[game_preservation] PVW final report has been issued

Andrew Armstrong andrew at aarmstrong.org
Wed Sep 22 18:14:13 EDT 2010


Ahh, that, I see! :) yeah, that's I guess an early MMO, given how it
worked!

Andrew

On 22/09/2010 18:37, Rowan Kaiser wrote:

> 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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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

>>>> <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>;

>>>> http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>>>> <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>

>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>>> game_preservation at igda.org

>>>> <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>>> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>

>> --

>> 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 <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>;http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>

>>

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_preservation mailing list

>> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>

>>

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_preservation mailing list

>> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20100922/51162d05/attachment.html>


More information about the game_preservation mailing list