[game_preservation] Oral History Project

[O'Donnell, Dean M]

 Devin,

We don't have nearly as systematic approach as you.  This started back in 2007 when we got the chance to interview Ralph Baer, and we've basically been working through Infocom and Looking Glass alums ever since.  We've been relying on student research each year backed up my my memory and, more recently, Brian Moriarty's memory and contacts into local NE companies.

The good thing is we also have a thriving IGDA chapter (Boston Post Mortem, which I thought was the oldest, as it predates the IGDA, but I may be wrong), the bad thing is that the devs who attend are still very much in the game development business, and I keep trying for the former game devs who can really be honest about what went on "back in the day."

We're also not looking for everyone who ever worked at, say, Looking Glass, but the movers and the shakers.  That narrows down the field considerably, so if we had a list of companies in the area from say, 1985-1995 that no longer exist, then we'd probably have less than 5 people from each company that we'd want to interview.

Tracking those people down and then finding out they're still in the game business sometimes is a bummer as we have to just wait, and other times when it looks like we're not going to get anyone else that year, I tell the students to go ahead with the interview (so that's how we got Neurath and Moriarty.

Dean
________________________________
From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org [game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] on behalf of Devin Monnens [dmonnens at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 6:09 PM
To: lowood at stanford.edu; IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Oral History Project

Dean,

I've also got something to add. I have been kicking around a preservation project for IGDA Colorado. We're the oldest continually meeting body of game developers in the world (as far as we know), and I've got one oral interview I still need to transcribe (which is horrible considering how long ago I recorded it...). Actually, I hadn't considered a venue for this other than the IGDA Colorado site, but I thought you might be able to give some pointers for this as I'm not exactly formally trained in interviewing. The goal is essentially to make a list of all developers in the state and all games made in the state as well as interview people who worked in these companies.

Based on your experience, what would you recommend?

-Devin

On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 3:55 PM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu<mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>> wrote:
Hi Dean,

Besides the question about helping with interviews, I'd like to offer something else, both to WPI and for the IGDA materials.   Namely, a preservation solution.  If the releases permit it, we could take copies of the videos into the digital repository here at Stanford.   We don't necessarily have to stream from here, since WPI and IGDA will have solutions for that (though we could, with the videos embedded on the other sites).  In other words, these could be "dark" preservation copies.  Let me know if this is of interest.

Henry


On 5/6/2011 2:30 PM, O'Donnell, Dean M wrote:
Hi all,

We’ve been quietly working on the Oral History Project for a few years over here.  The website has just undergone a redesign and I thought I’d point it out.

http://alpheus.wpi.edu/imgd/oral-history/

I train a student team every year in interview techniques, along with Jason Scott (who has now moved to NYC and can’t be a part of the process anymore).  We’re slowly but surely collecting interviews, but we have a number of limitations—first, the student workers are limited in how far they can travel by how far they can drive, and second, not every game developer or former game developer is interested in being interviewed.

And we’re running out of Infocom alums.  :)

I updated the wiki a couple of months back.  The students work during the school year, so suggestions and comments for this upcoming year are welcome.

Thanks,
Dean

Dean O’Donnell
Teaching Professor
Interactive Media and Game Development Program
WPI


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Devin Monnens
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