{"id":61699,"date":"2026-05-14T09:55:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=61699"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:59:39","slug":"sheffields-gaming-memories-take-centre-stage-in-new-museum-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/sheffields-gaming-memories-take-centre-stage-in-new-museum-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield\u2019s gaming memories take centre stage in new museum campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sheffield\u2019s video game museum urged the public to share their own gaming memories as it plans a major summer exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Videogame Museum<\/a>\u2019s curatorial team set up at Orchard Square Market, inviting passers-by to share their own personal stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative forms part of a wider effort to reposition Sheffield’s gaming contributions as not merely as a site of production, but as a city shaped by the culture of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leah Dungay, Learning and Community Curator at the museum, described the approach as intentionally participatory: \u201cWe\u2019re working on a new exhibition\u2026 all about capturing player memories and stories. We\u2019re going to take them away and that\u2019s going to help us shape the new exhibition for the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What emerged was not nostalgia alone, but an interesting archive of emotional attachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou ask people their favourite memory and they\u2019ve got so many,\u201d Mrs Dungay noted. \u201cThey have to sit down\u2026 \u2018I can\u2019t pick one story, I have to share three.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One participant recalled secretly logging on late at night to continue playing World of Warcraft, illustrating how games often structure memory through the ritualisation elements of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mrs Dungay argues that these stories are particularly vital in Sheffield, a city whose gaming legacy remains under-recognised. \u201cLots of people ask us why a video game museum is in Sheffield,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut actually that history has been here since early PC gaming days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Gremlin Graphics to Sumo Digital, and titles such as Gang Beasts, Sheffield has sustained a continuous, yet frequently overlooked, development line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This local framing also challenges the dominant industry geographies. \u201cPeople think you have to go to London, the US or Japan,\u201d Mrs Dungay explained. \u201cBut actually you can make games in Sheffield\u2014and lots of games are made in Sheffield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign also highlights gaming\u2019s evolving social function. In the wake of COVID-19, games took on a new role for many players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The museum\u2019s Animal Crossing Diaries project<\/a> documented this shift, capturing how players repurposed the virtual spaces for life events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on this transformation, Mrs Dungay described how people were \u201cdoing things from birthday parties to gender reveals to weddings\u2026 all these things that were happening inside of a video game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gamers were invited to share their own favourite memories at a pop-up event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":61700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/278"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61699"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61724,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61699\/revisions\/61724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}