To the incredible community who makes this work possible: Hi! I’m Meera, and I’m thrilled to have joined the Video Game History Foundation as your new Development Manager. I’m here to deepen our relationships with supporters like you and to help ensure this work continues and grows. You may hear from me occasionally with opportunities to connect and ways to support the VGHF.
I want to take a moment to introduce myself, tell you a little about my background, and share a few observations and highlights from my first month on the job.
A bit about me
I’ve had the privilege of working in development (that’s nonprofit lingo for fundraising) for a number of amazing organizations over the past ten years, mostly in education, youth development, and legal aid. From organizing fundraising events, writing grants, and working with donors, I’ve done a little bit of everything related to bringing in the funds that nonprofits need to carry out their work.
I’m also a lifelong gamer! Childhood favorites include Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, and Nancy Drew PC games. I love RPGs like Final Fantasy (VII, VIII, & X in particular), anything involving zombies, and spooky horror games. Lately I’ve been mostly playing shooters like Borderlands and ARC Raiders, and I co-lead an alliance in the online/mobile game Last War.
When I saw the job posting from the VGHF, I think I screamed. This role is a big step forward in my development career AND I get to connect with folks that share a love of gaming and history. It still feels too good to be true. After meeting with Frank and the rest of the VGHF team I knew this was the place for me and I feel incredibly lucky to have landed here!
What I’ve noticed in my first month
The thing that strikes me most is the sheer depth of what this organization is building, not just as a collection of interesting items, but as a resource that’s open to everyone. The VGHF was founded with the belief that with the right tools, anyone can be a video game historian, and after a month on the inside, I can see how seriously that mission is taken in every decision made here. I’ve also been struck by the generosity of the people who make this possible: developers, collectors, journalists, citizen archivists, and supporters like you who understand that games are culture worth preserving.
A few collection highlights I can’t stop thinking about
If you haven’t yet explored our collection and digital archive, I’d encourage you to take a look! Here are a few things that have caught my eye so far:
Official Xbox Magazine Presents Zombies!
My first week in the VGHF office, Frank casually pulled this from a stack of magazines after I mentioned I loved zombie games. I distinctly remember owning this particular issue, and poring over it to read about old favorites like Resident Evil and learn about exciting new (at the time) games like BioShock 2. Flipping through the pages felt like cracking open a time capsule to 2009. The games, the references, and even the ads felt so nostalgic and familiar.
Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency and her “Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games” series was one of my first introductions to looking at games from a cultural perspective, beyond pure entertainment, and she was someone I admired a lot as a teen gamer girl. I was completely starstruck to stumble across the boxes labeled “Anita” tucked neatly in a corner of our library. I rifled through her reference materials, admired the witty FF merch, and even held her Peabody Award!
Original hand-drawn art from Disney’s Aladdin for the Sega Genesis
It was really interesting learning about the unique animation process for this game. These cute sketches of Aladdin running, jumping, falling, etc. were sent from the game’s art director Mike Dietz to Disney animators, making the art particularly accurate to the movie. If you’d like to learn more we have a blog post about the source code for this game and what makes it so special and visually striking.
It is not lost on me that many of the unbelievably cool finds I’ve come across in the collection are waiting in the queue to be processed into the library. While our digital library is already an impressive and valuable resource, there are still thousands of materials to be preserved and shared with the world. I look forward to playing a role in making sure this work continues to grow and the Foundation can preserve even more of these rare and important materials.
What’s ahead
I genuinely would love to hear about what drew you to support the Foundation, what you’d love to see from us next, or just to say hello. You can reach me at meera@gamehistory.org, or catch me lurking in our Discord and chatting in our monthly Patreon member hangouts.
Thank you for being part of this. The history we’re saving together belongs to all of us.
With gratitude,
Meera Swanson
Development Manager, Video Game History Foundation