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First Games Inducted Into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

Posted by samzenpus on from the best-wasted-hours dept.

An anonymous reader writes: From 15 finalists, the first inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame were picked for 2015. Only one of the titles added to the list of legends was launched in the last 15 years. The six games inducted this year are: Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Doom, and World of Warcraft. The World Video Game Hall of Fame says it recognizes games across all platforms, and all have the possibility of being included.

41 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. WoW? by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I disagree with WoW being on the list. All others are legit entries.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
    1. Re:WoW? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Name the single most iconic MMO of all time. WoW. "They have to be iconic, have longevity, have reached across international boundaries and also have exerted influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment or on popular culture and society." Yes it strongly fits in all of those categories. You can't say that for any other MMO.

    2. Re:WoW? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, absolutely. If we're doing introductory inductees (say that 10 times fast) WoW doesn't really belong with Pong and Pac Man, especially in the abscence of Space Invaders and/or Galaga.

    3. Re:WoW? by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 2

      If I wanted to put forward a game that pushed the limits of home gaming (at the time) it would have to be Commander Keen, followed quickly by Wolfenstein

      --
      Wherever You Go, There You Are
    4. Re:WoW? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ultima Online.

    5. Re:WoW? by ogdenk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What about EverQuest? It predates WoW and had quite a following. Both games suck IMHO but people liked them. I would also argue that Everquest influenced WoW's development.

      WoW is too modern to be a "Hall of Fame" contender and many games like it have existed over the years.

      Personally I think BattleZone, Tempest or the Star Wars Arcade Game should have been on the list. Vector games never get any love in popularity contests targeted at today's 12 year olds though.

    6. Re:WoW? by SQLGuru · · Score: 2

      UO or EverQuest should have made it before WoW.......simply put, WoW was just the better implementation of an existing game. The others that made the list were all ground-breaking (I probably would have gone Wolfenstein over Doom, but Doom really did define the genre). I agree WoW should be in the HoF, but there were plenty of more worthy candidates that should have gone in BEFORE WoW.

    7. Re:WoW? by ganjadude · · Score: 2

      no leisure suit larry??

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    8. Re:WoW? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What about EverQuest? It predates WoW and had quite a following.

      EverQuest and Ultima Online have the same problem. Outside of gamers, only in one or two countries do people other than gamers know anything about them. But WoW is culturally pervasive across much of the world. The same logic must have placed Doom over Wolf3D.

      Personally I think BattleZone, Tempest or the Star Wars Arcade Game should have been on the list. Vector games never get any love in popularity contests targeted at today's 12 year olds though.

      The problem with any of those games is that they don't have cultural influence. Only gamers know about them. (The SW arcade game is still one of my favorites of all time, if I could own just one cabinet...) Space Invaders, on the other hand... that's got some influence, I think it ought to have made the list.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    9. Re:WoW? by Akaihiryuu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      WOW wasn't included because it was the first, or even close. It was included because it broke MMO's into the mainstream and had a 10-year run. Prior to WOW, MMO's were an extremely niche thing, that only nerds and hardcore gamers ever played. While I don't agree with what WOW has become in the last expansion (in fact, I will go so far as to say it's a terrible game now), you can't deny that it broke down barriers and opened up MMO's to people who had never even considered playing them before.

    10. Re:WoW? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Bullshit. You obviously didn't grow up in the late 70's/early 80's.

      EVERYBODY played Pac-Man.

    11. Re:WoW? by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 2

      It brought it to common desktop computers

      --
      Wherever You Go, There You Are
    12. Re:WoW? by germansausage · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's not how I remember it. There were arcades everywhere and video games in every bar back in the 80's and everybody (not just nerds) dropped quarters in them. Pac man and even more so ms pac man, pole position, galaga, sinistar, tempest, defender, asteroids and a pile of other games being played non-stop by all sorts of people, not just so called nerds.

    13. Re:WoW? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      It brought it to common desktop computers

      I disagree. The most famous side-scroller of the era was Karateka, which should need no link. Platform gaming in now-familiar form was brought to common desktop computers by Conan: Hall of Volta , split-screen multiplayer with objectives and a fairly sizable environment came with Spy vs. Spy , complex environments and objectives with Castle Wolfenstein . Oh wait, I just remembered some more games I've played on personal computers which have similar complexity and are older... Montezuma's Revenge, for example. And I think it's safe to say that no game of 1990 was more complex than 1988's Pool of Radiance . That game was amazing to us. It ought to have been, it took what, four floppies on the Apple 2?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:WoW? by cfalcon · · Score: 2

      EQ a rounding error.

      Super Mario Brothers- sold 40 million copies.
      Ultima online- peak subscribers 250,000.
      Everquest- peaked at less than half a million subs.

      WoW- peaked at TWELVE MEGASUBS. That's ludicrous. It was at 10 megasubs earlier this year.

