Save the Game – Games Preservation Summit

Many cultural institutions today are concerned with collecting and preserving objects of relevance to human history. Whether these are technical, cultural or political objects – the systematic preservation of artifacts is integral to our engagement with our past and our cultural identity as a society. But history of mankind is also a history of play. In the past, documentation of the culture of play might have been possible with physical toys and instruction booklets, but today many games are played only in a digital space. The rise of video games from a technical curiosity in a niche market to one of the most popular products of art and culture of our time shows that digital games are an important testimony of our recent cultural history and a unique phenomenon that requires comprehensive and systematic preservation. Even though the relevance of games preservation was recognized early on by some, game-preservation today still faces many challenges ranging from technical and methodical to legal questions.

To discuss these challenges as well as the current state and future of games preservation, we invited representatives from the fields of science, culture and the industry to our Summit on games preservation at this year’s Clash of Realities conference.

Speakers:

Andreas Lange, Computer Spiele Museum Berlin
James Newman, Bath Spa University, Bath
Stefan Serbicki, Electronic Arts

Contact:
Martin Lorber: mlorber@ea.com