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NEWS: Final Fantasy VII Makes 2018 Video Game Hall of Fame




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Lynx Raven Raide



Joined: 01 Nov 2017
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Location: Central Coast, AU
PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2018 4:47 am Reply with quote
Wait, CoD and Minecraft were on the shortlist, and Halo got inducted before FF VII?!
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2018 7:29 am Reply with quote
Lynx Raven Raide wrote:
Wait, CoD and Minecraft were on the shortlist, and Halo got inducted before FF VII?!


Anything short of Pac-Man was inducted before FFVII? Shocked
I mean, we're only talking about the very invention of cinematic game storylines, make sure we have room in there for Minecraft, too...
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2018 1:38 pm Reply with quote
EricJ2 wrote:
Anything short of Pac-Man was inducted before FFVII?


The Video Game Hall of Fame exists to sell tickets to a museum, and looking at the list of titles inducted previously:

Quote:
Pong
Pac-Man
Tetris
Super Mario Bros.
Doom
World of Warcraft
The Legend of Zelda
Sonic the Hedgehog
Space Invaders
Grand Theft Auto III
The Oregon Trail
The Sims
Donkey Kong
Halo
Pokémon
Street Fighter II


I'd be really hard pressed to argue that the average museum-going American would be more familiar with Final Fantasy VII than any of these titles. Come on, you just know that half of the people visiting this museum on any given day are going to be wondering where Minesweeper is.

If fact, considering that this is an American museum, I'm honestly surprised that Myst didn't make it onto this list before Final Fantasy VII... wasn't it the best-selling computer game of all time up until The Sims?
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CrownKlown



Joined: 05 May 2011
Posts: 1762
PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 12:10 am Reply with quote
While I find this thing to be a scam, common sense dictates if you are going to do it, at least do it right. Ie do what the baseball hof did, mass enshire games in the first year to catch up; and then elect games on a yearly basis.

I dont know what their criteria are, but you could honestly put half of the FF games in, not to mention things like Chrono Trigger/Cross, Suikoden, BOF, etc; but at this rate they will never even get to inducting more modern games, let alone a lot of the great classics.
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ki_881



Joined: 18 Mar 2006
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Location: California
PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 3:37 am Reply with quote
Having World of Warcraft in there, already shows you how much of a sham this thing really is already.
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Spoofer



Joined: 03 Aug 2003
Posts: 356
Location: NY
PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 8:39 am Reply with quote
Many of you people are relying merely upon your fandom of JRPGs to fuel your statements here. You aren't as well-educated about the history of the game industry as you think you are, if you think FFVII should have been listed before many of the ones already inducted, or if you think various random JRPGs all deserve individual listings just because you happen to personally love those series, or if you think WoW doesn't deserve a place on the list.

FFVII absolutely deserves to be listed since it certainly was one of the key titles that helped popularize cinematic gaming (no, it didn't invent it), and it sold PlayStations. It arguably should have been inducted before say, Sonic, and perhaps Halo... But otherwise, so far the entries are incredibly solid and representative of landmark titles that shaped and grew the industry in various manners, in far more influential and unique ways than did FFVII, or landed with larger impact and broader worldwide, long-lasting appeal.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 12:41 pm Reply with quote
Spoofer wrote:
if you think WoW doesn't deserve a place on the list.


That's the thing that kills me about Hall Of Fames I mean it's one thing for people to express disbelief at someone/something you like noy being enshrined but expressing incredulousness over something you hate being inducted?

Like what purpose does that serve and how does that negatively impact you?

Spoofer wrote:

FFVII absolutely deserves to be listed since it certainly was one of the key titles that helped popularize cinematic gaming (no, it didn't invent it), and it sold PlayStations. It arguably should have been inducted before say, Sonic, and perhaps Halo...


While FF does preceede boh games they're are considerably more popular and more established than FF....those games also have a well known hatedom within their own fandoms.


That aside though I'm not really sure what timing has to donwith the inductions though, as they're getting in one way or the other.
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Spoofer



Joined: 03 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 1:29 pm Reply with quote
As a museum exhibit, they obviously seem to be chronicling games that had sizable impact on the growth and shaping of the industry.

