Despite the name, the UK’s National Videogame Arcade isn’t an arcade in the ’80s coin-munching sense of the word. Nor, despite featuring a small collection of video game antiquities, is it really a museum. The NVA is something else entirely, something that carves out its own niche in a country that isn’t exactly starved of historical computing collections, housing as it does both the Centre for Computing History and the National Museum of Computing.
Instead, the NVA errs towards interactive art installation. It is a place where video games aren’t just given the stoic museum treatment, but where visitors are encouraged to tear games apart, and prod around their inner workings. It’s an inventive approach: one that’s as much about highlighting how games are developed, as it is a fun distraction for the family. Don’t get me wrong, the NVA is a fun place to hang out, but from the off it conveys an important message that no other installation does: games are for everyone, and everyone can make games.
For Iain Simons, co-director of the Arcade, the NVA is but the latest in a line of events to promote that ideal. As the director of GameCity, he has staged the annual GameCity festival in Nottingham for nearly a decade. GameCity is an event that’s a million miles away from your typical Gamescom or Eurogamer Expo. There are no darkened booths to house the latest and greatest shooter from a mega-publisher, nor lines that snake around the entire show floor. GameCity celebrates the cultural impact of games and the people that make them, letting visitors talk directly with developers, and discover what makes their favourite games tick.
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