Smithsonian exhibit 'The Art of Video Games' opens in 2012

I was the only one playing Galaga.

It's so sad the way society is today.

I could play Galaga for hours. What's the highest stage you've reached?

All I say to this news is... what took them so long?

It's hard to look at the history of a medium when it hasn't been around that long.

I don't recall what stage I've reached, but I think my top score was around 160,000.
Man, I need to build another mame machine, it's like selling a child when you have to get rid of one of those.

if he's not dead

nah, it ends in december of 2012...three months after this exhibit

December 12th. Learn your sensationalist pseudoscience.

December 21st. Learn your umm......truth?

Sensationalist pseudoscience? But I already know everything about global warming.

dont 't the mayans consider the year 4227 a big year as well? mmaybe 2012 is not the end.

"dont 't the mayans consider the year 4227 a big year as well? mmaybe 2012 is not the end." 2012 is the beginning of a new bak'tun (it's like a millennium for us) in Mayan culture, that's it. There are Mayan calendars that go up to ~3000, maybe even more, only a single tablet that ended in 2012 was actually found.

What's wrong with FPS's as art? Killzone 2 had some pretty epic moments, as did Halo 3. And some beautiful backdrops.

Killzone did have some epic moments. Bioshock, Doom, Duke Nukem, CoD1, Halo 1, should all be there as well they all had some great moments in VG history. And don't let me forget Crysis.

HALF-LIFE 2!

That is all.

Seriously, you are not human if you didn't cry at the ending to HL2:Ep.2.

I cried

I wonder if there will be a fanboy exhibit.

Fanboy exhibit?

Would that be like an exhibit catering to the awesomeness of a certain console or would they take an infamous Fanboy and lock him in a glass case for all to see?

I'd personally prefer the latter.

The fanboy exhibit will come after it opens in the forms of the people who go to it. Not that you have to be a fanboy to go, but they will be there. Oh, they will be there.

I haven't finished episode 2 yet. :(

Epic moments? Pfft.. I'm talking about epic games! And while there have been interesting FPS's (namely Bioshock), none of them compare to the following:

Eternal Sonata
Flower
Super Mario Galaxy
Fallout Series
Gran Turismo Series
The Music Game Genre
Xenosaga Series

There's just too many good games out there to have an exhibit diluted by 385,000 FPS's that have barely any semblance of differences between itself and its predecessors.

i fucking hate mayans now.

this whole 2012 thing is pissing me off now.

The myth is the world will end on December 12, 2012! The exhibit closes in September. You'll have time to see it before people shut up about that end-of-the-world thing.

Dec. 20 fucking 1st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dec. 21st, Damn it

Judging by the picture, the American Art Museum.

Cinema and Theater aren't considered art. They're art and are already established as such, for more than enough reasons. However, if you dig deep into the why videogames aren't still that much accepted as art its only because of one thing really: lack of human contact and direct response to feelings being portrayed.

Ill explain, both films and theater have one thing in common: the spectator can develop a bond with a character because we easily observe the character's face and understand them feelings. Both in theater and in cinema you got actors, real human beings acting to develop a emotional bond and response with you. In videogames, they have yet to develop such bond, since the majority of NPC's and characters normally look like lifeless robots in human skin, and no the voices dont cut it enough. There are some games that manage to be almost real enough so that you can laugh with them, cry with them, but there are few and far between.Of course even I have already laughed and got surprised and sad with game characters, but they have yet to develop a character with such emotional impact as being remembered by everyone. (look for movies like My Left Foot or Sophie's Choice which are good examples of emotionally strong movies where you develop a bond with the character's being and story)

So videogames response until now in developing games that can be considered art (such as ICO, SoTC, Flower, Braid, other indie games and etc.) is through the form and not the emotional content. The form of games such as the ones I mentioned is obvious, the minimalism in both ICO and Shadow, the gameplay of both Braid and Flower for example are the most important for the user in considering the game as art, because the interactivity is what really sells videogames, and not the Shakespearean arc-like stories, which are more effective in cinema and theater.

Its a rant I know, but I was just thinking about this, and you got to be the receiver.

And yes, the games as examples I gave, create an emotional response through the Form, and not the story or content. The story serves the purpose of creating a believable world, and through interactivity you grow accustomed to the character's problems and issues, you develop a bond with the horse, but thats really the unique part in videogames, which is attained through the Form and design of the game (Agro is a tool in the game you use to traverse the world and fight the colossus, however since its conveined through a horse, you supposedly create the bond with the character, which is nothing more than a vehicle) the same in Ico, through the world the story convenes and the little princess (the princess is an objective and a tool as well, since your main objective is to traverse the world with her to get out of the castle, and without her the game wouldnt exist or the story wouldn continue since Ico couldnt open the gates by himself). I was just pointing the fact that real emotional human response has yet to be attained, and thats the purpose of "more adult games" like I dont know, Heavy Rain or Alan Wake, which are being developed to feel that void. Uncharted 2 has tried it and managed to be successful in its story, but it was, apart from the interactivity and gameplay a game has to have, an emulation of what a movie is.