By Phil Day
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| Walter Day |
With the Oscars over members of the public are now invited to nominate video game related people to the International Video Game Hall of Fame (IVGHOF) selection committee for the Class of 2011. The Class of 2010 included the Xbox Design Team, Masaya Nakamura (founded Namco), Shigeru Miyamoto (the Creator of Donkey Kong), and a string of top gamers: Paul Dean, Ken House, Andrew Laidlaw, Steve Wiebe, Perry Rodgers, Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel, just to name a few. I didn’t submit any nominations last year, but I have submitted my nominations for the Class of 2011. There are five categories: Gamers, Games, Contributions to the Industry, The Industry Designers, and the Lifetime Achievement Award
The Life Time Achievement Award caught my attention the most. Last year it deservingly went to Walter Day. Can’t imagine anyone would argue that he couldn’t have been more fitting. So who’s going to get it this year? I spoke to the Liz Bolinger, IVGHOF Board member and Secretary of the Board (and Just Dance and Just Dance 2 World Champion) how the panel selects who deserves to be honored the most.
“The IVGHOF voting panel is made up of volunteers, about eight previous inductees, and about 15 journalists, basically people who don’t have a conflict of interest. There are already over 250 nominations the selection panel have to look through which is made up of a good mix of classic arcade gamers and a lot of early console gamers, but not so much newer consoles, and not so many PC gamers so far. The selection panel will be looking for gamers who are trying to do something good with video games so future generations of gamers will have role models with good tendencies. Billy Mitchell is good example. He has used his success as a gamer to give back. He has spent a lot of time and money to help with many gaming events, granted it promotes his sauce, but it also promotes video gaming.”
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| Fatal1ty fragging me with his IVGHOF trophy |
But I had to ask Liz that surely a person's merit as a gamer or game developer was more important to the IVGHOF than whether or not they went to church or gave money to charities.
“Of course their affect on the gaming world will be looked at more than their behavior in the gaming community, but the IVGHOF’s is taking the similar approach to National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Take Pete Rose betting against his own team. His conduct is deserving of him never to be inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame. The IVGHOF want to induct those for having done something really good in gaming, not liars and cheats.”
I have to admit I like this. It doesn’t mean that a gamer who is brilliant won’t be recognized for their skill – they’ll still get their recognition through world records and the like, but if they are dubious in character they simply won’t make it into the IVGHOF.
I had to ask who Liz hoped would make it into the Class of 2011.
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| Liz Bolinger playing Just Dance |
“I really want to see Tim McVey get inducted as a gamer. Obviously he’s known for his Nibbler score, but he’s played plenty of other games, and he’s kept up with gaming, he kept playing games. He’s one of the reasons why I started going for world records. And I’d like the Life Time Achievement Award to go to Ralph Bear for inventing the home console Magnavox Odyssey. There’s so many people out there who are deserving that will be overlooked because the selection panel don’t’ know about them, or they weren’t nominated. So it’s important that people nominate.”
By the way, Liz is not on the selection committee. But if the IVGHOF selection panel is made up of people like Liz, I’m confident we’ll see a Class of 2011 just as deserving as the Class of 2010.
Nominations close March 15, 2011, the IVGHOF will stop accepting nominations:
Okay, having asked Liz, I better give my nomination for the Life Time Achievement Award for the IVGHOF Class of 2011. I’d give it to James Rolfe AKA The Angry Video Game Nerd. Born in 1980, Rolfe started doing game reviews as a child in the late 80’s, in 2006 his game reviews (often angry rants about poor quality games) were posted on YouTube. Many of his post have a million plus views, some as high as 2.5 million views with thousands of comments. Rolfe’s short shows are entreating, often filled with pretend violence (just like video games), but always filled with swearing (just like video games, not so much in the game, but by the frustration of the player. I haven’t known a gamer who hasn’t swore from frustration with a video game), not that I’m nominating Rolfe for punching and swearing. No, I’m nominating for his insightful dissection of video games. Rolfe consistently addresses at the science and aesthetics of video gaming. He discusses how clumsy programming can hinder what would other wise be an enjoyable game, and equally he addresses the music and graphics and how they play an all too important role that shouldn’t be neglected. I can’t imagine that any game developer would dismiss his criticisms as naïve or ill-informed. Rolfe is a gamer and journalist who has studied video games in depth, and he has done so his entire life. But more importantly than anything else, his positive reviews, like his review of Super Castlevania IV (episode Angry Video Game Nerd: Castlevania Part III):
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| James Rolfe AKA Angry Video Game Nerd |
The aforementioned episode was first published on 5th November 2009 since then this review has had over 1.1 million views and over 2000 comments, it is exactly the type of journalism that will continue to preserve and protect the posterity of video games for the future – exactly what the IVGHOF is also doing. Of those 1.1 million views, and 2000 comments, some one must have went and bought themselves a secondhand copy of Super Castlevania IV, and in doing so, they too, are keeping gaming of the past alive.
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