      Everquest is some niche game that eventually started copying WoW like the rest.

      Ultima Online was an even more niche game that essentially no one played.

      WoW got where it was on its own. A zillion games "copied EQ". Now, if you make a game like this, you are copying WoW. Have been for years. People ascribe shit to EQ that it never even had before it copied it from WoW nowadays too.

      Also, like, the entire EQ playerbase jumped ship to WoW within a year. Not even worth bringing up EQ in the same conversation as WoW, if you are talking about influential games.

    15. Re:WoW? by cfalcon · · Score: 2

      It's still on its ten year run. It went down to like 6 megasubs from 10 and everyone is like "ok, that's it, it's dead". But... other games don't even have a tenth of what WoW does now and aren't considered failures. And nothing else is really even close.

    16. Re:WoW? by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wouldn't have existed if it weren't for adventure games either. At least one of them should have been on the list. Either Zork or Colossal Cave. MMOs are too new, with huge fanbases that go after each others' throats like it was politics. Adventure games was a full genre that includes later RPGs and MMOs and MUDs, and whatnot.

    17. Re:WoW? by sound+vision · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Really I think that part of the issue is they have no guidelines or limitations on the nominations. With the Rock & Roll hall of fame, there is a rule that a band or performer has to have released its first music at least 25 years ago to be nominated. The time aspect is important, it helps you recognize which releases are truly important and influential, and which ones are catchy but short-lived. The reason this game inductees list looks weird is that it's got WoW listed next to Pong and Tetris. Give it another decade, and it won't be so weird to see WoW in there. IMO they shouldn't be considering anything newer than the 90s for a few years.

    18. Re:WoW? by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

      Frogger.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    19. Re:WoW? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      I can't believe they didn't include Goldeneye on those criteria. The game made more money than the movie, and brought the multi-player deathmatch model to the masses at a time when most people either didn't have an internet connection or were on dial-up.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    20. Re:WoW? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can't believe they didn't include Goldeneye on those criteria. The game made more money than the movie, and brought the multi-player deathmatch model to the masses

      No, stop right there. The masses didn't have an N64, so the masses couldn't even play Goldeneye. It was the least popular platform of the generation. That the game made so much money on it is a testament to its popularity, but it's another thing that nobody but gamers knows about. If you say Goldeneye, they will say "movie".

      Goldeneye was also an awful game compared to FPSes on the PC at the time. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Goldeneye was the defining moment in the "Console vs. PC Master Race" war, although we didn't call it that. That's the precise moment at which the split occurred. Console gamers were all excited by their new toy, and PC gamers were looking at them like "are you new?"

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    21. Re:WoW? by some+old+guy · · Score: 2

      Said the Blizzard marketing shill.

      --
      Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
    22. Re:WoW? by ReeceTarbert · · Score: 3, Informative

      Fact: I'm older than you are and I was around when Pac-Man was brand new. Nobody but arcade-going nerds played Pac-Man or any video games, really.

      That you are older than the OP might even be a fact, but another fact is that a song about a video game that, according to you, "nobody played" peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in March 1982.

      RT.

    23. Re:WoW? by onkelonkel · · Score: 2

      Are you going for a "Reverse No True Scotsman"? Only nerds play pac-man, so anyone who played pac-man had to be a nerd. That is just flat out wrong. Back in the early 80's games like Pac-man and Frogger and Centipede were everywhere, every bar, every bowling alley, every pizza joint, every 7-11 had a few arcade games. All sorts of people played them, some were nerds, but a whole lot of them were not.

      --
      None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
    24. Re:WoW? by xkenny13 · · Score: 2

      Most people back then didn't go to arcades and had never even heard of Pac-Man.

      Pac-Man was ubiquitous because the video game craze extended well beyond the arcade. You could find them at movie theaters, liquor stores, pizza parlors, bowling alleys, kiosk space in the mall, even just past the checkout lanes at the grocery store. I don't know anyone who hadn't heard of Pac-Man by 1981.

  2. what? when did this happen? by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    when did a hall of fame for games get created that wasn't just some guy's opinion?

    Where is this?

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    1. Re:what? when did this happen? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      I mean, should I take this more seriously than any jackass saying "I like this"...

      No, probably not.

      is this supposed to be like the academy awards or golden globes or something?

      I am sure that the people doing it see it that way.

      I don't think the community or industry is organized enough to have such a thing.

      That means that anyone can start such a thing, and no one is organized enough to stop them.

      I just think the way in which they go through this needs to be declared and obvious.

      Why? If you don't like the way they do it, then start your own hall of fame. They don't owe you anything.

    2. Re:what? when did this happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      ... I know but... like... I've seen nothing about this until now and who the fuck are these people... and etc etc?

      I mean, should I take this more seriously than any jackass saying "I like this"... is this supposed to be like the academy awards or golden globes or something?

