[game_preservation] XBLA, Wiiware, and maybe the future of releasing all games + intro

[Steven van Stelten]

Hello Devin, Andrew and Henry,

Firstly, thank you for the quick and extensive replies.

1. There must be Wii's, XBOXs, etc. out there that contain all the  
games (maybe not all due to regional distribution differences). And  
with that are numerous communities solely dedicated to a XBLA, Wiiware  
or Virtual Console. With lots of information on these games and  
peoples opinions. The Virtual Console of course is only re-releasing  
the older ones. Which is interesting in that it shows there is market  
for older games (earlier re-releases have been done), which in my  
opinion further underlines that games are great cultural artifacts.  
And it involves emulation, well etc.
I have just read the paragraph in the 'Before it's too late...' paper  
and there this problem is very well written down. It is not only the  
console initiatives that are troublesome. But it is something that in  
my opinion is causes more trouble in the collecting sphere and where  
games are more prone to loss. Andrew stated that this kind of  
distribution prevents 2nd hand sales. This fact is not very helpful  
when you plan upon collecting these games at a later stage  
(retrospective collecting). However the hit games tend to resurface on  
other formats/media.

2. On the copyright issue (which I sidestep in my paper). I have read  
on Kotaku (link: http://kotaku.com/313328/the-library-of-congress-loves-video-games) 
  that the number of deposits is around 2000+ (article from 2007) and  
that they were being transported from their warehouses to more  
specialist archives (archives of division Motion Picture, Broadcasting  
and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)). So that step has been undertaken.  
I do not know much on this subject. So the public can not get access  
to these deposited games? And preservation wise the same IP issues are  
here, I presume. However I am intrigued by the portions of source code  
that must be deposited (trade secrets may be blocked out).
The DMCA exemption grants some preservation work to be done..for now.  
It would be ideal if their was a construction as with books with other  
media (again I really do not know much about this issue). It would be  
very handy if every game would be up for grabs for museums, archives  
and the sorts and do whatever they like for preservation and  
exhibition/accessibility purposes. But if have understood it  
correctly, for every game that is under copyright only agreements are  
to be made with the industry and only the games in dire need due to  
obsolescence are free to work with at this moment? So now strategies/ 
models are being developed for those that can be/are collected. So for  
some games you much wait for obsolescence or get permission to  
continue preservation actions and making games accessible.
Well I will stop with 'regurgitating' things all long said on this  
list. Only one more thing. An ideal situation would be if there would  
be a platform/organization established (inter)national dedicated to  
preserving videogames/interactive media. Like there are for movies/ 
films (AFI / NFPF). A sort of authoritative organization which the  
gaming industry will recognize  as a (helpful) partner in preserving  
this heritage. And will be more likely to work with (ie AFI oral  
history collection). An organization that will probably will start in  
a sort of umbrella form. In 2004 something was mentioned like the  
'International Coalition of Preserving Digital Games. That is the the  
ultimate goal right?!

*tongue in cheek*: I have read that no agreements are made by the USA  
on copyright with the following countries: Eritrea, Ethipio,  
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, San Marino and Turkmenistan.

3.  On player activity. I agree that games, especially MMOs, maybe  
will not be the historical source as a record of player behavior/ 
experience can be. I have seen some Halo videos (http://www.Top10Series.com/ 
), some quite hilarious. And seen some captures of MMO events. And it  
is important to supply a context for the preserved games. I think  
preserving the games can be helpful for a sociological study of the  
users of games to some point (maybe a type of speedrun would be  
adequate though). But more so, I think, are the stories, recorded  
gameplay, and such. Youtube is filled with videos of gameplays and  
such (sometimes only to get a response like: 'you SUCK' (pardon the  
french)). Because games are so rapidly evolving makes this very  
important. I recently played a childhood game and boy, was that quite  
the opposite of the experience I had when I was young. Nowadays goals  
in games getting ever so vague and relying more on social conduct and  
the creativity of players. To come back on te XBLA. Geometry Wars is  
an arcade-like game which heavily relies on highscores (there's a  
website dedicated solely to these highscores) and also like a lot of  
XBOX games on the socalled achievements (PS3 it's called a trophy). To  
name just something extra beyond the actual games.

Well not much news (for quite a bit of text) mentioned above ;)

Best regards,

Steven



On May 26, 2009, at 4:03 AM, Henry Lowood wrote:


> Hello Steven,

> n

> Three quick points on your question:

>

> 1. Even games that are distributed via traditional means, such as  

> boxed games, have similar problems, such as  frequent patches, say,  

> for PC-based games.

>

> 2. The questions you are raising have to do with software  

> preservation; another issue is how to save player activity.  Until  

> recently, this was much easier with PC-based games, but now there  

> are some replay and capture tools for certain game titles on  

> consoles (e.g., Halo).

>

> 3. A few XBLA games have been distributed as "best of" sets on disk,  

> e.g., XBox Live Arcade Unplugged (2006), which includes Geometry  

> Wars, for example, and a few other less worthy games (in my opinion).

>

> Henry

>

> Steven van Stelten wrote:

>>

>> Hello SIG mailinglist members,

>>

>> Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and than throw in a bone.  

>> I am Steven van Stelten, Dutch student Reinwardt Acadamy of  

>> Cultural Heritage. And currently very busy with a paper about  

>> preservation of the world of video games. This mailinglist and its  

>> archive have been very helpful. So thank you for that.

>>

>> And now for the bone:

>> It probably is not the biggest issue out there right now. And I do  

>> not know very much about the future of releasing games. However I  

>> have come across some speculation here and there that games will be  

>> released (downloads) and/or played solely via internet. So nothing  

>> tangible will be put out on the market anymore. Now MMOs and the  

>> sorts fit in to this, and there are XBOX 360's XBLA and Wii's  

>> Wiiware. For MMOs and such there are other problems. But nowadays  

>> XBLA releases games exclusively, see:

>> This title is only available to Xbox 360® owners with an Xbox LIVE®  

>> Silver or Gold membership, through download from the Xbox LIVE  

>> Marketplace.

>> From:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bngxboxlivearcade/default.htm

>>

>> A hit game like Braid is also available as a PC game. But some XBLA  

>> games are, I think, only available as a download for the XBOX 360,  

>> where it hides somewhere on that platform/console. If a game is  

>> brought on the market on disc, and there are several tens of  

>> thousands  or more made there is a bigger chance that something  

>> will live (I think). I do not how those downloadable games are  

>> stored by the publisher, however I can imagine that collecting  

>> these downloadable games will be something quite different in the  

>> future. Acquiring a game from someone who still has that game on a  

>> certain hard disk will be different. And I reckon that quality  

>> control can be something that will be more important, because these  

>> games are more prone to be (accidentally) fiddled with. And they  

>> need to be migrated and without viruses and such.

>> Especially the XBLA games are fragile, I think. Because they are  

>> harder to access for making copies, and are more likely to turn  

>> obsolete at some time.

>>

>> Sorry for the long text. In short I am interested in your thoughts  

>> (maybe more broad than mentioned above) on this as brought on the  

>> market intangible stuff. And if you agree that these intangible  

>> artifacts are more susceptible to loss than the games on let's say,  

>> discs. And maybe someone knows some interesting resources or could  

>> direct me to a earlier post, because I remember something about  

>> delistings a while back.

>>

>> Many thanks en best regards,

>>

>> Steven

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

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>>

>

> -- 

> Henry Lowood

> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>      Film & Media Collections

> HRG, Green Library

> 557 Escondido Mall, Stanford University Libraries

> Stanford CA 94305-6004 USA

> http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

> lowood at stanford.edu; 650-723-4602

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

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


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