[game_preservation] 2008 Whitepaper

[Captain Commando]

I don't use WoW and I find the concept of hosting a scientific conference
inside a fantasy role-playing game hilarious. The only MMO I have is Guild
Wars, which I have never installed. Though Second Life is free, I don't have
much intention of starting considering I had enough experience with Active
Worlds almost ten years ago, so the novelty has worn out for me! I use text
chat through AIM, and it helps that I can type pretty fast :)

-DM

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 11:48 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>
wrote:


>  (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

>  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

>

>

>

>

> --

> 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>

>

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>



-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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