The Art of Video Games

The Smitshonian American Art Museum is setting up an exhibit for video game art/history, wisely constructed over five eras so it won’t be crowded out by just recent games. Consumers even get to vote. It puts RPGs under the “adventure genre” (except Diablo II which is target and Deus Ex which is action), and of interest to our users are:

Era 1: Intellivision Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1982)
Era 2: Wasteland (1988), Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate (1988), Heroes of the Lance (1988), Ultima IV: Quest for the Avatar (1985)
Era 3: Chrono Trigger (1995), EarthBound (1995)
Era 4: Diablo II (2000), Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), Fallout (1997), Deus Ex (2000)
Era 5: Fable (2004), Mass Effect 2 (2010), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), BioShock (2007), World of Warcraft (2004), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Fallout 3 (2008), Dragon Age: Origins (2009)

There’s lots of oddities like putting Oblivion under Xbox 360, Fallout 3 under PC, and Dragon Age: Origins under PS3, but I guess they were cramming them in. Vote as your heart tells you!