It's true that FFVII was one of the most recognizable examples of gaming entering the 32bit era and revolutionizing presentation. Again, no, FFVII wasn't the first, but it was one of the most prominent. Many JRPGs followed its example, and FMV integration really took off following those early trendsetters. FFVII also made JRPGs, and certainly Square, a household name in worldwide gaming for at least a generation or two.

Sonic? It didn't really push anything. Well, I suppose Sonic himself was indeed one of the first truly breakthrough anthropomorphic mascots, but otherwise Sonic was mostly just a response to Nintendo's Mario, albeit with obvious emphasis on speed and forward momentum rather than Mario's traditional elements. Yes, it became the second most popular platformer that millions of gamers identify with. But obviously it pales in comparison to SMB itself which rewrote all the rules on how games were played, and single-handedly brought gaming back from the dead. Many of the other previous HoF entries likewise brought major revolution.

Halo, as an FPS, really didn't push anything either, did it? Doom to this day is still taught in game design classes as near perfect design principles, and obviously smashed the genre wide open (with Wolfenstein likewise inspiring Doom, not that it holds a candle to Doom). Quake followed and likewise reshaped FPS for years to come, stressing speed and arcade-style DM over anything else. GoldenEye and later Perfect Dark proved that consoles could compete. Then Half-Life redefined FPS presentation and narrative, along with being the most popular engine for mod development. Halo mostly just followed in the footsteps of its predecessors, as far as its actual gameplay, albeit with truly broadly popular narrative. What it did excel at was really popularizing the genre for brogamers on the XBox, as well as heralding in true online console gaming. For that reason, and for that impact and continued legacy, I can see it trumping stuff like GoldenEye, maybe even Quake, etc. But then like I said, it's arguable whether casualizing the console FPS market and promoting online console play had a bigger lasting impact than a prime example of the embrace of the 32bit era with cinematic presentation, FMV, and all the ways in which FFVII popularized JRPGs in America and shaped the genre from that point onward.

But in the end, it really doesn't matter. Both ended up being inducted eventually, and both deserve to be there. Call of Duty, as much as I roll my eyes at it as a hardened Doom, Team Fortress (Quake / Classic), and Counter-Strike veteran, is indeed simply the continuation of the Halo legacy for the bro-gamer collective, but that appeal and that impact certainly can't be denied, either. Plus, it didn't pass the nomination phase regardless. I can't recall if Quake has been nominated already, and it's true Doom is already representative of iD's mark on the genre, but it'd be nice to see it eventually make the list as well.

Same deal with WoW compared to its MMO predecessors, kind of. Everquest should definitely get the nod one of these years, though with WoW's explosive appeal and reshaping of the MMO industry, its importance certainly can't be denied. Just as with Halo and CoD, I personally was already hardcore into Final Fantasy XI Online when it debuted, and rolled my eyes at its casualization of the genre, but casual play often equates to massive success and mainstream recognition, so who are we to judge.

I actually live in Rochester, but haven't yet made it to this exhibit. I'll have to give it a looksee before long, heh. Rochester's really growing in this field, as the Rochester Institute of Technology has one of the best game design majors and graduate degrees in the country, and they've been expanding over time to actual development. The city itself is trying to push that job market here, so it's pretty cool all around.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Spoofer wrote:
As a museum exhibit, they obviously seem to be chronicling games that had sizable impact on the growth and shaping of the industry.


It seems as though that is just one of their criteria, although it appears to be a very important one:

Quote:
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.


Anyway, here is their justification for Halo being inducted in 2017, and here is their FFVII justification. I can't really find fault in any of what they're saying on these pages.
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Spoofer



Joined: 03 Aug 2003
Posts: 356
Location: NY
PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2018 3:18 pm Reply with quote
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
Spoofer wrote:
As a museum exhibit, they obviously seem to be chronicling games that had sizable impact on the growth and shaping of the industry.


It seems as though that is just one of their criteria, although it appears to be a very important one:

Quote:
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.


Anyway, here is their justification for Halo being inducted in 2017, and here is their FFVII justification. I can't really find fault in any of what they're saying on these pages.


Ah, cool. =) More or less what I said for each, haha, though they framed FFVII's technical achievements within the context of the series itself, since they couldn't in the overall scope of gaming. A bit strange to do it that way (as they probably should have touched upon it being a popular example at the forefront of those trends, to give it some additional context within that generation of gaming), but still accurate regardless.
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