[game_preservation] "Selecting Save on the Games We Make" on Gamasutra & at PAX East

[John Andersen]

Hi Matt, 
 
it's nice to meet you, I'm glad you liked the article, and I'm very happy to hear the first three-part feature helped inspire you to research the preservation field.
 
You linked to a fascinating article that brought up so many interesting points and conflicts we face.  As Warren Spector pointed out in my article, it's the indifference of people - that is the real challenge.     
 
Sometimes I wish the word "authenticity" were thrown around more often.  Some copyright holders don't know, or in the case of some copyright holders that consist of individual people, some aren't even aware the historical strength a single IP has.  I hope they'll understand and comprehend what their IP actually is, it's up to people like us, in getting the word out there, to make that happen.  
 
The same way we might worship the Ford brand in our driveway, a General Electric appliance, a Panasonic plasma display, there is something to showing others what we like when we invite them onto our property and into out homes.  We're proud of it because we've researched it, purchased it, and used it because its quality is known.  Do we want to own a bootleg appliance or even a bootleg car?  No, we don't, we want to own the authentic thing and share it.    
 
I guess this is where authenticity comes in and how many other people, including myself, absolutely miss the authentic real thing.  That's why so many of us walk into used game stores, or go thrifting at flea markets from time to time.  We not only want to own the title once again, but share that title and that developer name on our shelves with pride, where others can see it like a fine painting.
 
I'm not only worried about the preservation of games, but also the preservation of the credit list - of those that created the games.  They have so much to tell us, and so much to teach us.  This is the other real tragedy unfolding right in front of us.  Some game designers never got the proper credit at the end of the game they designed, and we may never know what else they designed or directed.  We'll in some ways be missing out on their other work. 
 
In my opinion, the more we begin honoring and recognizing the people that design the games we play, listen to them, and learn from them, and showcase this to the mass media, the more the industry will (hopefully) recognize the importance of preserving their work, and letting the authenticity shine.  
 
You'll be surprised to hear the answers from the indies in part two with how they view themselves, the cloud and digital distribution, it will definitely create some discussion and perhaps debate.
 
- John 



From: mceniry at email.sc.edu
To: game_preservation at igda.org
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:52:05 +0000
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] "Selecting Save on the Games We Make" on Gamasutra & at PAX East







Hi John,

Really enjoyed your follow up article.  I had a friend recommend me your first three part series and it was one of my inspirations to research further into the video game preservation field. 

 Maybe I'm just a pessimist on the cloud but I surmise the more games that are produced for only digital consumption the more volatile the formats will become.  Who is going to bail out the companies that hold hundreds of terabytes of information on their clouds?  Preserving paper documents seems to be easy when comparing them to a 16 gigabyte game which consists of numerous variables, code, art, music, etc.

I'm not sure if this article has been linked in the past, but a lot of its points ring true concerning how unfortunate it is that in order to save older games/technology we'd have to resort to piracy.  http://technologizer.com/2012/01/23/why-history-needs-software-piracy/

Matt McEniry




From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org [game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] on behalf of John Andersen [gamerep at hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 12:06 AM
To: game_preservation at igda.org
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] "Selecting Save on the Games We Make" on Gamasutra & at PAX East




Hi Chris, 
 
It's so true in regards to companies coming and going (or even relocating or shuffling office space) that things are lost or tossed.  I know there is an archivist at Blizzard, but as for other companies, it's not very clear if there are full-time archivists employed.  The IT departments of many (not all) developers are ultimately responsible for making sure things are backed up onsite and offsite.  The IT guy at Gearbox was the one who responded to my questions the last article, and he went into a little detail about the challenges of retrieving code from older media.
 
It's frustrating, because like everyone I've also heard so many different stories.  It's just getting other people to be concerned and help out, that is the ultimate challenge.
 
If I ever do come across a situation if a designer has code that needs rescused I'll deffinitly get in contact with you.  Your services are seriously needed as time moves forward.
 
Take care, 
John
 


From: cb at softpres.org
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:32:07 +0100
To: game_preservation at igda.org
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] "Selecting Save on the Games We Make" on Gamasutra & at PAX East

Hi John,




great stuff. Unfortunately I can back what's been said below…I have seen companies come and go. In many cases assets were simply tossed, I even know of a case where the last Amiga machine that had the source code to many games was accidentally given to recycling before the company moved. I have done some (not very well known or high quality) games myself and I can back the fact that even I do care more about other people's work because it fascinated me. Because of this I can say that a dedicated person or company is required to fulfill such a task. Otherwise daytime business gets into the way and is more important.


Sadly for some companies even spending some money for preservation is an issue. They would take help if it was free, but paying your expenses for proper storage or cataloging is out of the question.


It's a bit… problematic. Thanks for making people aware of their own heritage. Should you ever run across someone needing help… we already have 4,500 titles fully preserved, can't hurt to save some more. ;)


Best,
Chris



--
Christian Bartsch
The Software Preservation Society
http://www.softpres.org


On 27 Feb 2012, at 07:06, John Andersen wrote:


Hi Devin, 
 
Glad you liked the article, I also really liked Yosuke Hayashi's comments, that level of detail was what I was looking for in answers and statements.  You'll really like the answers from the indie developers coming up in the last part.  
 
You're right about the various statements that were written by PR reps. In the case of Square Enix, two separate PR reps did their very best to circulate the questions around the Tokyo office of Square-Enix, I was fortunate enough to get any kind of response, but nothing as insightful as Hayashi's detailed answers unfortunately.  I've also heard the stories about Square not holding on to various material as well.  I wonder how the Enix side of the business did in preserving its development material? 
 
What I hop ed to have also accomplished with these articles is to at least get high-level executives and management at developers and publishers to look into their archive/preservation situation.  If just one developer or publisher begins to look into the status of their own archives, and take steps to do something with any material from the past or present,  then I feel like I've accomplished something.  This actually happened with indie developer I was in contact with for the article.  He emailed me after he sent along his answers to say that my questions for the article prompted the company to go out and purchase a couple of back-up drives.  I was really floored by that admission, but I also felt like "Mission Accomplished".  To get companies thinking about preserving, archiving and even searching for older material is what i hope will happen "behind the scenes" as well.  
 
- John Andersen  
 




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