There has long been an argument in art circles about the relevance of low brow art. Low brow generally being considered forms of art which are adopted by popular culture. There has also long been an argument about whether video games are an art form. Even game developers themselves have weighed in to the argument. However, it looks like the Library of Congress (US) will have the final say with its plan to preserve digital media.

A five person committee from the video game industry was formed to create a list (canon) of work which they believe should be preserved. The committee included: Henry Lowood (curator, History of Science and Technology Collections, Stanford University), Warren Spector and Steve Mertzky (Game Designers), Matteo Bittanti (Academic Researcher, Humanities, Stanford University), Christopher Grant (Game Journalist, Editor of joystiq.com). They created this list of games:

Spaceware! (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros 3 (1990), Civilisation I (1990), Civilisation II (1996), Doom (1993), The Warcraft Series (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (1994), Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995), Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002)), and Sensible World of Soccer (1994).

Of course, every person would come up with a completely different list but some of the ommissions are interesting. I would have thought that some games which defined certain genres would have been included, such as: Space Invaders, Pong, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (as opposed to Doom), and Pacman. I am sure any gamer could come up with a convincing argument to create a perfectly different list.

Henry Lowood said,

"Creating this list is an assertion ... that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significance."

The film industry in America compiles a list every 12 months of the films which they would like to be preserved every year. While the games industry is not quite at the stage to nominate it's selection of influential games per annum, it has been accepted to at least make a contribution.