Italian game journalist’s crusade to bring videogame history to the masse

[Nando]

http://www.edge-online.com/features/vigamus-how-an-italian-games-journalists-crusade-to-bring-game-history-to-the-masses-paid-off/

Think it can be difficult getting funding for a videogame project? Consider this: Marco Accordi Rickards, a game journalist, had to pitch his plan for a videogame museum called Vigamus to Italian politicians who didn’t even know what videogames were. “When they heard about videogames, they were just thinking about gambling, betting, poker, slot machines… they were like, ‘We don’t think it’s something that’s right for a museum.’ We really had to explain that videogames were Mario, Zelda, Metal Gear…”

It was 2008, and Rickards’ idea was simple: “The main plan was to have a permanent videogame museum, a centre devoted to research, study and a place for people passionate about games to meet and connect. We started contacting institutions, including the city of Rome – the federal district – to persuade them that videogames had cultural value. It was very difficult.”

[soop]

This is really good.  It just shows how appropriate the location was too.  I'd love to have something like that near me, or to take a university course.  But then again, I'm pretty much learning this stuff all the time anyway.

[Tatsujin]

Lol, italy and french were the arcade paradises in the 80s.
Hard to believe these peeps have fogotten it all.