DOOM, Pong, Tetris Inducted Into World Video Game Hall of Fame

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Pac-Man, Pong, DOOM, Super Mario Bros., WoW and Tetris have all been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The inductees were chosen from a list of fifteen finalists.

DOOM was more than just a commercial success—it also pioneered key aspects of game design and distribution that have become industry standards. The game’s designers created a game “engine” that separated the game’s basic functions from other aspects such as artwork.
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Good selection. Cannot really say anything bad about their choices. Each one was an excellent point in gaming and very successful.

For a first round of inductees, that's an excellent list.
 
Some choices are shocking and some are descent but most miss the mark.

Lets see if anyone agrees here.
Doom seems correct, but in other selections (in the top 15) they chose the equivalent of Quake and not Doom.

World of Warcraft? How about Everquest as it was the true pioneer while UO floundered.
Where is Megaman?
Where is Street Fighter II?
Where is Final Fantasy?

Now Pong, Super Mario, Tetris, and Pac-Man really are outstanding picks. I am somewhat confused by the top 15 in it's entirety.

And where oh where is X-Wing.

I suspect that each of us would have slightly different lists. As certain games meant a lot to each one of us. It makes those games stand out and makes people upset when they are missing. However some games are legendary and missing.

Top 15 with alternates?
Pong/Breakout
Pac-Man/Donkey Kong
Tetris/Minesweeper
Zelda/Final Fantasy
Super Mario Brothers/Sonic
Xwing/XVT/Xwing-Alliance/IL-2 Sturmovik/Decent Freespace
Street Fighter II/Karateka
Mega Man/Mega Man 2
Doom/Quake/Unreal
Everquest/UO/FFXI/WOW
Battlefield 1942/COD
Warcraft Orcs Vs Humans/Dune/Warcraft II/StarCraft/Command and Conquer/Z/Age of Empires.... man this list could go on and on in this line... lol.
Pole Position/Virtua Racing/Need for Speed/Grand Turismo
Diablo/Diablo II
Solitare.. my oh my how many hours has this consumed....
 
It's honestly hard to argue with any of these.

Addressing WoW vs. EQ or UO, as a hardcore UO player (Zulu Hotel Shard!) I have to grudgingly admint that WoW brought the MMO into the mainstream. Neither EQ nor UO had anything close to the success WoW did, and while it's easy to look back now and take it all for granted, WoW innovated across the board in every aspect of MMO game design.

Remember when levelling meant grinding before any coherent level system? Remember the time before instancing? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Wow is the right choice to initially represent the genre. That being said, UO as the first real PC graphical MMO (not including MUDs) I'm sure will be inducted in the future.
 
I don't like seeing WoW on there, but it makes sense. Similarly, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Minecraft in there.
 
Youn said:
I don't like seeing WoW on there, but it makes sense. Similarly, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Minecraft in there.
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I was thinking the same thing. I like some of the arguments in here that WoW pushed MMO's SO MUCH FARTHER than anything in that genre... It's also hard to dismiss a game that's made what, $1 Billion?

And I like the Minecraft thing... a game that sold for what 2 billion? haha. When you factor in the year it was made, and the popularity the public drove it to... it's pretty impressive.
 
Why the hell wouldnt wow be on there? Name any other game that has had the numbers that wow put out, active players, subs etc. The amount of content, hours played, there probably isnt even a close second in ANY genre
 
WoW deserves it. I don't like that game at all, but the impact its made is definitely worthy of induction into the hall of fame. It's going to be an ongoing thing, too...
 
Grimmda said:
I was thinking the same thing. I like some of the arguments in here that WoW pushed MMO's SO MUCH FARTHER than anything in that genre... It's also hard to dismiss a game that's made what, $1 Billion?

And I like the Minecraft thing... a game that sold for what 2 billion? haha. When you factor in the year it was made, and the popularity the public drove it to... it's pretty impressive.
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WoW has made far more than $1B, while it's hard to put an exact number on it, just as a starting point: 12m subs at its peak x $15/month x12 months = $2.16B in sub fees alone for just 1 year. The game is now 10 years old, has had multiple expansions, service fees (server/faction xfer, etc), and the pets/mounts in the cash shop. Then there's Blizzcon, which while it's not strictly a WoW event, I would imagine the turnout to be much smaller if WoW didn't exist.
 
