2017 World Video Game Hall of Fame Betting Odds
–Given their massive significance in modern popular culture a Video Game Hall of Fame is a natural.
– 12 finalists have been announced as candidates for 2017 induction in the Video Game Hall of Fame.
– The 2017 inductees will be announced on May 4, 2017.
The Video Game Hall of Fame has announced 12 finalists for 2017 induction. The six 2017 inductees will join the twelve current members of the Video Game Hall of Fame under the auspices of The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
In our lifetime video games have gone from an arcade gimmick to a massive industry that influences popular culture–and is influenced by it–in countless ways. A museum that places video games into a broader historical context is definitely a good idea but it is difficult to do that with the Hall of Fame format. Video games aren’t just an entertainment ‘genre’–instead, they are a much broader means of artistic expression. To lump all video games under one subject heading would be similar to giving awards for ‘visual entertainment’ and including all TV, film, video, live drama, etc. No disrespect to the Strong National Museum of Play for taking on the endeavor but the task of telling the story of the video game art form via six game inductions a year is a monumental and perhaps futile task.
To start with, video games have several parallel timelines that need to be examined. You could start with arcade games, but you’d quickly need to include home console games, computer based games, mobile games and arguably a few other broad topic timelines. Then you have to consider the fact that these timelines cross at various points with arcade games influencing home console games which would go on to influence other timelines. Within each timeline you’d have to examine several different genres. For example, the subject of ‘computer games’ is too broad to be properly understood without some ‘specialization’. You’d have to start with ‘pioneering games’ like Oregon Trail and one of this year’s nominees Microsoft Solitaire. You’d have to quickly add in a variety of genres including general simulations (eg: SimCity, The Sims), sports simulations, military simulations, first person shooters, MMOGs, MMORPs, etc.
TO HONOR THOSE THAT TROD THE PATH AND THOSE THAT CREATED A MASSIVE INDUSTRY
Once you get these multiple timelines and genres within the timelines there are several components to the ‘big picture’ story of video games. Some games might not ‘hold up’ well against modern games but were hugely significant as a pioneer. A game like Pong looks almost comically simplistic today but was the first arcade video game to gain widespread acceptance. It’s popularity made Atari a big player in the video game industry with ramifications in the arcade and on home consoles. In fact, the Pong gameplay was quickly and widely emulated making it responsible for the acceptance of home video game consoles in the first place.
The roots grow in many different directions from this point. For example, one of the most popular video game genres today across several platforms are highly detailed and realistic sports simulations. Atari can be credited as a pioneer in this regard as well–one of the first attempts at realism in video game sports was the 1979 arcade game ‘Atari Football‘. The game featured a ‘trackball’ control system that caused bruised palms and painful pinches if you got any skin caught between the ball and the edge of the machine. The game was literally about ‘X’s and O’s’ and is the spiritual forefather to Madden Football and the like.
That’s the monumental task facing the Video Game Hall of Fame–balancing the pioneers with the games that made videogames mainstream with low profile but heavily influential titles. Then doing this in multiple timelines with multiple genres. To date, the games inducted in the Hall of Fame have done a decent job trying to do ‘all of the above’:
Doom
Grand Theft Auto III
The Legend of Zelda
The Oregon Trail
Pac-Man
Pong
The Sims
Sonic the Hedgehog
Space Invaders
Super Mario Bros.
Tetris
World of Warcraft
It’s just not possible to do what needs to be done with a six game a year clip. The omissions become immediately obvious–for example, the Asteroids arcade game by Atari which was really the first game to wrest the popularity crown away from Space Invaders. Asteroids was immediately popular when released in 1979 and went on to sell over 70,000 cabinets making it more popular than Space Invaders with 60,000 cabinet sales in the United States. Internationally, it’s not even close, however, with Space Invaders selling over 300,000 units in Japan alone. Space Invaders was so popular in Japan at one point it was credited with causing a shortage of the 100 Yen coins used to play the game (which may or may not be a myth). More hysterical accounts blame the game for an upswing of juvenile delinquency in Japan..
You can go on questioning the canon of The Video Hall of Fame for hours and not even leave the arcade. The need to cover so much topical area makes setting odds on which games will get inducted all the more difficult. With that in mind, here are the official SPORTS BETTING EXPERTS odds for induction in The Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2017. The inductees will be announced on May 4, 2017:
ODDS TO BE INDUCTED IN THE VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME 2017
Donkey Kong: -450
Pokemon Red and Green: -450
Final Fantasy VII: -250
Tomb Raider: -200
Microsoft Windows Solitaire: -150
Mortal Kombat: +120
Street Fighter II: +150
Resident Evil: +275
Halo: Combat Evolved: +350
Portal: +450
Wii Sports: +450
Myst: +600