Museum-Quality MMORPGs
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Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Economic Adventure, games, gaming, mmo, mmog, mmorpg, museum, videogameplayerz on
November 21st, 2007
No, seriously. The Escapist reported at the end of October that The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Economic Adventure Gallery is hosting a free video game exhibit through January.
What? They look museum-quality to ME.This exhibit starts with 1962’s Spacewar and continues through the history of gaming all the way up to current MMORPGs.
In addition to examining the past, the exhibit also offers an enticing look at modern-day games, including “Star Wars Galaxies,” the “Immune Attack” educational game, the virtual reality of “Second Life,” and massive, multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like “World of Warcraft.”
The exhibit is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Economic Adventure, an interactive educational designed to teach middle- and high-school students how New England’s improved living standards are reliant upon innovation, which leads to advances in productivity. The exhibit is open from Monday through Friday, from 1:00-4:00pm.
Okay, Second Life I can understand, since every crime procedural drama has decided to have an episode involving SL (or something similar). World of Warcraft makes perfect sense. But could someone explain how Star Wars Galaxies made it to the promotional short-list, while the original EQ, UO, etc. failed to be mentioned in the press release? Admittedly, the person that wrote the release saw “Star Wars” and said “Gotta get me somma dat!”, but is it that simple?
Don’t get me wrong…any exhibit that includes MMORPGs should include SWG…they should use it as an example of community involvement, as well as lessons about introducing widespread changes a persistent-world game. I just wonder if there’s any reason beyond the recognizability of the Star Wars name that prompted its inclusion in the press release.
If someone gets the chance to visit this exhibit, let me know how it was. (And get a pic of the Odyssey console they’re going to have on display.)
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November 25th, 2007 at 7:29 am
I wonder how this went. Does anyone know if WOW was mentioned there
November 26th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I haven’t heard if WoW was part of the exhibit, but since the press release mentioned that it would cover “games like World of Warcraft”, I would assume it was in there somewhere.
And let’s be honest…could they really have MMOs and not include WoW at this point?
If anyone has gotten a chance to see this, let us know how it is!