The 2017 Video Game Hall of Fame finalists are in, and they're not just arcade classics
Donkey Kong, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter II, Final Fantasy VII and Pokemon among the 12 nominees, but so too are Myst, Portal, and Microsoft’s Solitaire
The World Video Game Hall of Fame at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, in the US state of New York, spent its first two years mostly honouring the classics. Games such as Pac-Man, The Oregon Trail and Super Mario Bros. were inducted for their lasting impact on popular culture and game design. Also inducted were a few more recent releases, including The Sims, World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto III, all immensely popular in their own right.
Now, the museum is wading deeper into the gaming world.
Last month, the Strong unveiled 12 finalists for the hall of fame’s third class of inductees. While this year’s picks will still surely be familiar to gamers of all stripes, the list includes some titles that don’t carry the name recognition of, say, Tetris, an inaugural inductee.
The finalists were selected through open voting on the museum’s website, with thousands of users from more than 100 countries weighing in before the polls closed end of February. The final inductees will be chosen by an advisory committee made up of journalists and video game scholars from around the world, and the results will be revealed at the museum on May 4.
“Many of these games really changed the way that we think about video games by introducing video games to new audiences,” Jeremy Saucier, an assistant director at the museum, told The New York Times.