Newsgames as a Case Study for the Value and Challenges of Archiving Digital Games

This analysis explores the value and challenges of archiving digital newsgames, drawing insights from a research team's archive of 101 newsgames. The primary finding reveals a significant rate of inaccessibility, with only 27% of the archived newsgames, which have a mean age of seven years (average release year 2016), remaining publicly playable as of 2023. This rapid loss of access is attributed to the ephemeral nature of newsgames, often produced with low budgets and a perceived disposability akin to print news.

The research highlights that while archiving is a general challenge for digital media, newsgames present a unique case due to their presumed short-term value, wide dissemination, brief play experiences, and retrospective significance. The study identifies biases in academic literature regarding newsgames, noting that English and Spanish language games are more frequently documented. Additionally, games that are free, widely available on common platforms (e.g., web-playable), and broadly disseminated are more likely to be documented, while those that are not free, require specific platforms, or have limited geographic distribution are often overlooked. Examples like "Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill" (a Nintendo Entertainment System ROM) and "Arizona Justice" (a Windows executable and later HTML5 web game focused on regional politics) illustrate these omissions.

The analysis advocates for comprehensive archiving practices, including community reporting, automated archiving services, clearinghouses, well-documented playthroughs, and development diaries, to provide a broader historical perspective. It also emphasizes the importance of retro-adaptive software tools, such as Ruffle for Flash games, to ensure legacy software experiences remain accessible without requiring outdated hardware. The observations and reflections are intended to benefit researchers and practitioners in domains like newsgames, social impact games, and art games, given their often time-sensitive and ephemeral nature.