I don't care how new it is. It just begs to be played. And...something from Metroid. I don't care since I haven't played the older games. And Zelda, and an older Final Fantasy and probably Fire Emblem.
mark askey @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
What about Commodore 64 games, or Atari games?
Here are a few for the list"
M.U.L.E
Ultima Online
Pitfall
Dragon's Lair
Qix
Impossible Mission
SimCity
Hammurabi
Space Invaders - first arcade game that tracks and displays high scores.
Asterioids - first game to allow 3 letter names for score
Battlezone
Defender
Check out http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline1.html for a very cool timeline on the subject.
Mark
Michael Canfield @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Aren't we forgeting the game that ushered in the modern era of PC gaming?
Myst
That is all.
JP @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
Hmm...here's my go:
Arcade/Cross Platform:
Pac Man
Space Invaders
Galaga
Street Fighter
NBA Jam
Mortal Kombat
Soul Calibur 2
Nintendo:
Mario Bros.
Mario Kart
The Legend of Zelda
Metroid
Chrono Trigger
007: Goldeneye
StarFox
LoZ: The Ocarina of Time
Sega:
Sonic the Hedgehog
NHL 94
Playstation:
Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil
Gran Turismo
Tomb Raider
We Love Katamari
GTA: Vice City
Tekken 5
XBox:
Halo
Ninja Gaiden
PC:
Half-Life
Doom
WarcraftIII/World of Warcraft
Diablo II
Starcraft
Quake
UT
Myst
J @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
You people don't even realize what you are talking about. A canon is so much more difficult to define and construct than you think. I say it's a bad idea. What is a classic to you may not be a classic to me and I can guarantee you that in 75 years the kids and videogamers then (at least for the most part) will probably think that our so- called "classics" are lame, boring, and have no connection to them. Besides, how big of a game snob do you have to be to think you know what is great for everyone?
M@ @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
There's a reason a canon doesn't tend to include the guys who haven't died yet. If you're including a game or console that's still available, you've missed the point.
I'm not sure whether there's anything console-based before the 2600 that deserves inclusion (other than Pong and Telegames and all the other home knockoffs). Combat, as the game that all Atari owners had, is an important one. Space Invaders, as the game that sold the 2600, is another one.
What else?
- Scott Adams adventure games for the VIC-20. If you're not convinced of that, then Infogames (Zork, but also Hitchhiker's Guide and many others).
- Wampus. Up there with Lemonade Stand.
- Super Mario Bros. No question.
- Super Mario Bros. 3. The apex of this kind of game, and for good reason.
- River Raid. Truly a perfect balance of everything the earlier consoles had to offer. Although I'd happily sub another Activision game in if necessary -- Pitfall II, H.E.R.O., etc.
- Intellivision sports games. The sports games up to that point were pathetic. Intellivision raised the bar in a way that can't be underestimated.
- Mine Storm. Vectrex was a tiny, vector-based dot of arcade perfection in the home.
In the arcade, we're talking about Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac Man and Ms Pac Man, Centipede, Qix (first non-violent video game!), Pole Position (bar for driving games set here), Missile Command.
By the way, it's worth considering Xybots, the first truly 3D world. Not a perfect game but all FPSs came from here. (Wolfenstein 3D is the choice if you want to look at PC.)
Gunnar Langemark @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM
I wrote a couple of papers on computer/video games back in the late eighties and early nineties as part of my major and my phd projects.
That was at The University of Copenhagen in Denmark. I know now that you can take courses in computer games there and at the IT-university of Copenhagen.
So you won't have to wait for 30 years.
If you consider building a Games Can(n)on, please take a look at Film history, which will be much more enlighening than looking at literature (yes - I majored in Film...). Film is barely more than 100 years old. The old film industries in the USA and Europe turned out thousands and thounsands of films in the early years - before the medium became mature enough to hold its own.
All but a few have vanished - literally. They are no more.
Same with video/computer-games. They're lost or they are impossible to play under the same conditions. We have emulators yes, and they are good, but most are like watching old movies on a VHS.
The real point here is: Only very few early games deserve to be in a canon. They deserve mention in a history of computer games - sure, but they have nothing to do with "forcing" old games on young people. Don't be as obnoxious as the old folks who think you should read all the crap novels of their childhood, watch all the ridiculous tv-shows of the youth etc.
I think pacman is important, asteroids is probably important, pong perhaps. I think Prince of Persia - the original - is important. DOOM is too. But Quake is not - because all it did was improve the concept of DOOM. Perhaps Wolfenstein is more important? Civilization is very important as a succesful genre game.
The most important Nintendo Game? PC game? I don't think so. It would be like the most important movie to run on a Pathe projector....
It is not a criterion I think. But it makes it harder to choose. Not very many people have played all the platforms.