[game_preservation] 2008 Whitepaper

[Andrew Armstrong]

(I renamed the topic title just so we can distinguish it later).

I'm happy to help out in an admin role on the whitepaper although I 
won't be readily a candidate for writing any of it due to limited 
experience. If you need a notetaker/secretary (who can put it up on the 
wiki) I'm your man. I note that I don't have any "MMO" games installed 
though ;-) and doesn't WoW and Second Life require subscriptions? I'm a 
bit too poor to delve into WoW right now even if I wanted to in the 
first place! :-P

A cheaper idea might be to use Skype and possibly at the same time text 
chat to perform a meeting, although a virtual world is a lot cooler I 
guess :-)

Andrew

Henry Lowood wrote:

> I think for the 2008 report (the rationale, rather than the best 

> practices, which are saved for 2009),  your third point is indeed the 

> core target of the effort.  I think the second point should always be 

> kept in mind as the key context for this group.  If we just start 

> there -- rationale, with careful attention to our primary readership 

> being the industry for now -- then we will make good progress this 

> year; we can sort out the issues more directed towards practice next 

> year.

>

> I wonder if it would make sense to call a meeting in a virtual space, 

> say around late May to early June, at which we launch a collaborative 

> workspace (meaning basically a wiki page) around principles organized 

> at the meeting.

>

> The first space that comes to mind is Second Life, but I'm also 

> attending a scientific conference in WoW on May 9th < 

> http://convergentsystems.pbwiki.com/> so that works, too.  Or anything 

> else that would work.  Ideas?

>

> Henry

>

> At 10:04 AM 4/21/2008, Captain Commando wrote:

>

>>     Which brings me to the next logical question: How to start up the

>>     White paper effort?

>>

>>

>> I thought you'd never ask! Unfortunately, I have the privilege of 

>> having too much time on my hands due to unemployment (which I 

>> certainly hope changes within the next couple of weeks! And I know 

>> nobody has budgets for game preservation, but it never hurts to ask 

>> if anyone is interested in a newly-minted MFA graduate! :). As a 

>> result, I can put in a lot of time given goals both clear and proper 

>> (though admittedly, it's kind of hard to motivate volunteers).

>>

>> I am thinking a discussion list or central page might be the best way 

>> of doing this. However, I don't quite think that message boards or 

>> discussion lists are the way to go for a more final organization as 

>> this means you have a LOT of unorganized information that needs to be 

>> sifted through to distill the important central points. However, 

>> having scheduled meetings with some form of real-time communication 

>> certainly helps as it allows for more direct addressing of issues. So 

>> ultimately I think we'll need some form of system or documentation 

>> where we can keep a head on exactly where the process is at so 

>> everybody can be on the same page in a short time.

>>

>> There are also other problems too, scale being one and another that 

>> we don't yet know the full shape of what we're trying to do (and 

>> unfortunately we likely won't until we get pretty far along!). So 

>> it's basically trying to think on multi-dimensional large scales 

>> (though thankfully not as large as it could be!) and at that point 

>> it's really easier to just go out and start doing things. Definitely 

>> something I can write on that point...

>>

>> For this reason, I think the initial primary goal is to build a list 

>> of what we need (certainly as we're doing it). I have always said 

>> that a citation format will be crucial for constructing a catalog 

>> (which is important for archival) and so we would definitely need to 

>> bring this to a point with the journalist SIG (and I keep bugging 

>> David Thomas about this, but he's always busy). And let's face it, 

>> having a format that the journalists can also agree on makes 

>> everybody's life that much easier (library/archive + research support).

>>

>> The second is that the SIG should not be interested in simply 

>> archiving everything separate from the industry but should be 

>> contributing to the industry, primarily in educating companies about 

>> the importance of internal preservation (organization and smooth 

>> internal communication being one benefit, culturally/industrially 

>> important and/or marketable assets being another). Certainly a GDC 

>> panel and some Gamasutra articles on the subject would be one good 

>> point of bringing this to the foreground and also give the SIG more 

>> support from inside the industry - and also more importance beyond 

>> itself.

>>

>> The third important point (which really should come first) is 

>> pressing forward that strong argument about why preserve in the first 

>> place. I think we've already got something to that affect on the 

>> wiki, but if we don't have a strong mission statement we can put to 

>> the forefront, it makes our job harder.

>>

>> Fourth, getting support from other preservation groups should also be 

>> part of the goal. We're not 100% separate from what say film 

>> archivists are doing and so sharing interdisciplinary information I 

>> think is going to be crucial.

>>

>> I think this is about it for now. If you've got ideas about how we 

>> might organize the White Paper team, or anything else to add, please 

>> bring it up!

>>

>> -DM

>>

>>  

>>

>>

>>     1. We have a list of people (about 10) who would like to

>>     participate in this effort.

>>     2. The people on the list are scattered about the globe.

>>     3. So, what form of meeting should we employ?  Should we open up

>>     a dedicated discussion thread on this list?  Then move to some

>>     form of collaborative authorship? 

>>

>>     Henry

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>     At 08:35 AM 4/21/2008, Captain Commando wrote:

>>>         I recently blogged about the debacle of Capcom using an

>>>         image watermarked by IGN for the US Okami Wii box art. I

>>>         think this is something the IGDA Preservation SIG should be

>>>         concerned with as it seems to me if you're organized and

>>>         have good communication between studios, you're also able to

>>>         preserve stuff better (and perhaps get a better product?).

>>>

>>>         http://deserthat.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/ign-watermarks-and-lack-of-studio-intercommunication/

>>>

>>>

>>>         Another point to add to the White Paper?

>>>

>>>         -DM

>>>

>>>         -- 

>>>         The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>>

>>>         "Until next time..."

>>>         Captain Commando

>>>         _______________________________________________

>>>         game_preservation mailing list

>>>         game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>>         http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation 

>>

>>     Henry Lowood, Ph.D.

>>     Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>>      Film & Media Collections

>>     HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

>>     Stanford University Libraries

>>     Stanford CA 94305-6004

>>     650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>;

>>     http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>

>>

>>     _______________________________________________

>>     game_preservation mailing list

>>     game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>     http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> -- 

>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

>> "Until next time..."

>> Captain Commando

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_preservation mailing list

>> game_preservation at igda.org

>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation 

>

> Henry Lowood, Ph.D.

> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>  Film & Media Collections

> HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

> Stanford University Libraries

> Stanford CA 94305-6004

> 650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood 

> <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20080421/463108b0/attachment.htm>