The lights are on
Are game art? According to New York's prestigious Museum of Modern Art they are; the museum just added 14 games to its collection, and says more will follow.
According to the MOMA's website, this initial acquisition of games will be a "the seedbed for an initial wish list of about 40 to be acquired in the near future, as well as for a new category of artworks in MoMA’s collection that we hope will grow in the future."
Here's the list of the 14 games that have will be installed in MOMA's Philip Johnson Galleries in March 2013:
Pac-Man (1980)
Tetris (1984)
Another World (1991)
Myst (1993)
SimCity 2000 (1994)
vib-ribbon (1999)
The Sims (2000)
Katamari Damacy (2004)
EVE Online (2003)
Dwarf Fortress (2003)
flOw (2006)
Portal (2007)
Passage (2008)
Canabalt (2009)
It's an interesting list, definitely a mix of mainstream classic, some acclaimed cult indie titles, and a few curveballs. Still, it's a good start. It's always nice to see the serious art world acknowledging video games. The Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC did something similar earlier this year, hopefully this is the beginning of a new appreciation of gaming as art.
Email the author Matt Helgeson, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
woo Myst and Portal!
I wonder what their decision process was.
Odd to thing that the original Zelda or Donkey Kong would miss out.
hooray Portal!
Was expecting some other names too, but still this is an honor. Congrats to the games!!
MYST!!!
Really good choices.
OH MY GOD! THIS IS AMAZING!
Glad to see EVE Online made the list!
No Bioshock?
Really concept art is something to rival the master pieces of the past. Yet really it is done by someone named Bill and Joe than some fancy French name. As I see it video games in this day in age should be viewed as art. As it takes just as much effort to make a Video game just as it was to paint a wall that makes no sense but to the artist. At least video games people can understand the art and like it.
Worst museum ever
Lawl, "serious art world".
What?! Pacman wasn't in there already? Congratulations to Portal too.
nice! another world is on there. i loved that game back on the amiga, funtimes
Nice to see that both Portal and Tetris got in.
Lot of good ones, but seems to be completely ignoring games that could be counted as art on literary reasons. Games like Super Metroid, SotC, and Journey getting the shaft, but I suppose beggers cant be choosers.
Chrono Cross needs to get in