[game_preservation] A Life Well Wasted

[Stuart Feldhamer]

Henry,

 

It sounds like we don't disagree much at all, actually.  : ) I was talking
about preserving the experience, and only in that context, but I agree that
preserving the events in a multiplayer world is also important.

 

Bottom line - you really can't fully preserve the experience of an MMO.
That's why I made sure to play Majestic before it died, knowing it would
die. Same for other MMOs like Uru. (Can you tell I'm more of an adventure
gamer than an RPGer?)

 

The only place where we disagree is that although I want both, if you put a
gun to my head I would have to pick the software over the documentation, at
least for a single player game. Or were you only talking about MMOs?

 

Stuart

 

From: Henry Lowood [mailto:lowood at stanford.edu] 
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 7:24 PM
To: stuart at feldhamer.com; IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] A Life Well Wasted

 

Hi Stuart,

Well, I guess we disagree a little on the value of gameplay documentation
(which is not just video).   My point was that documenting a complex
multi-player or massively multi-player world is as much about documenting
events that happen in those spaces as it is about preserving software.  I
don't think that's marginal at all.

If the focus is on "experiences," then I agree with you. That sort of
preservation is closer to re-enactment than history, however.  Ok, yes, it
is possible that groups will get together to play Everquest in 100 years,
just like they camp out in Civil War replica uniforms and fire muskets in
line.  But that experience is NOT the experience of what happens in virtual
worlds today, i.e., it is not going to be history.  It is still going to
take place 100 years from now, no matter how you cut it.  For similar
reasons, I disagree strongly that playing with bots is going to be
informative, at least in terms of historical work. 

In Preserving Virtual Worlds, our goal is to do both -- software
preservation and "event" preservation (for want of a better term).   My
emphasis on documentation of player behavior is more of a corrective to the
idea that it's all about software preservation than it is an attempt to say
we should only do video capture and gather documentation.  But if you put a
gun to my head and say pick one or the other, software or documentation, you
can't have both, as a historian I would go for documentation.

Last, video capture of single-player games is absolutely useful; I certainly
agree with that statement.  

Henry

Stuart Feldhamer wrote: 

I just listened to both episodes. I thought they were very well done,
although I think they would both have been improved by video - especially
the one on collectors. You can't begin to understand collectors until you
actually SEE some of their collections.

 

Henry, you made a comment in the podcast that a single player game can be
booted up in 100 years and enjoyed, but a multi-player game can't be,
because it requires other people to play, and the guy won't be able to find
other people to play it with him. Regardless if that is true or not, it's
impossible to preserve the actual experience of playing the game by taking
video and screenshots. The only way the guy in 100 years is going to be able
to have the experience of playing the game is if he manages to get a whole
bunch of other people to play with him, or if we can design suitably
convincing bots to take the place of the other players.

 

I agree that gameplay videos have value, but the same applies to gameplay
videos of single player games. What is specifically added to the mix by
preserving gameplay videos from multi-player games? It sounded from the
podcast as if this was some kind of solution to the problem of preserving
multi-player games in general. I think it's useful, but it only adds
marginally to the preservation of the game experience.

 

Stuart

 

 

From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Henry Lowood
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:11 PM
To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: [game_preservation] A Life Well Wasted

 

Some of you may be interested in the far-flung corners of the world that the
Preserving Virtual Worlds project has reached.  Others I know are intensely
interested in the world of game collectors.  In either case, check out
Robert Ashley's new podcast, A Life Well Wasted:
http://alifewellwasted.com/feed/atom/
The second episode covers the world of game collectors, which I have to say
is not so different in some ways from book collectors (said from a library
perspective). The last quarter or so is about our project. Robert Ashley,
the man behind ALWW, has said on forums he might release the interview with
me in its entirety.  He is a bright guy and a great interviewer -- makes you
wonder about all the talent shaking loose from 1Up.
Oh, the first podcast is also interesting, covering the history and demise
of EGM.
Henry 

-- 

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
  

 

-- 

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>  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20090309/32b01707/attachment.htm>