      The very idea of this thing is baffling to me because I don't think the community or industry is organized enough to have such a thing.

      I don't really have a problem with their selections, I just think the way in which they go through this needs to be declared and obvious.

      It's at the Strong Museum of Play which is the recognized Toy Hall of Fame by the International Toy Industry and the Strong Museuem is also home to the International History of Electronic Games. The Strong also has over 65,000 video game artifacts in its collection which is the largest collection in the world. It's a world-class museum. So yes it is worthy of creating this Hall. You should check it out if you ever have a chance. It's arcade game collection is also amazing.

  3. ...and the award for Lifetime Achievement goes to: by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Funny

    Duke Nukem Forever!!!

  4. History... by Ambient+Sheep · · Score: 2

    Space Invaders, Defender and Tempest see the obvious omissions to me...

  5. Re:wut about?? by Whiteox · · Score: 2

    +1 Lode Runner - Also Chopper Rescue (Apple II) was excellent. Some of the early SGI games were great not to mention those text adventures.
    Too many to list eg Meteors etc.

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
  6. Re:leisure suit larry by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't forget learning useless trivia from the previous generation to get past the age check before you discovered the key-combo to bypass it.

  7. Re:Seriously? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    No Half-Life or CS? or Unreal for that matter.

    Half-Life changed video games forever. It's an order of magnitude more important than WoW.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  8. ooh street fighter by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    You are so right about that one, AC. Specifically, SF2, which is where it really went nuts in the market with all the modded machines and so on. That game really created the modern fighting game phenomenon. I know, people out there are now pounding tables and shouting about MK, but SF was a major thing before MK.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:ooh street fighter by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Also SF discovered combo moves. I'd say invented, but they were actually a bug according to the designer which allowed you to trigger a new move one frame before the end of the previous one allowing them to be chained together very fast. Combos are now of course a staple of fighting games.

      The other cause for early triggering was landing: a fighter in the middle of kick-while-jumping sequence would instantly transition to standing-ready upon landing no matter how soon the latter happened. This allowed one to follow a kick-while-jumping move almost instantly with another move, e.g. leg sweep with pretty much no gap.

      I believe there were a few other such shortened sequences.

      Ya-Ta!

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  9. Re: What about Goldeneye 007? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Goldeneye was never the best game by a long shot. It might have been the best FPS on N64, but that's saying very little.

  10. Missing? by MouseTheLuckyDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Zork. It just has to be there. It's like having a basketball hall of fame, and not having Michael Jordan in it.

    Miner2049er. Again iconic.

    Myst, I'm not a big fan, but in it's time it was iconic.

  11. Re:Seriously? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    Half-Life only continued what Doom started, with the intermediate step being Quake.

    Not even close. Half-Life invented the NPC that actually paid attention. It was a sea change in how people viewed their own character vis-a-vis the characters that populate the world.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  12. Interesting list of game choices by BevanFindlay · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmm. That list seems to make sense, though WoW is perhaps the outsider.

    But, what about Asteroids, Space Invaders, even Street Fighter? Civilization or Sim City? No love (yet) for strategy games at all, which should probably start with either those or Dune II, or perhaps something from the Command & Conquer series (either C&C1 or Red Alert 1). Although, maybe I'm a bit too much of a geek - quite likely, Age of Empires would beat some of those to the list.

    However, these, and most of the other suggestions being made, are more about iconic or revolutionary (started a genre) games, as opposed to simply famous. And, they put the requirement of it influencing outside culture (so recognisable by more than gamers). The Sims, Minecraft, Sonic, and yes, as much as we geeks don't want to admit it, Angry Birds (as derivative as that is - i.e. there's no Scorched Earth, a much earlier artillery game) are all legitimate nominations I think. Perhaps they might have had less ire if they kept to solely classic games for the first round, although I do remember hearing something about an unofficial WoW theme park in China... Interesting that WoW gets in before Warcraft though.

    I can see how difficult it would be to be objective on something like this, so I applaud their attempting it, even if I don't entirely agree with the choices. Maybe they included WoW to try and have something relevant to a modern audience? (Although, arguably Minecraft is more recognisable today, if perhaps still a little new. I expect it will get there soon enough though).

  13. Re:So... by nmb3000 · · Score: 2

    No Battletoads?

    Unfortunately, somebody must have actually finished the game in order for it to be eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame.

    --
    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  14. Decent selections... by PortHaven · · Score: 2

    WoW was not the first, but it did something in the modern era that nothing else really did.

    It pushed it's presence into a household name. It's marketing was huge. People who didn't know the game, knew of the addiction.

    DOOM wasn't the first. I mean Wolfenstein 3D was really more original. But DOOM had a far broader acceptance and influence long term.

    ***

    I could see some others ...

    For this era, I think Angry Birds might be a good candidate. Needs a few more years to see. But it went far beyond video game and became a fad.

    TETRIS...

    Halo Series