| Title | Archiving Play, Archiving Histories |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Preserving Games Hardware, Software, and Experience |
| Contributor | Lee W. Hibbard (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.53288/0441.1.24 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/historiographies-of-game-studies-what-it-has-been-what-it-could-be/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Lee W. Hibbard |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2025-07-25 |
| Long abstract | This chapter considers the importance of preserving games in both physical and metaphysical contexts by examining current archival efforts to catalog and share games and play experiences with future generations and consider their position within game studies. It highlights work being done in three archival contexts -- The Strong Museum of Play, the LGBTQ+ Video Game Archive, and the Learning Games Initiative. This includes an examination of each of their mission and goals, selectivity and rationale, and methods and processes, and each section includes interviews with current directors and founders of the archives in question. The work of these specific organizations, archives, and museums, while varying widely, provides a demonstration of not only the methods being undertaken to preserve game history, but the importance of that work amongst those organizations and individuals. This investigation demonstrates not only how diverse and varied games and play experiences are now, but how much of gaming history already contains those diverse experiences. By examining current preservation efforts, this chapter not only highlights how diverse and varied preservation efforts are in games and play, but demonstrates the importance of examining the archival work being done to preserve the fragile and tenuous technologies and voices surrounding games and play. |
| Page range | pp. 525–545 |
| Print length | 21 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Lee W. Hibbard (he/him, they/them) has a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Purdue University and is Lecturer in Technical Communication at University of Michigan College of Engineering. His research interests include archive theory and practice, professional writing, game studies and game design, new media texts, digital rhetorics, fandom communities, queer studies, and identity formation, and a lot of his interest intersects with his experiences as a queer nonbinary transgender man. His work with the Strong Museum is part of his dissertation research into the intersections of archiving, queerness, and games, and he is thrilled to share this work and his passion for diving deep into the history of games and gaming culture in this collection. In his spare time he collects old consoles, avoids digital-only copies of games, and loves an old-fashioned round of arcade Tetris.