[game_preservation] U.S. Crash was Re: Generations standards?

[Henry Lowood]

Devin,

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and even in the print days, that was never 
a place to publish original research or a monograph.   Publishing a 
monograph on the subject is a different beast altogether.   As a 
publisher, McFarland is ok, but just ok.  It does specialize in popular 
culture, which is good.  If you are looking at writing an academic 
monograph in this area, try shooting a proposal to MIT Press or U. 
Minnesota Press.  At least give it a shot.  Those are top-shelf 
publishers in historical new media studies.  You can alway supplement a 
book with something on-line, but get the book out!

Henry

Devin Monnens wrote:

> Yeah, Wikipedia is kind of funny. Lots of people go there as a first 

> stop for information (heck I use it a lot, too). But I think there 

> needs to be a big ol' graphic at the top of the page next to the 

> article title to let people know the quality of the article. This way, 

> users can easily judge what the quality of the content is. 

>

> I also find it very amusing what Wikipedia users generate articles on. 

> There's an article for a 1970 or 1971 (can't remember) BASIC game 

> called HIghnoon. The game's kind of fun and really interesting if you 

> look at the text of it too closely, but to put it in perspective: I 

> think the only reason this game has its own article is because it was 

> made before Pong, and apparently, that immediately makes any game 

> worthy of a wiki article. Regardless of the fact it was ONLY played on 

> one school network for a short period of time and then filed in this 

> dude's closet for 40 years until it was rediscovered. Don't get me 

> wrong, I think it's great and a good example of the kind of work that 

> was being done, and I'm glad I learned about it, but does it really 

> need a full article on Wikipedia?

>

> And while we're on the subject, the history of games information is in 

> no way organized. You've got the game history section, you've got the 

> early game history section, and you have a list of games by year. Some 

> info is in one but not the others (Highnoon was in the year list). So 

> in terms of people actually going out and finding information, it's 

> not all in one place.

>

> Incidentally, where are you getting your Atari books published? I just 

> got a book offer from another publisher at a conference I went to 

> (McFarland, actually) about my work in games from 1962-1973. I'm kind 

> of torn about how to go about publishing/disseminating this 

> information. I don't think Wikipedia is the right place, but I think a 

> living document like a Wiki would be great for it.

>

>

>

> On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 12:42 PM, Andrew Armstrong 

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

>

>     Cool, missed your direct comment that you were investigating the

>     time period :) Like I said I'd love to help, but lack some of the

>     direct information - and being in the UK don't have any real way

>     of getting it really. Shame there is no decent book coverage of it.

>

>     If there was some way of sharing the research easily (if they are

>     digital files the IGDA wiki would do) it might be a nice idea to

>     start compiling the relevant information in whatever depth that

>     might be appropriate. I'd be an avid reader of anything and help

>     and could certainly email people at least, but like I say, limited

>     in resources access otherwise, although I could look into UK

>     things (in this case, probably the least relevant thing apart from

>     "What was happening elsewhere" sections, heh), and if nothing else

>     I am an organiser.

>

>     I also realise wikipedia isn't meant to be a paper on the subject

>     (although some are pretty much, and good for them) but that

>     article was certainly something that is probably a bad idea to

>     read just so you don't get the wrong idea, I'm sure your research

>     will help improve it greatly. :)

>

>     Andrew

>

>     _______________________________________________

>     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

>   


-- 
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/20100419/669a9f25/attachment.htm>