Jaymzkerten said:
WoW has made far more than $1B, while it's hard to put an exact number on it, just as a starting point: 12m subs at its peak x $15/month x12 months = $2.16B in sub fees alone for just 1 year. The game is now 10 years old, has had multiple expansions, service fees (server/faction xfer, etc), and the pets/mounts in the cash shop. Then there's Blizzcon, which while it's not strictly a WoW event, I would imagine the turnout to be much smaller if WoW didn't exist.
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It brought money, but I don't feel there's enough time to get a correct look. Let's look at their 15 finalists.

. Angry Birds.
. DOOM.
. FIFA.
. The Legend of Zelda.
. Minecraft.
. The Oregon Trail.
. Pac-Man.
. Pokémon.
. Pong.
. The Sims.
. Sonic the Hedgehog.
. Space Invaders.
. Super Mario Bros.
. Tetris.
. World of Warcraft

Seriously, Angry Birds, FIFA, Minecraft, The Sims?

When I think of game changers, I think of games such as Ultima, Wizardry, Zork, Double Dragon, King's Quest, Ultima Underworld, Street Fighter 2, etc.

And sure, these weren't the first games, as they were all inspired from other games such as Akalabeth, Oubliette, Colossal Cave Adventure, Renegade, etc. While certainly gamers today might not have a clue of any of the above games, they were far more important to the industry than more financially successful games such as Final Fantasy.
 
Keep in mind that the World Video Game Hall of Fame has met this selection criteria
• Icon-status: the game is widely recognized and remembered.
• Longevity: the game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time.
• Geographical reach: the game meets the above criteria across international boundaries.
• Influence: the game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general. A game may be inducted on the basis of this criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three.

The Strong welcomed six games into the inaugural class of its World Video Game Hall of Fame.
DOOM it was first hugely successful on PC
Pac-Man it hugely successful on Arcade System
Pong it hugely successful after all it was first in Home Video Game Console
Super Mario Bros it hugely successful Console System
Tetris is most hugely successful game there is after it was ported on every type Device ever build graphing calculators, mobile phones, portable media players, PDAs, Network music players even on oscilloscopes, but it was most the Game Boy edition of Tetris that made it become very widely known.
World of Warcraft it hugely successful on PC as it most popular RTS and MMORPG by subscribers after all it been around for 20+ years.
 
Eventually most of these games people are complaining were excluded will be inducted.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Eventually most of these games people are complaining were excluded will be inducted.
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Yes, they will. The initial inductees are excellent games. I'm sure they didn't want to go with a 200 game list for the first round. Start small, and do annual updates. Seems to work for music, movies, actors, etc..

Someone mentioned Double Dragon. That was one of those games that I sunk so many quarters into, got it free for the SMS (using UPC codes from several games and sent in for it), and still love it. There are some excellent competitors - before and after DD's release, but Double Dragon is still a top notch game. I have to agree that it should be on this list soon. It is one of the few that I remember playing in the arcade (I played a ton of games, but DD is one I remember finding and playing over the others).
 
shspvr said:
Keep in mind that the World Video Game Hall of Fame has met this selection criteria
• Icon-status: the game is widely recognized and remembered.
• Longevity: the game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time.
• Geographical reach: the game meets the above criteria across international boundaries.
• Influence: the game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general. A game may be inducted on the basis of this criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three.
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Icon status is subject to a fatal flaw in that we tend to remember newer games rather than prior ones. All of the games I mentioned were more than just passing fads, but when I browse certain sites, younger people don't recognize them. Yet some of these games, their franchise lasted longer than some of the nominees are old. Wizardry 1: 1981, Wizardry 8, 2001. King's Quest 1: 1984, King's Quest: MoE: 1998. Ultima 1: 1981, Ultima Online: 1997. Without Wizardry and Ultima, you can pretty much forget any JRPG that's ever been created. Sierra, makers of King's Quest, pretty much introduced graphics to computers, and were one of the first companies to bring about other pioneering features to computer games such as midi, CD-ROM, etc. (KQ4 was the first game to have a midi soundtrack, and while they didn't have the first VGA game nor CD game, they had one of the first popular ones).

I don't doubt they'll be added later, but what really has Angry Birds done, or FIFA? Even WoW I think is kind of heavily stretching it. Yes, it makes a lot of money, but if you look at an equivalent with movies, there's always records being broken by newer movies with sales, and we don't take into account inflation, or the audience size, etc.
 
Not bad for a first year ... although this is done by a toy store and focuses on the games for the Hall of Fame I would hope that future additions can include "the talent" and "the technology" as well ... it would be nice to see Developers like Lord British, Sid Meier, John Carmack make the hall ... as well as technologies like Apple II, Amiga, IBM PC, soundcard, videocard, CD-ROM, and others
 
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