This War of Mine has been added to New York City’s The Museum of Modern Art, and is on display in the video game exhibit: “Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design.”
This War of Mine was developed and published by 11 bit studios, and released in 2014. It’s a survival-strategy game set during a fictional war. Players control a group of survivors living inside a damaged house in the middle of a war-torn country.
Every day you must craft tools, clear the shelter, and cook food. At night one survivor needs to venture out to gather supplies. Players must manage the physical health and mental health of their survivors, while dangerous people and events threaten their livelihood. It emphasizes a realistic portrayal of real-world war and the bystanders who are just trying to survive around it.
“Never Alone seeks to help us understand video games as various parts, different tools, and techniques that designers bring to bear to shape our experience with games,” said Paul Galloway, Collection Specialist, Museum of Modern Art. “There is often a kind of a conversation about games as fun, games as a diversion, but I think that there’s an increasing range of games that ask more of the players. When I played This War of Mine it made me sad, it made me afraid, it made me very tense, and in the end, it left me with a very changed understanding of what it is to be playing in a war space.”
The exhibit features over 30 games of historical, technological, and cultural significance. Other featured games include Minecraft, Journey, Papers, Pac-Man, Pong, Dwarf Fortress, Myst, SimCity 2000, The Sims, and Never Alone.
This War of Mine is also on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.
The Never Alone exhibit will be on display at The Museum of Modern Art until July 16.
