[game_preservation] More Retro Machinima (with Andrew raving about glossaries, oh yay)

[Andrew Armstrong]

You kind of get into weird territory trying to define "game engine" then 

:) Why not just any animation engine? (or going further, animation 

studio/toolset). What about compositing video effects or other work on 
top of original footage? (how much editing is allowed before it goes 
into the realm of raw "animation"). Are live actors allowed to be 
involved? what about if only screenshots are used?

Oh, nevermind the borderlines on the content aspect - is a raw recording 
of a videogame machinima? what about with some commentary? what about it 
being played through in a specific intentional way? what about the 
addition or lack of original music, models, animations, sounds, voices, 
script or story? Lots more too, hmm...

I think it's well worth defining at some point, I'm trying to write a 
small glossary of videogame terms and this is one I've not got around to 
doing because it is one of those things best "show by example" and "I 
know it when I see it". It'd be worth finding some good examples at some 
point to outline the core cases, and the more borderline ones.

Doesn't help when the game researchers at DiGRA basically are all about 
defining things and they can't even agree on many items. I'm not trying 
to argue btw, I just am interested in these definitions. At some point 
getting some experts to define Machinima (Henry at the forefront of this 
specific example I'm sure, but this is only one example ;) ) along with 
a whole host of videogame-specific terms from their own fields would be 
cool. I'm going to contact DiGRA members about this, although a balance 
between "human readable" and "scientifically correct" would be a good 
idea (or at least, having both at the same time). For histories sake, I 
frankly am finding it hard myself to figure out some well-used terms, 
say, in the MMO space which I have next to no playtime in when reading 
things/investigating things, so I can't believe it'll be any easier in 
the future when those games have stopped operating, or areas die out, or 
move around.

On this topic has anyone got any good glossaries? My current references 
are the Videogame Style Guide which is neat (and we used as our standard 
for the white paper) and a odd few websites. Annoyingly Wikipedia has 
deleted all of its pages on such terms ages ago, and I don't know of any 
specific "videogame dictionary/glossary" site :)

Andrew

Devin Monnens wrote:

> I would say the bare bones is a video or film created using a game 

> engine. Performance need not be part of it (a real-time cutscene is 

> machinima; a pre-rendered cutscene is not). If this includes using 

> game animations (like say taking an Unreal or Halo character and 

> sticking him in front of a blue screen), then that broadens the 

> definition (part of the film must be created using a game engine). 

> Spartan X probably doesn't count because the animations are composed 

> and compiled separate.

>

>

> On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Andrew Armstrong 

> <andrew at aarmstrong.org <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>> wrote:

>

>     Hahaha, very good :)

>

>     Not sure what the "one true definition" of Machinima is (no doubt

>     there isn't one!). Wikipedia is all over the place on it ;)

>

>     Andrew

>

>

>     Devin Monnens wrote:

>>     Here is some more Japanese Retro Machinima (or maybe you can't

>>     specifically call it machinima because it isn't recordings of

>>     gameplay) I can't recognize everything, but it's pretty cool

>>     nonetheless!

>>

>>     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEEfy0nt1fo

>>

>>     -- 

>>     Devin Monnens

>>     www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>>

>>     The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>       

>

>     _______________________________________________

>     game_preservation mailing list

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

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

>

>

>

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

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

>

> _______________________________________________

> 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/20091001/d2801841/attachment.html>