Video Game Hall Of Fame 2018 Nominations Revealed

Public vote features for first time.

The finalists for this year’s entry into the Video Game Hall of Fame, by ‘The Strong’ Museum in Rochester, New York, have been announced, and in a change from previous years, the museum has included one game for the hall of fame, based on a vote by the public.

The titles of the games and age and genre range across a variety of different spectrums, from the classic ‘firsts’ of the 1970s and 1980s to some of the most well known franchises of the current era of blockbusters.

Voting for the Player’s Choice ballot, ended on April 8th. The winners and curated choices for entry into the ‘vault’ will be announced on May 3rd.

If there had been no Half Life, there would be no Counter Strike, no Team Fortress, and no Steam…

Classics

This year’s nominations included classics such as Atari’s 1979’s Asteroids. The game proved to be more popular than Space Invaders, and the game served as the basis for several clones such as Defender, Gravitar, and a multitude of other clones still being released today.

Another notable entrant was the original Call of Duty from 2003. The game set the standard for the modern First Person Shooter, and has become one of the best selling franchises of all time.

The original Half-Life from 1998 was also nominated. While the game itself has the right to be included for its own merits alone, it was the modding and addons that came afterward that seled its legendary status: Team Fortress, Counter Strike. Without Half-Life, neither would have existed.

Other games nominated include the original Metroid from 1986, Minecraft from 2009, Tomb Raider’s pixelated classic for the original Playstation in 1996, and the MIT student created Spacewar! From 1962. (Yes, 1962!)

Growing reach

The Video Game Hall of Fame’s annual awards, was only created in 2015, but has quickly risen to prominence across the entire spectrum, from the gamers, to the people who make the games. Its mission is to recognize the individual games (of any electronic type, be they arcade, console, computer, or handheld) that have had exerted influence within the video industry, and/or impacted popular culture in society in general.

“Video games play an increasingly important role in play as we now have a generation of children who grew up playing video games having a tremendous impact on our culture,” said Jeremy Saucier, assistant director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, last year.