The Videogame History Museum: How You Can Help

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

Seriously, it would be good to have an official statement on this. I had considered donating items to the museum, but if the people who are holding the collection can't even be so bothered as to keep track of the rare, one-of-a-kind items they have in their possession already, why would anyone bother? Did the items get stolen? Did they forget to pay for storage? Why did it take someone finding the items in somebody's back yard to even realize the items were gone? There are a lot of questions here, and people paid $50,000 trusting that this museum might actually be taken seriously.

I was wondering the same things.

[Bojay1997]

Seriously, it would be good to have an official statement on this. I had considered donating items to the museum, but if the people who are holding the collection can't even be so bothered as to keep track of the rare, one-of-a-kind items they have in their possession already, why would anyone bother? Did the items get stolen? Did they forget to pay for storage? Why did it take someone finding the items in somebody's back yard to even realize the items were gone? There are a lot of questions here, and people paid $50,000 trusting that this museum might actually be taken seriously.

I agree. I donated to the campaign for this (I can't believe it's been almost two years ago now) and have been a vocal supporter of their efforts, but it seems very little has happened other than them continuing to show up at occasional trade shows and Pax with their mobile exhibits. In the meantime, I see that the Strong/National Museum of Play in Rochester is getting very substantial archives of documents and one-of-a-kind items from many prominent early pioneers in the video game industry. It seems like the Videogame History Museum may have missed its window and the fact that rare items are being stored in unsecured storage units that have now been burglarized is going to make future fund raising and item collection efforts all the more difficult.

[Kitsune Sniper]

... wait, you mean they were stolen and nobody said a peep about it?!

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

... wait, you mean they were stolen and nobody said a peep about it?!

I don't think there has been a peep since the KS goal was reached.

[ProgrammingAce]

I don't think there has been a peep since the KS goal was reached.

Of course, if you point that out in the kickstarter comments, it's somehow your fault (read the top post):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vghmuseum/the-videogame-history-museum/comments

Instead of reading the kickstarter updates page that hasn't been updated in 8 months, you're supposed to go to the official museum website that hasn't been updated in 8 months, or you can go to the facebook page that's only recently been updated after 8 months of silence.

I'm curious if the $30,000 worth of shipping containers were ever purchased. The kickstarter's only written goal was to buy shipping containers and move the items out of that storage locker. It looks like they were never moved. I'd be kind of pissed if i was a donator...

[ProgrammingAce]

It looks like other items were stolen from the storage locker:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=270415

"I hoping John goes to check it out as there were other non arcade stuff taken."

[skaar]

Holy shitballs.

I was hoping this was an April Fools Joke...

[Ed Oscuro]

Ugh, that's sad. I was all ready to ask about whether the museum had an endowment...well, that would've been nice...

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

Don't the museum owners own this site?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Guys.

John Joe and Sean don't post on these forums any more, so nobody should ever expect any official updates about museum business here.

Furthemore, burglary is an incident in which the owner of property is a passive victim.

Would you want to be blamed or publicly attacked if somebody broke into your house and stole your collection?

From what I know and what I've seen personally, the storage lockers in Vegas are not the bulk of the collection, it's mostly over-sized display items and arcade cabinets that are utilized for CGE and other industry shows local to that area and/or the west coast in general. Most of the exceptionally rare/valuable items remain in Joe, John and Sean's personal collections outside of those lockers.

The museum collection storage lockers are not "local" to any of the owners at the present time but as soon as there was any evidence of burglary - action was taken and some items were tracked and recovered.

Whether you're a backer or just a curious party - as far as questions, comments, concerns, criticisms - if you have them reach out to the museum staff directly.

http://www.vghmuseum.org/contact-us/

They respond.

The entire collection is not gone.

This was an isolated incident that has been/continues to be dealt with.

If you have questions, ask the people directly who can give you actual answers.

This thread is not the place.

[Bojay1997]

Guys.

John Joe and Sean don't post on these forums any more, so nobody should ever expect any official updates about museum business here.

Furthemore, burglary is an incident in which the owner of property is a passive victim.

Would you want to be blamed or publicly attacked if somebody broke into your house and stole your collection?

From what I know and what I've seen personally, the storage lockers in Vegas are not the bulk of the collection, it's mostly over-sized display items and arcade cabinets that are utilized for CGE and other industry shows local to that area and/or the west coast in general. Most of the exceptionally rare/valuable items remain in Joe, John and Sean's personal collections outside of those lockers.

The museum collection storage lockers are not "local" to any of the owners at the present time but as soon as there was any evidence of burglary - action was taken and some items were tracked and recovered.

Whether you're a backer or just a curious party - as far as questions, comments, concerns, criticisms - if you have them reach out to the museum staff directly.

http://www.vghmuseum.org/contact-us/

They respond.

The entire collection is not gone.

This was an isolated incident that has been/continues to be dealt with.

If you have questions, ask the people directly who can give you actual answers.

