Video Game Hall of Fame Class 2024

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Nytegard

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https://www.museumofplay.org/exhibits/world-video-game-hall-of-fame/inducted-games/

* Asteroids
* Myst
* Resident Evil
* SimCity
* Ultima

Having spent time on reddit today, the threads really disappointed me in exactly how little people know about video game history. Praise for Resident Evil, but almost every thread was like "What's Ultima?". Like, Ultima is one of the most important video games, and not just RPGs, ever created.

If you've ever played any JRPGs, Western RPGs, or even first person shooters, chances are Ultima has had some influence.
 
Nytegard said:
https://www.museumofplay.org/exhibits/world-video-game-hall-of-fame/inducted-games/

* Asteroids
* Myst
* Resident Evil
* SimCity
* Ultima

Having spent time on reddit today, the threads really disappointed me in exactly how little people know about video game history. Praise for Resident Evil, but almost every thread was like "What's Ultima?". Like, Ultima is one of the most important video games, and not just RPGs, ever created.

If you've ever played any JRPGs, Western RPGs, or even first person shooters, chances are Ultima has had some influence.
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You can't expect folks to have played or seeked out to play something before they were born. Hell there isn't enough GFX to keep their attention for more then a minute.
Video games are not like film movies where the "system" hasn't changed in 100 years.
No one named Jacob or Madison was playing those.
But... I hear ya
 
I could never get into the Ultima games, though I understand its importance for the RPG genre. Most role-playing games up to that point were dungeon crawlers while Ultima is one of the first to give us the open world exploration that is expected these days. Even its predecessor Akalabeth was a dungeon crawler, though it showed the promise of what an open world could offer.

I'm conflicted about Resident Evil, though. When it comes to survival horror I think that Alone in the Dark is more of a tentpole in the genre. While Sweet Home is the direct predecessor to Resident Evil, the overall design of RE was more influenced by Alone in the Dark while the gameplay mechanics were taken from Sweet Home.
 
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Armenius said:
I could never get into the Ultima games, though I understand its importance for the RPG genre. Most role-playing games up to that point were dungeon crawlers while Ultima is one of the first to give us the open world exploration that is expected these days. Even its predecessor Akalabeth was a dungeon crawler, though it showed the promise of what an open world could offer.

I'm conflicted about Resident Evil, though. When it comes to survival horror I think that Alone in the Dark is more of a tentpole in the genre. While Sweet Home is the direct predecessor to Resident Evil, the overall design of RE was more influenced by Alone in the Dark while the gameplay mechanics were taken from Sweet Home.
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It's fine not liking a game if you can understand the importance. But part of the problem is, I'm not sure what the criteria is of the HoF.

Let's take influence for example. The first class (2015) for it took World of Warcraft. And Myst is very much like WoW here. Were both popular games? Yes. But neither of these games were really influential in the long term. Yes, they had a ton of people making MMOs and Myst-style adventures. The issue I have here though is that both were the pinnacle of the genre, and it was all downhill. These games swallowed all the air, and no games of the genres they were in really ever took off after. The adventure game genre returned to the fanbase it always had (roughly a few hundred thousands), whereas the MMORPG genre has plummeted in popularity since then. Yes, WoW and others still exist, but its nowhere near its heyday.

The same just isn't true with Ultima. It grew its genre. The RPG genre skyrocketed, not only in the west, but it's also a fundamental game in the creation of the JRPG.

As for Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark, the issue comes down to influence, post Alone in the Dark, and post Resident Evil. I don't necessarily disagree with you as far as Alone in the Dark being a huge influence to Resident Evil.

But as an example, let's look at the JRPG lineage. Final Fantasy wouldn't exist without Dragon Quest. But Dragon Quest wouldn't exist without Wizardry and Ultima. The influence of Wizardry in Japan is ridiculous, to the point the series became mega popular over there, while dying here in the west, despite being a western game. But Wizardry itself is nothing but a single player clone of Oubliette. Though, if I had to choose games in terms of influence if I was selecting for the Video Game Hall of Fame, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Wizardry would all make it in before Oubliette, despite Oubliette being primarily responsible for Wizardry in the first place, which made the JRPG genre come into existence.

So, why doesn't the same apply to Ultima? Because of the sphere of influence. We have proof when it comes to certain games.

From the manga, The Road to Dragon Quest (the history of the creation of Dragon Quest)

1715356808418.png

or Todd Howard (who lead in the development of the Fall Out series and Elder Scroll series) stating that Ultima 7 was his favorite game of all time, and he attempts to mix in elements from it in every game Bethesda creates. And it's super obvious he was also influenced by Ultima Underworld.
or Swen Vincke (head of Larian, which created the Divinity Series and also Baldur's Gate 3) stating Ultima 7 was his favorite game, and the same, tries to bring the spirit of Ultima 7 into every game Larian creates.
It's even influenced other genres, such as the First Person Shooter, where in the book Masters of Doom, it's acknowledged Ultima Underworld was one of the inspirations for John Carmack thinking he could design a faster 3D engine, which lead to Wolfenstein 3D.

