[game_preservation] PVW final report has been issued

[Rowan Kaiser]

The original Neverwinter Nights was an AOL game in the 1990's. I think
you're referring to the Bioware revamp. Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_%28AOL_game%29


Rowan

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 4:33 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


>  Not sure why you can't play Neverwinter Nights now, I've not played it

> recently but all the mods and content works with the game, which with the

> latest kind of patch doesn't even need a CD check I recall. It was never an

> MMO as such; best you got was persistent servers run by the community. You

> could still boot them up and connect to them. Communities always move

> around, so unless you get the information now, you'd never be able to "play

> it like it was 5 years ago" in most games.

>

> A bigger thing might be something like APB; one of the shortest run MMO's

> we've had so far. You can actually still buy the boxed game in some places

> (and others offer refunds, but some don't like Steam) - but it has nothing

> to connect to, and is practically worthless except for a doorstop!

>

> Replacing worlds and changing content is hard as you've both said. Any

> persistent multiplayer game can be like this - Team Fortress 2 has been

> patched and altered in little ways so much you'd never be able to play it as

> it was at launch since it auto-updates even if you have the original install

> disks.

>

> A hard thing to get a handle on for the historical context, for instance;

> why the Star Wars Galaxies game failed so badly when it did a massive patch

> change - you can play it still now (although it looks like it is going to be

> dead sooner or later), but can't play the pre-patch game which it was at

> release. Reading a few developer introspections on this development and on

> post-release game changes, it'd have been interesting to try the pre-patch

> changes!

>

> Andrew

>

>

> On 22/09/2010 01:09, Rowan Kaiser wrote:

>

> Andrew - performances aren't quite media, I'd say, and I think there's an

> expectation that it's ephemeral. You don't go to the store and buy a "play"

> or "concert" which you expect to be able to use continuously.

>

> Henry - The change in the game world is one thing, but there's also the

> increased leveling scale. Every expansion that raises the cap renders

> previous content easier and less relevant. I haven't played Wrath of the

> Lich King and I'm not likely to at this point, so I'm almost certainly never

> going to have that game experience.

>

> This also came up for me when I was writing about the original Neverwinter

> Nights. I never played it, and now I can't. So unlike every single other

> game I've talked about in my book, I have to rely on interviews instead of

> direct experience.

>

>

> Rowan

>

> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 3:58 PM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:

>

>>  Rowan,

>>

>> I think games and virtual worlds are the tip of the iceberg for digital

>> media.   As all our media (text, music, movies) most to server-based

>> platforms with intermediate players and subscription services, we may start

>> seeing similar problems across-the-board.   But I agree that games and

>> virtual worlds are at the edge, which is why it is so interesting to work on

>> how to preserve them.

>>

>> WoW is going to be an especially interesting case soon, when the world is

>> "replaced," so to speak, as part of Cataclysm.  Not a shutdown, as in many

>> other cases, but not continuous either.  It will be interesting to see video

>> captures from the same areas (but different times) that will no longer show

>> the same surroundings.  Plus there are still likely to be private servers

>> based on the old code and assets.

>>

>> Henry

>>

>>

>> On 9/21/2010 3:46 PM, Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>>

>> Rowan, plays and other performance arts might have something similar if

>> they're not ever recorded - and if the script is lost, then who knows...

>> They're not quite as interactive though!

>>

>> Also, good to hear there might be further news Henry :)

>>

>> Andrew

>>

>> On 21/09/2010 20:48, Rowan Kaiser wrote:

>>

>> Thanks for this - I was actually just thinking and writing about it

>> slightly lesser version of this for a piece on World of Warcraft, and how

>> every time an expansion is released for an online game, everything else

>> becomes obsolete - and it's far worse when the game simply shuts down. I

>> really can't think of any other form of media where this is the case.

>>

>> Rowan

>>

>> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 9:58 AM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu>wrote:

>>

>>>  All,

>>>

>>> We just completed the final project report for Preserving Virtual Worlds

>>> I.  You can find the report here:

>>>

>>> https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/17097

>>>

>>> A number of you have asked about our findings; many thanks for your

>>> patience while we went through the drill of completing the report.

>>>

>>> Henry

>>>

>>> --

>>> Henry Lowood

>>> 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>

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

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>>>

>>

>>

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>>

>> --

>> Henry Lowood

>> 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>

>>

>>

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