This thread is not the place.

I don't want to be critical of your attempt to provide an explanation, but the VGHMuseum website hasn't really been updated since September 2012 and their Facebook page rarely sees much updating other than occasional pictures of events they attend. Given that funds were solicited primarily through this site and that it's owned by the primary team behind the VGH Museum, it seems like they should be providing regular updates here or at least through Kickstarter regarding what was done with the money and what's next.

I agree with you that the burglary isn't really something they should have been announcing here or anywhere really, but the fact that things can be stolen from the museum collection many of us have supported financially or with items and that nobody realizes it for months is pretty disturbing. My point is that nobody should have to keep contacting them for updates. They can still use Kickstarter and their Facebook and websites to provide regular updates. They simply haven't done that.

[ProgrammingAce]

Would you want to be blamed or publicly attacked if somebody broke into your house and stole your collection?

The community paid Joe $50,000 specifically to move the collection to a better location. If that didn't happen, I do blame him. Otherwise the kickstarter was just fraudulent.

[skaar]

I don't want to be critical of your attempt to provide an explanation, but the VGHMuseum website hasn't really been updated since September 2012 and their Facebook page rarely sees much updating other than occasional pictures of events they attend. Given that funds were solicited primarily through this site and that it's owned by the primary team behind the VGH Museum, it seems like they should be providing regular updates here or at least through Kickstarter regarding what was done with the money and what's next.

I agree with you that the burglary isn't really something they should have been announcing here or anywhere really, but the fact that things can be stolen from the museum collection many of us have supported financially or with items and that nobody realizes it for months is pretty disturbing. My point is that nobody should have to keep contacting them for updates. They can still use Kickstarter and their Facebook and websites to provide regular updates. They simply haven't done that.

I think there's some confusion over what protocol people are expected to follow to ask updates, which seems rather unusual for a project that crosses so many sites and communities. This thread would be where I would look first for news after the KS page, and the top post on there is someone being scolded for requesting information on there.

Glad to hear the bulk of the collection is untouched in various private collections, my concern was obviously because of a misunderstanding about how and where the items were being kept. I thought everything was in super awesome bins in Vegas now waiting for a new home somewhere else?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I don't want to be critical of your attempt to provide an explanation, but the VGHMuseum website hasn't really been updated since September 2012 and their Facebook page rarely sees much updating other than occasional pictures of events they attend. Given that funds were solicited primarily through this site and that it's owned by the primary team behind the VGH Museum, it seems like they should be providing regular updates here or at least through Kickstarter regarding what was done with the money and what's next.

I agree with you that the burglary isn't really something they should have been announcing here or anywhere really, but the fact that things can be stolen from the museum collection many of us have supported financially or with items and that nobody realizes it for months is pretty disturbing. My point is that nobody should have to keep contacting them for updates. They can still use Kickstarter and their Facebook and websites to provide regular updates. They simply haven't done that.

I can't speak for their decision not to post updates here, but from day one there's always been a very unwelcoming negativity here surrounding their efforts (plenty of evidence in this thread alone) that would make me want to avoid it wherever possible if I were them.

As far as the burglary - things can be stolen from anywhere: houses, cars, museums, stores, storage containers, it happens.

It's very unfortunate yes, but there's no reason to attempt to vilify the museum staff for what occurred. They were victims.

In fact the snap-to-action that did happen as soon as they caught wind of the news is admirable IMO. John and Sean tracked a decent chunk of key pieces down and personally went and got them back.

As far as updates go, the website got a redesign last year and currently details the most recent significant museum news pre-PAX/GDC - the benefit poker tournament from Gearbox and the Facebook Page details the museum's presence at both PAX and GDC 2013.

Those are updates. Whether you're thrilled/satisfied with the details of the updates is an entirely personal matter that you'll need to take up with them.

If the museum only has one or two major updates a year that may be something that people just have to tender their expectations for and deal with.

http://www.vghmuseum.org/category/news/museum-news/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Videogame-History-Museum/179048562145691

Again, absolutely nothing is stopping you from reaching out to Joe, John or Sean.

They're not elusive or reluctant to talk about things, especially if you're a backer.

[ProgrammingAce]

Again, absolutely nothing is stopping you from reaching out to Joe, John or Sean.

Except for the fact that they're openly hostile towards questions...

Were they actually at the Game Developers Conference, or was that just another lie they posted on the kickstarter?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Except for the fact that they're openly hostile towards questions...

Were they actually at the Game Developers Conference, or was that just another lie they posted on the kickstarter?

If you had absolutely anything invested in this venture your opinion would be welcome.

You're not a backer, you're not a supporter and beyond the senseless shit stirring in this thread, you're not a contributor to anything in this discussion.

This thread is not the place for this discussion as representatives of the Museum are not active on these forums enough to answer questions or concerns.

You've all been provided with the appropriate avenues to voice your concerns. The museum contact page or Facebook.

We're done here.