The top 10 most important games of all time

[Miss Mango]

Originally Posted by nytimes.com

When Henry Lowood, curator of the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University, started preserving video games and video-game artifacts in 1998 he thought it was closer to professional oblivion than a bold new move into the future.

In just a few years, however, Mr. Lowood’s notion that video games were something with a history worth preserving and a culture worth studying has gone from absurd to worthy of consideration by the Library of Congress.

On Thursday at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Mr. Lowood announced a game canon, an idea that grew out of a proposal submitted to the Library of Congress in September 2006 by a consortium made up of Stanford, the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois.

“Creating this list is an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significance,” Mr. Lowood said in an interview. And if that is acknowledged, he said, “maybe we should do something about preserving them.”

Mr. Lowood and the four members of his committee — the game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky; Matteo Bittanti, an academic researcher; and Christopher Grant, a game journalist — announced their list of the 10 most important video games of all time: Spacewar! (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Civilization I/II (1991), Doom (1993), Warcraft series (beginning 1994) and Sensible World of Soccer (1994).

Mr. Lowood’s canon was closely modeled on the work of the National Film Preservation Board, which every year compiles a list of films to be added to the National Film Registry, managed by the Library of Congress since 1989 (a consequence of the National Film Preservation Act, passed in 1988). The first list of films included “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Searchers” and “Nanook of the North.”

Almost all of the games on the Lowood list represent the beginning of a genre still vital in the video game industry. Spacewar!, for example, created by a group of early computer programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the first multiplayer, competitive game, and the first action game too. The first three Warcraft games represent the introduction of real-time strategy overlaid on a narrative; and Zork introduced the world to the adventure game.

SimCity helped establish the genre known as god games, in which players take on an omnipotent role, controlling the game world rather than simply participating in it. It also broke convention by refusing to establish criteria for winning, leaving the decision of what constituted success up to the player.

SimCity was selected by Mr. Bittanti, a researcher at the Humanities Lab at Stanford who works with Mr. Lowood. The game is “one of the most important art works of the 20th century,” Mr. Bittanti said, adding: “It completely reinvented the whole notion of games. And then it transcended the game world to become a cultural phenomenon.”

SimCity and its four follow-ups have sold 17 million copies, and the franchise it spawned, the Sims, has sold 85 million copies.

Mr. Grant, the editor of the popular Web site joystiq.com, who selected Super Mario Bros. 3, said the game was important for its nonlinear play, a mainstay of contemporary games, and new features like the ability to move both backward and forward.

Mr. Lowood said that preserving video games presented certain challenges. For example the hardware that games are played on changes so frequently that there are already thousands that can only be played through computer programs called emulators, which, while readily available on the Internet, technically violate copyright laws.

“We have to be really careful here because the technology is just going to make this harder for us,” Mr. Spector said. “The game canon is a way of saying, this is the stuff we have to protect first.”

While Sensible World of Soccer leaves me scratching my head, I find it hard to refute the rest of those games. But no Pac-man? That's crazy in my mind.

[MPower]

Populous and Dune preceded Simcity and Warcraft as God and RTS games. They may not have been as popular, but they did lay the groundwork. I am surprised they left them off.

[Daniel_]

Sensible Soccer was huge in this country (UK) and as far as I'm aware it was one of the first really important sports simulation games.

I'm surprised not to see Pac-Man, and there are several others that I could add (no Sonic?)...

[Willravel]

I would have liked to see a Mechwarrior on there, but that's cool.

[Ch'i]

No Pong?

[Prophecy]

Originally Posted by MPower

Populous and Dune preceded Simcity and Warcraft as God and RTS games. They may not have been as popular, but they did lay the groundwork. I am surprised they left them off.

I remember playing Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis back in '92. Now granted Dune games did help lay the ground work of the genre but, I'm pretty sure Warcraft was mentioned over it because of the volume of units sold and popularity of Warcraft in comparison to the Dune franchise. It's the same reason I'm guessing Doom was mentioned instead of Wolfenstein 3D (1992).

Still it would have been nice to have Dune and Wolfenstein receive an honorable mention.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure Dune II three factions way back in '92... Take that Starcraft.

Edit: After reading the article again it seems Warcraft was picked because "The first three Warcraft games represent the introduction of real-time strategy overlaid on a narrative." Not sure how I missed that the first time. Though that still doesn't explain Doom - Wolfenstein & as for Populous - Simcity no clue there either, all I know is both came out in 1989.

[biznatch]

Maybe it's much more recent, but I think Half Life does deserve an honorable mention.

[paulskinback]

Mario?

There would be no adventure/platform/anything without it. And I still find myself randomly whistling the theme to this day

[Prophecy]

Mario is on the list, he clocks in with Super Mario Bros. 3.

