This is one of the projects I’ve been working on for the past few years, together with Víctor Navarro-Remesal and Ignacio Bergillos.
What is it about?
Game preservation is key for the development of gaming cultures and the acknowledgement of games as (sub)culture(s). Agents involved in it approach the issue with different motivations and purposes, but there is no widespread agreement on the criteria for measuring a game’s worth. Within that context, fan communities stand out as leading environments that not only conduct curation practices but also negotiate the cultural, social, and economic value of video games. Particularly, certain fandoms seem to be attracted to games and systems that challenge the very idea of a classic: failed games and systems, objects that are often considered “bad”, unreleased, unlicensed, or “flopped” (those that failed commercially), often forgotten and buried by the official history. Why do some fans become so interested and focused in such failures and how are they preserving them?
More details and our summarized work can be found at Victor’s medium page.