Posts by Val Waldron

2018 is already half over, and it's always interesting to see which games are currently the most popular amongst our archive users. As usual, the FIFA series is in the lead by a long shot, with three Call of Duty games making the list. The latest Smash game is close behind, with the wildly popular Fortnite rising in the ranks. We see a good smattering of Nintendo games to even things out. Finally, Left 4 Dead 2 makes a comeback this time around.

Are you picking out electives for the Fall and want to take a course related to video game studies? We've accumulated a list here to get you started.

Are you a fan of games, but not the electronic kind? Much of our collection of over 7,000 games does consist of computer and video games, but we also have over 200 board games that can be played within the CVGA space. We also have over 100 tabletop role-playing books available, featuring many different game systems. These books can be borrowed for up to 3 days at a time.

In just a couple of short weeks, the CVGA will be involved in an Art & Gaming Symposium, which will bring together academics, game makers, and game players to discuss the role of art in gaming. How is art reflected in games? How does one create art through games? How do we view games as art? These questions will be explored through speakers, panels and discussion in a one-day symposium on Saturday, April 7, 2018, on the campus of the University of Michigan & the Ann Arbor District Library.

In the Computer & Video Game Archive, 2017 proved to be a popular year for game genres across the board, including sports, first-person shooters, fighting games and racing games. As a comparison, 2018 is so far proving to be the year of the Nintendo Switch, as well as a game called Fortnite, which is quickly climbing the ranks amongst the most popular games of the year in the archive. The question is, will it become popular enough to beat out FIFA, the game series that has topped out our lists for the past several years?

To welcome everyone back to the university for the Winter term, we wanted to highlight some of the most popular games in our collection, including the latest PlayStation VR and board games. Feel free to check them out at your leisure!

Still trying to figure out your Winter class schedule? We may not have a fully devoted video games studies program at present, but there are a number of classes available to study video games next term. Try one of them to round out your schedule! Use the links below to see a full class description of each class listed.

We're hiring for the Winter term! Work at the Computer & Video Game Archive desk to circulate games, answer questions, troubleshoot gaming equipment, and enforce archive policies. Test and clean donated games and equipment, help install software/hardware, help restore older game systems and equipment, etc. Assist in running archive-related special events and class sessions. Contribute to the archive blog and Twitter account.

A professor teaching a class this semester that frequently meets in the CVGA has been making good use of our Assassin's Creed games in his class, so we've decided to fill in our collection, purchasing some Assassin's Creed titles that haven't been as highly requested in the CVGA, but still add to the series.

The CVGA has quite a few new games available for play. We also have a Nintendo Switch available, with several games to go with it. Did you know that there's an RSS feed on our main page that lists all games that were recently added to our collection? Check out our main page for more details.