The Smithsonian American Art Museum will be hosting an Art of Video Games Exhibit from March 16th to September 30th, and is asking gamers to vote for their favorite games which will be displayed at the exhibit.
The categories are split into eras, which are split into gaming platforms that each have 16 to choose from. You should all go and vote! Should be interesting to see the results.
Voting takes place at https://www.artofvideogames.org/
Doesn’t work for me. I tried various browsers and addblock settings, still nuthin’ but a blank screen when I try to vote.
I had the same problem and just waited. And if that didn’t work I tried reloading it.
The site still works for me. I’m using Chrome, but my friend uses Firefox and he was able to get access.
Apparently the site has been performing slowly according to several sites, so I suggest trying again later. Alternatively, you could all just assume that I’m sending you a broken link and insult the living hell out of me, per Black Mesa forums tradition.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see a place to vote… I see the 5 eras, and if I click on one I get a one sentence description on the side, but nothing else.
EDIT: nvm a technical difficulties message just appeared
Rez for visual style.
Psychonauts for the same.
Halo series for visual (particle mostly) effects.
Really? Just because it had particle effects doesn’t mean it looks good. Takes a lot more than that to make a game look good. Like decent looking draw distance for textures coughreachcough.
God I hope nothing from CoD4 and up gets voted in. But ofc it will. I’ll kill myself if Black Ops makes the list.
EDIT: they’re overloaded, voting is down. ):
@OrderofDagon for once there’s decent thread on this forum, it’d be really nice if you and the other 12 year olds refrained from posting in it.
I’ve never hugely loved the art style of Halo, but its pretty nice. Plus this isn’t graphics, this is artistic style, or storytelling, or anything along that train of thought. Looking realistic is not the issue.
That’s why I said visual effects you fucking idiot.
Visual effects in gaming terms = Particles and sometimes post processing. Every game in the Halo series has excelled in that aspect since 2001. Fuck, the grenade explosions in Halo 1 still look badass despite the lowres sprites.
I’m sure it counts. Things look more beautiful the better the graphics are. And I’d say Halo 1 and Halo Reach are the two best halos artistically, the ones in between I didn’t think were truly that impressive. And there are a lot more nicer looking games out there graphics or otherwise.
u mad? So you are saying a game is beautiful because actions that exist for only a split second are really good? That’s a pretty minor detail. It’s kind of like saying a fat chick is hot because she has a big boobs; you gotta look at the big picture.
why the fuck is codblops there?
Because its a massively popular game, making it massively significant to video games.
but can it qualify as ‘art’?
@Someonerandm Twilight is a massively popular book. Should it be placed in an exhibit of brilliant literature?
You mean modern pop culture, which is what video games are right now.
Yes, Twilight and Call of Duty probably should be considered hugely important pieces of pop art for this generation. Kind of like how Star Wars and the Bee Gees should be remembered when discussing the 70’s alongside “real” art like Taxi Driver and Pink Floyd.
That’s not to say I don’t wish more innovative titles had a better shot. But something like is going to have a much different view of “importance” than your average hardcore gamer or game designer might like.
Some day great video games will be recognized as important works of human expression. Just that fact that the Smithsonian recognizes such a marginalized facet of art at all is a nice little stepping stone.
Did I say yes it should be there? I merely provided you with the reason why its in there.
Anyway, can I just say I’m not hugely happy with this video games as art thing. I recognize video games as art, but I’m not sure I want the larger world to. Whenever I look at other established art forms, there is an inevitable group of people who just sit around all day staring at some blank canvas or reading some incomprehensible book explaining to the uneducated masses how incredible and artistic it is. Granted, there’s some of that in our dear vidya but I really don’t want any more.
I didn’t vote for the ones I thought qualified as art…but the ones I liked and felt advanced video games. I mean…ET and Pac-Man for the 2600? Art? Sheesh. Those two almost destroyed video games!
I’m going the exact opposite way. I couldn’t give a shit which game contributed to gaming the most, just which one is the most beautiful and fun.
God dammit, where’s Half-Life in the transition era??? Am I just not finding it, or did they not put it up for voting?
Also, why are there so many casual games in the modern area? They really can’t compare to a high budget long 3d game.
I’m gonna have to go see this thing sometime over the summer >_>
The great thing about living near Washington DC is that all of the Smithsonian museums have no admission fee.
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