[Fargren]

I think both Canabalt and Passage are great exponents of current schools of game making (if you can call the "indie game" and the "art game" a school). They show what people with similar interest to those that made Katamari Damacy are doing on much lower budgets.

Animal Crossing does seem odd though, specially considering The Sims is already there. Seems redundant at best.

[kibwen]

My gripe about the inclusion of Canabalt isn't the game itself, it's that it's just too recent to determine if it will really withstand the test of time. Another World was a fun and beautiful game that barely got any press or sales at all, yet the fact that we still remember it all these years later is a testament to its merit.

And now that Canabalt's been selected for the MoMA's permanent collection, it will be forever impossible to determine whether the game was remembered because of its own staying power, or just because the MoMA told us that we ought to remember it.

[nsfmc]

"it will be forever impossible to determine whether the game was remembered because of its own staying power, or just because the MoMA told us that we ought to remember it."

Isn't that the case with all contemporary art acquisitions, though? I'm reminded of this quote by Dave Hickey from Air Guitar:

"Since there is no absolute authority in the art world, or in the economic world either, we may presume that for every opinion, there is a contrary one. Thus, the social value of a work of art, or an art critic, or a theory, or an institution must be distinguished from its social virtue, since bad reviews, stupid acquisitions, and theoretical attacks, even as they question the social virtue of an object or investment, must necessarily invest it with social value. The raw investment of attention, positive or negative, qualifies certain works of art as “players” in the discourse. So, even though it may appear to you that nearly everyone hates Jeff Koons’ work, the critical point is that people take the time and effort to hate it, publicly and at length, and this investment of attention effectively endows Koons’ work with more importance than the work of those artists whose work we like, but not enough to get excited about."

I mean, give it time or ignore it, or both. All museums make questionable purchases. Being in the permanent collection is certainly a boon, but it won't change how people fundamentally feel about the art in a few generations. Maybe it'll remain successful, maybe it won't, but it certainly captures something which i guess is reason enough to acquire it.