[game_preservation] Game preservation videos?

[Henry Lowood]

Hi all,

I just caught up on this interesting discussion.  This is a hugely 
important topic for preservation activities.

First, let me just say up front that I think we can try to figure out 
how to use the moving image collections at the Internet Archive's 
Moving Image Collections (Internet Archive = archive.org) as a 
repository for videos.  Just as a review, these collections are available:

Under Video Games:

Videogame Previews.  (Could perhaps be supplemented by describing the 
collection as including a third source -- namely, a project we might 
define or encourage.)
Speed Runs.  Definitely a possibility as we have already seen in the 
discussion.
Software/Game EPKs.  Probably not applicable to this topic, but btw 
if you have footage in this genre, please upload it.
Videogame Replays.  This rubric is especially close to my interests, 
and I have been hoping for years that someone would develop replay or 
demo viewers for various titles (which is really tricky, given 
patches and expansions).  I much prefer the interactive viewing of 
demo/replay files to video captures, and the resolution is usually so 
much better.  However, note that the archive right now is better set 
up for video presentation, so we might have to consider the replay 
files as auxiliary files to video captures.  The good news, of 
course, is that replay files are tiny compared to video.

Under Animation & Cartoons

Machinima.  I curate this collection and have a little more editorial 
say in things like metadata and such.  Heavily commented videos could 
go here -- we have a few from Second Life that have something of an 
explanatory function.  This might be a possibility if the videos are 
documentary in nature, but which I mean that there is commentary on 
what happens. Videos like stunt movies are included, as well, so 
there are some possibilities here.

Another interesting topic besides those already mentioned is that of 
"citation."  How does one write about a section of a game and cite 
it?  What is the equivalent of a page number?  Commented videos or a 
speedrun format with tagging or some of the other possibilities might 
help in this regard, if there were a common format.  Maybe this is 
something we can work on in the Library of Congress project?  We will 
be looking at video capture and tagging.

As a quick heads-up, I'll compose another note later today describing 
the events that will launch the project in February of next year, 
just before GDC.   If enough people are interested, perhaps we could 
make this a workshop topic at one of the events, or try to make this 
a focus of a GDC roundtable?   Would anyone be interested in that?

Henry





At 03:27 PM 8/4/2007, Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>Hey all,

>

>I'll happily wait for any further responses on my other questions, 

>but recently thought about preserving historical games a bit more.

>

>Basically, I was wondering if there was any known effort, not just 

>to save the software, but to provide videos or media with people 

>playing the game, or explanations of the game, or if it was a good 

>idea...let me explain further what I mean.

>

>What I mean, is when someone says "Do you remember ... which had 

>..." or "This should be more like ..." you don't have to physically 

>play it to know what they mean. Game reviews do this partially, 

>although only exist for very recent games. Speed runs also show a 

>game, obviously played the fastest way possible.

>

>This goes hand in hand with text descriptions of games, but text 

>descriptions of a interactive medium is pretty difficult, which is 

>where video could help.

>

>To show how something was is much easier in video - especially if 

>videos can be made of different parts of the game. I also wonder if 

>it would be good to have people "share their thoughts" on what are 

>deemed to be important games for them (or that have something they 

>want to comment on as good or bad), while playing them! videoing 

>their responses and what happens on the screen at the same time, 

>allowing a kind of review and look at what is done in a game by an 

>authoritative source. A critical view of a game which isn't by a 

>game journalist, which never seem really impartial, would be good.

>

>Just an idea, but does it have any merit? (Quick yes or no would do 

>;) I was just wondering). If someone has done or started this 

>already, got any links or sources?

>

>Andrew

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Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections
Curator for Germanic 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 
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