Strong Museum announces World Video Game hall of fame finalist

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The Strong Museum of Play announced on Thursday that Candy Crush Saga and Dance Dance Revolution are among the 12 finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

If the finalists are chosen as winners, the museum will induct them into the Rochester-based hall of fame during a virtual ceremony in May. All past winners are in the museum’s e-Game Revolution exhibit. This year’s finalists are:
• Assassin’s Creed
• Candy Crush Saga
• Dance Dance Revolution
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Minesweeper
• Ms. Pac-Man
• PaRappa the Rapper
• Resident Evil
• Rogue
• Sid Meier’s Civilization
• Words with Friends

To narrow the list, the public will vote to determine the top three games. You can vote for a maximum of one game per day on Strong Museum website. Experts from the National Selection Advisory Committee will also select their top three games. The committee, composed of video game academics and journalists, has the final say in the winners.

Here’s News10NBC’s Emily Putnam with more:

This story is for all the gamers watching this morning. The strong national museum of play announced its 12 finalists for the world video game hall of fame – some of them, you might have on your cell phone right now.

"It’s a tough job when you have to go and play some of your favorite video games of all time," said John Paul Dyson, the director of Strong Museum’s international center for the history of electronic games.

Minesweeper, Dance Dance Revolution, and Ms. Pac-man – three games you’ve probably heard of on Strong Museum’s list of finalists for the world video game hall of fame.

"What’s clear is that over time, pretty much everyone is playing video games of some kind. Wordle is a video game, now Wordle did not make the list this year, it’s a little bit too new, but words with friends did, and that’s a great example of a game that maybe people wouldn’t think of as a video game," Dyson said.

He said in order to be considered for induction, games have to meet specific criteria.

"Those criteria are icon status, everyone knows them. Longevity, they’ve been around for a while, geographical reach, they cross boundaries, they’re not just played here in North America but around the world, and finally influence. That sort of trumps all the other ones, some games are so important that maybe they’re not as well-known but they really deserve to be honored in the world video game hall of fame"

Also in the running – candy crush, assassin’s creed, and the legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time.

"A game like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time had this sort of haunting, magical feel to it. People who played it still remember. Or assassins creed – I remember when I first saw assassins creed I was like wow what a beautiful game, you get to run around in this world."

From here, the list of finalists will go to a committee of academics and journalists around the world for a vote. You can also vote for your favorite – there’s a link to do that on WHEC.com.

"Video games now globally are about a 185-billion dollar industry – so, by many measures that’s larger than film, than television, than sports," Dyson said.

The winners will be announced on May 5th.