Establish at Video game and software registry
We American citizens who love video games and software strongly suggest that Congress establish a National Video Game and software registry.
Why preserve video games?
Video games have become part of American culture. About one hundred fifty million people in the USA play video games, inspiring entertaining and unifying people old and young. Each year videogames grow more a staple of pop culture. More kids are watching Let's Plays on Youtube then they are television. Esports slowly becoming more of a sport, with colleges starting esport teams and scholarships. And to add to all that, the video game awards got a viewership of 26.2 Million Views in 2018 the same as the academy awards! It's clear that Video Games are slowly becoming staples of media, like Movies or Books. And they should be taken as seriously as books and movies.
Despite their massive cultural impact, the preservation of video games is getting worse every year. Games are losing servers, making the games unplayable due to you needing internet to play them. Some consoles are starting to decay and break, and some games are just wiped out of existence due to the way digital distribution works.
Game Preservation is almost nonexistent. And unlike movies or music which are easily able to preserve and can be distributed on many formats, videogames are software, Which makes them much harder to access,as to you need to have the right technology to play them on. This is why we strongly suggest that Congress establish a video game and software registry,As in many years some of these pieces of art will be unable to be viewed
The Registry and how it will work
Each year, a board of Critics, developers, members of the ESRB, and former video game executives will nominate fifteen American or American versions of culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant video games(or software) to be Preserved by the library of Congress. Fifteen because there are not as many pieces of software as saying movies and music for the other registries Each Game or software's rom on a hard drive, to be kept in a library. For online games, there would be a Private Server emulator for the game along and a hard drive preserving the game's assets as well as footage of the game in full use. Also, The games original manual, box, and disc/cartridge would be preserved as well. A librarian who is a skilled computer technician would have to check on the servers every day, including government shutdowns.
Eligibility and nomination
Eligibility for induction would be similar to the national film registry, and national recording registry with some minor changes.
The game must be culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant with the game or software being over ten years old and still not in service. Meaning games such as the world of Warcraft and Minecraft that is still being expanded upon and are always readily available to play are not eligible until the year after their servers are shut down.
Unlike other registries, foreign video games would be eligible, the only rules are the game must have been officially released and in the United States and the game being nominated is the American version of the game.
The types of Games eligible are Arcade, console, Pc, Apps, and Online Flash. The Software eligible would be Application software such as I movie, Kid Pix, or Microsoft Word.
We hope you take are plea into consideration, these are vital parts of our pop culture, and we hope they won't be lost
Why preserve video games?
Video games have become part of American culture. About one hundred fifty million people in the USA play video games, inspiring entertaining and unifying people old and young. Each year videogames grow more a staple of pop culture. More kids are watching Let's Plays on Youtube then they are television. Esports slowly becoming more of a sport, with colleges starting esport teams and scholarships. And to add to all that, the video game awards got a viewership of 26.2 Million Views in 2018 the same as the academy awards! It's clear that Video Games are slowly becoming staples of media, like Movies or Books. And they should be taken as seriously as books and movies.
Despite their massive cultural impact, the preservation of video games is getting worse every year. Games are losing servers, making the games unplayable due to you needing internet to play them. Some consoles are starting to decay and break, and some games are just wiped out of existence due to the way digital distribution works.
Game Preservation is almost nonexistent. And unlike movies or music which are easily able to preserve and can be distributed on many formats, videogames are software, Which makes them much harder to access,as to you need to have the right technology to play them on. This is why we strongly suggest that Congress establish a video game and software registry,As in many years some of these pieces of art will be unable to be viewed
The Registry and how it will work
Each year, a board of Critics, developers, members of the ESRB, and former video game executives will nominate fifteen American or American versions of culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant video games(or software) to be Preserved by the library of Congress. Fifteen because there are not as many pieces of software as saying movies and music for the other registries Each Game or software's rom on a hard drive, to be kept in a library. For online games, there would be a Private Server emulator for the game along and a hard drive preserving the game's assets as well as footage of the game in full use. Also, The games original manual, box, and disc/cartridge would be preserved as well. A librarian who is a skilled computer technician would have to check on the servers every day, including government shutdowns.
Eligibility and nomination
Eligibility for induction would be similar to the national film registry, and national recording registry with some minor changes.
The game must be culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant with the game or software being over ten years old and still not in service. Meaning games such as the world of Warcraft and Minecraft that is still being expanded upon and are always readily available to play are not eligible until the year after their servers are shut down.
Unlike other registries, foreign video games would be eligible, the only rules are the game must have been officially released and in the United States and the game being nominated is the American version of the game.
The types of Games eligible are Arcade, console, Pc, Apps, and Online Flash. The Software eligible would be Application software such as I movie, Kid Pix, or Microsoft Word.
We hope you take are plea into consideration, these are vital parts of our pop culture, and we hope they won't be lost
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