So, even in today's modern games, there's still clear influence of Ultima. Where the question becomes, is Resident Evil more the influence for its successors vs Alone in the Dark?
 
Nytegard said:
These games swallowed all the air, and no games of the genres they were in really ever took off after. The adventure game genre returned to the fanbase it always had (roughly a few hundred thousands), whereas the MMORPG genre has plummeted in popularity since then. Yes, WoW and others still exist, but its nowhere near its heyday.
Click to expand...
The genre still had some life in it, Gabriel knight series for example and video CD had a moment for the genre. Full Throttle I think was quite big. The Dig from Spielberg.

Myst was 1993, there was still some King Quest that worked after that.
 
Nytegard said:
It's fine not liking a game if you can understand the importance. But part of the problem is, I'm not sure what the criteria is of the HoF.

Let's take influence for example. The first class (2015) for it took World of Warcraft. And Myst is very much like WoW here. Were both popular games? Yes. But neither of these games were really influential in the long term. Yes, they had a ton of people making MMOs and Myst-style adventures. The issue I have here though is that both were the pinnacle of the genre, and it was all downhill. These games swallowed all the air, and no games of the genres they were in really ever took off after. The adventure game genre returned to the fanbase it always had (roughly a few hundred thousands), whereas the MMORPG genre has plummeted in popularity since then. Yes, WoW and others still exist, but its nowhere near its heyday.

The same just isn't true with Ultima. It grew its genre. The RPG genre skyrocketed, not only in the west, but it's also a fundamental game in the creation of the JRPG.

As for Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark, the issue comes down to influence, post Alone in the Dark, and post Resident Evil. I don't necessarily disagree with you as far as Alone in the Dark being a huge influence to Resident Evil.

But as an example, let's look at the JRPG lineage. Final Fantasy wouldn't exist without Dragon Quest. But Dragon Quest wouldn't exist without Wizardry and Ultima. The influence of Wizardry in Japan is ridiculous, to the point the series became mega popular over there, while dying here in the west, despite being a western game. But Wizardry itself is nothing but a single player clone of Oubliette. Though, if I had to choose games in terms of influence if I was selecting for the Video Game Hall of Fame, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Wizardry would all make it in before Oubliette, despite Oubliette being primarily responsible for Wizardry in the first place, which made the JRPG genre come into existence.

So, why doesn't the same apply to Ultima? Because of the sphere of influence. We have proof when it comes to certain games.

From the manga, The Road to Dragon Quest (the history of the creation of Dragon Quest)

View attachment 652959
or Todd Howard (who lead in the development of the Fall Out series and Elder Scroll series) stating that Ultima 7 was his favorite game of all time, and he attempts to mix in elements from it in every game Bethesda creates. And it's super obvious he was also influenced by Ultima Underworld.
or Swen Vincke (head of Larian, which created the Divinity Series and also Baldur's Gate 3) stating Ultima 7 was his favorite game, and the same, tries to bring the spirit of Ultima 7 into every game Larian creates.
It's even influenced other genres, such as the First Person Shooter, where in the book Masters of Doom, it's acknowledged Ultima Underworld was one of the inspirations for John Carmack thinking he could design a faster 3D engine, which lead to Wolfenstein 3D.

So, even in today's modern games, there's still clear influence of Ultima. Where the question becomes, is Resident Evil more the influence for its successors vs Alone in the Dark?
Click to expand...
I agree with World of Warcraft. Every publisher tried to replicate WoW's success for a decade after it came out by releasing clones of the game, but WoW wouldn't exist without EverQuest. Coincidentally, MMORPGs as we know them could also be traced back to Ultima. Ultima Online, in this instance.

Ultimately the criteria for these kinds of things are always subjective, but I'd like to see if they wrote a white paper or something explaining the logic behind their selection process. At least it doesn't seem from the outside to be a popularity contest like most of these things are.
 
LukeTbk said:
The genre still had some life in it, Gabriel knight series for example and video CD had a moment for the genre. Full Throttle I think was quite big. The Dig from Spielberg.

Myst was 1993, there was still some King Quest that worked after that.
Click to expand...
None of these games were influenced by Myst though. You're talking about Sierra & LucasArts, who had their own thriving adventure games prior to Myst, and none of them follow Myst's gameplay.

Myst itself is not really a classical adventure game. It's a world with self-contained puzzles compared to traditional adventure games.
 
I'd say Myst impact was not actually in the gameplay itself or the puzzles. It was the pre-rendered graphics, the use of CD-ROM mainstream and a game for adult audiences that wasn't twitched or text based. It made video games approachable for what is now the candy crush market
 
Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar along with Final Fantasy gotvme into rpgs. Also, Ultima Online was the first mmo I played.
 
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