As for Half-Life, well I'm not trying to be rude, but what exactly did Half-Life bring to the table to warrant an honorable mention in the greatest games of all time list? From what I remember Half-Life just took the standard fair of the day and did it extremely well, but added nothing ground-breaking to the genre.

[Jozrael]

Yea, though StarCraft and Diablo and other Blizzard games sold tons of copies, none introduced anything groundbreaking. They and Half Life 2 may well be worthy of consideration for best games of all time (top 10 20 or whatever floats your boat), they didn't change the -culture- of gaming.

Unless you go to South Korea. xD

[Willravel]

Originally Posted by Jozrael

Yea, though StarCraft and Diablo and other Blizzard games sold tons of copies, none introduced anything groundbreaking. They and Half Life 2 may well be worthy of consideration for best games of all time (top 10 20 or whatever floats your boat), they didn't change the -culture- of gaming.

Unless you go to South Korea. xD

Starcraft introduced zerging. Diablo 2 Expansion featured one of the best orchestrations I've ever heard in a game. Maybe not groundbreaking, but something.

[Prophecy]

Diablo II's expansion did have some nice music, but if you wanted to mention video game music (I'm not touching the DDR/GH type games) I'd have to include Icewind Dale 1 & 2 along Planescape: Torment from Black Isle Studio's hayday.

[Carno]

Originally Posted by willravel

Starcraft introduced zerging. Diablo 2 Expansion featured one of the best orchestrations I've ever heard in a game. Maybe not groundbreaking, but something.

The rush was around before Starcraft came out, and it's hardly worth mentioning when talking about the greatest 10 games of all time.

[Frosstbyte]

I'm quite surprised no MMO made it on that list. I think I'd put Ultima or EQ instead of WoW, but the popularity of that genre and the amount of attention it's received seems like one of them would make the list.

[Willravel]

Originally Posted by Carno

The rush was around before Starcraft came out, and it's hardly worth mentioning when talking about the greatest 10 games of all time.

I was half kidding. I think Starcraft and Diablo should be on there for completely different reasons. For one, Battle.net is completely amazing. Diablo was the first game on Battle.net and Starcraft made it what it is today. Without those games, Warcraft 3 online wouldn't exist. Starcraft also introduced CD keys, something truly groundbreaking.

[superdude123]

OOOO...
u forgggooootttt,,,
Halooooooo

[rabi_sultan]

Halo is a first player shoot 'em-up which was pioneered by Doom.

I agree with the list the by and large, although I do agree with MPower that it should be Dune on that list and not Warcraft, reason being that another great game called Command & Conquer was influenced by Dune and not influenced by Warcraft! Most important should never have anything to do with #of copies sold but more of #of influences made or the most groundbreaking etc.

Sensible Soccer was huge in europe and to be honest was the first good football/soccer game that was created, it paved the way for all the other titles to eventually appear.

Now in regards to Championship Manager which is a sports management simulation game would that not consider any points or is that covered by something already on the list?

[CyCo PL]

Originally Posted by Prophecy

As for Half-Life, well I'm not trying to be rude, but what exactly did Half-Life bring to the table to warrant an honorable mention in the greatest games of all time list? From what I remember Half-Life just took the standard fair of the day and did it extremely well, but added nothing ground-breaking to the genre.

Well... Half Life was one of the first, if not the first, FPS to have a story that develops around you as the main character in real time. It didn't really bring anything new to the table in regards to the action, but the way that the story developed was pretty revolutionary and has subsequently been imitated by just about every other FPS since.

But, I think Quake 1 was more important due to the fact that (I think) it was the first FPS to allow people to run servers and join and leave games as they please, rather than having to start a game with everybody there. It really changed the way FPS, and pretty much all online games, are played.

[YaWhateva]

Originally Posted by superdude123

OOOO...
u forgggooootttt,,,
Halooooooo

Halo is not important...at all

[ironpham]

Originally Posted by Daniel_

I'm surprised not to see Pac-Man, and there are several others that I could add (no Sonic?)...

Well the Mario games kind of paved the path for that genre (the one that Sonic is included in). That's probably why Sonic isn't listed.

I'm quite surprised no MMO made it on that list. I think I'd put Ultima or EQ instead of WoW, but the popularity of that genre and the amount of attention it's received seems like one of them would make the list.

I agree. MMOs seem to be the new wave of gaming and probably deserves a spot on that list.

And I think Pong should be on the list too.

[NoSoup]

I can't believe they left Mario 64 off the list

[Fremen]

Originally Posted by NoSoup

I can't believe they left Mario 64 off the list

QFT!

I think Pong, Pac-Man and Asteroids should've been mentioned.

[Jetée]

Is Mario 64 really that good a game?

Never had chance to try it.

