Here is the "impossible" task:
1) You must appeal to the mainstream, contemporary audience (lots of young folk who, through no fault of their own, are totally ignorant about most of the games/consoles of yore *and/or* casual gamers, who again, are ignorant of the breadth of video game world).
2) You must appeal to the Top 10, because, Lord Knows, even folks who are "savvy" about video games really only know (aka have experience with) the Top 10 across multiple platforms.
3) You must satisfy the sponsors of the event.
4) You must OBTAIN THE PHYSICAL ARTIFACTS.
5) You must fit everything into a limited physical space.
6) Upon satisfying #1-5, you may throw a few bones to the uber-nerds, like us.
IMHO:
1) So be it.
2) So be it.
3) F*ck. So be it.
4) Hmmmm, this is only true for the actual exhibit in the museum. There is no rule that you couldn't have HONORABLE MENTIONS (BONUS MATERIAL!) available for the virtual exhibit online. That's one of the nice things about the internetz.
5) See #4.
6) This exhibit could have attempted to appease nerdy folks by at least having "Honorable Mentions" and drawing from the wealth of titles available for the included platforms as well as the excluded platforms (including arcade and PC titles). Sure, we'd still complain about this second-citizen status, but at least the initiated viewer/attendee of the exhibit would have the option to delve deeper into the subject matter, should he/she choose to do so. I am perfectly happy with mainstream vehicles (Smithsonian) "opening the doors" to a deeper history. The niche fandoms need, and benefit from, opportunities like this: take a casual/mainstream person and get him/her even MORE interested in the history of video games.
NOTE: I can dream, goddammit.
NOTE: When I say "history", I mean both "history" and I mean "art", which is incidental. I know this exhibit has put "art" at the forefront, but let's not fool ourselves, this exhibit is heavy on BOTH.