[CyCo PL]

When they say "Warcraft series", are they counting World of Warcraft? Because I do consider that to be an extremely important game, although it is not the first MMORPG to come out. Every MMO I have played since WoW came out has been very influenced by WoW (LotRO, Vanguard, Auto Assault), and it's a safe guess to assume that many MMO's to come out in the future will be based around the same style of gaming WoW is-- casual gaming with greater rewards for hardcore players.

But honestly, I can consider Zork to be one of the main games responsible for the creation of MMOs. It was a single player game, but it influenced MUDs to be created, and eventually MUDs spawned MMO's. Everquest was so similar to the DikuMUD lib that there were rumors that Everquest stole code from Diku MUDs, which was a pretty absurd notion at the time (and especially now). I also think that persistent worlds are going to become a lot more common over the years, and while all being pay-to-play, there will be a huge selection of game ato play. This mainly has to do with how common the MMO market has become, and the fact that PC developers are focusing more on online based games on PC because they get more sales. (You have to have a CD-key to play online)

[Prophecy]

I'm pretty sure they're only referring to the Warcraft RTS games.

[biznatch]

Originally Posted by Jetstream

Is Mario 64 really that good a game?

Never had chance to try it.

A lot of people who had the N64 liked it. I personally thought it was great.
But I think what people are referring to here is it's importance in gaming history. In many ways, it was revolutionary. I'm not sure if it was the first 3D platform game, but it was very well made, and set the standards for all the platform games that followed. It had a lot of content, and Mario had a lot of cool moves... Back in..I think it was 1996, people hadn't experienced such control over a on-screen character before Mario.

There were some great games for the N64, among them were Goldeneye, Mario 64, Zelda: OoT (I think it came out 3 years after the N64 launch), Super Smash Bros...

Back to the topic, I second Pong as one of the most important games.

[BBtB]

Personally, I agree with Warcraft over over dune.. Yes dune came out first but warcraft, being much more popular for one but also a much better game IMO had much more to do with making RTS games a real genre.. What about point and click adventure games? As in Monkey Island? I dunno if it should be on the list but something should be there for them. Also.. Solitaire... seriously..

Edit: Also.. Yes, the fact that pong was left off this list really hurts its crediblity.

[biznatch]

Originally Posted by BBtB

Also.. Solitaire... seriously..

Seriously?....

[Jetée]

Originally Posted by biznatch

Seriously?....

Are you for serious?

[biznatch]

Originally Posted by Jetstream

Are you for serious?

O RLY??????????

I have lost most of my trust in this list since Pong isn't there. It just doesn't make sense anymore.

[Carno]

Pong? Really?

What the fuck is so special about Pong?

[The_Jazz]

It's one of the first stand-up video games and the one that the Atari was initially created around. It's boring, but Pong basically created the whole arcade industry. And that, my friend, is what the fuck is so special about Pong. Without it, you'd have never had the chance to pump quarters into something other than the horsie at the grocery store.

[Carno]

If Pong weren't the first, something else would have been.

[Willravel]

Originally Posted by Carno

If Pong weren't the first, something else would have been.

Couldn't that be said about most great games? Aren't they all an inevitability, based on your assertion?

[The_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Carno

If Pong weren't the first, something else would have been.

Must...resist...urge...to...be...smartass...

Technically, that's true. And if that were the case, then we'd be talking about "something else". Or I'd have had a misspent youth plugging quarters into that grocery store horsey instead of Frogger, and there'd be an entire Seinfeld episode about trying to get George's favorite grocery store horsey out of the pizzaria when it closed down.

But we're talking about video games and Pong, not grocery store horseys.

[biznatch]

The_Jazz, you made me giggle.

[Cynthetiq]

Originally Posted by The_Jazz

It's one of the first stand-up video games and the one that the Atari was initially created around. It's boring, but Pong basically created the whole arcade industry. And that, my friend, is what the fuck is so special about Pong. Without it, you'd have never had the chance to pump quarters into something other than the horsie at the grocery store.

Not only the whole arcade industry but the whole home console market, there isn't any real arcade industry to speak of anymore.

Pong was the invention of Nolan Bushnell, a young engineer who introduced video table tennis to arcades in 1972. Simple and addictive, Pong launched the craze for home video games. Introduced by Atari in 1974--long before anyone had seen a personal computer—Pong was an adaptation of the company’s popular arcade game of the same name, and it became the most popular game of the 1975 holiday season, with sales of $40,000,000 for the year.

In 2005, $40,000,000.00 from 1974 is worth:

$158,362,051.49 using the Consumer Price Index
$129,847,394.18 using the GDP deflator
$182,946,683.75 using the value of consumer bundle
$156,866,736.62 using the unskilled wage
$239,397,099.08 using the nominal GDP per capita
$332,154,666.67 using the relative share of GDP

But that's not the most amazing thing... since U.S. Video Game Industry Totals $12.5 Billion in 2006.