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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Another high profile one at the time was the Warcraft
Adventures:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_Adventures">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_Adventures</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Stuart<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> game_preservation-bounces@igda.org
[mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Andrew
Armstrong<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, November 28, 2008 8:27 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> IGDA Game Preservation SIG<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Neat thoughts, there's a lot of areas for this section to go
actually and one is the entire loss of games, especially unreleased ones. I bet
a lot of developers must take in their stride cancellations - there's a high
percent which are cancelled at various stages, the worst being close to going
gold. Anyone know any more examples of them?<br>
<br>
Hmm, I'm thinking it might be better to make a fictional account up for the
case study. I'm not sure what'll work best myself, but lost games are certainly
one major thing.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<br>
Stuart Feldhamer wrote: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>To me the greatest loss is when a game itself becomes lost.
There have been several cases in the past where a title was thought not to
exist or not to have been released despite the presence of ads for the title,
until a copy was eventually found. I believe the infamous Ultima: Escape from
Mt. Drash fits into that category. Well what if the game had never been found
and verified? Only a few copies are known to exist. What if there are titles
that we think don’t exist but really do and have been lost?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Even if we are 99.9% sure that a game hasn’t been
officially released, does that mean it shouldn’t be preserved? There are
some games that although they were never released (to the best of our
collective knowledge), may have been complete or very close to complete and
were just killed at the end for financial reasons. One example that came up in
discussion not that long ago was Ultima 8: The Lost Vale expansion, for which a
box prototype turned up. The code may turn up at some point - it may even
be among the mass of materials that the Wing Commander fans got from EA from
the old Origin collection. But EA didn’t really care too much about preserving
that stuff, and so for now, the code is lost. Another game that was
killed close to the finish line and which I personally mourned was Star Trek:
The Secret of Vulcan Fury. DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) even recorded voice
acting for that one before he died and it presumably has been thrown in the
garbage.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I’m not sure how this group feels about unreleased games,
but I would think that developers in particular would want to preserve them. I
was reading something on Gamasutra the other day where a developer was saying
that he’s been in the industry for 10 years (or something like that) and
only had 2 released titles, because the other 3 were cancelled after the team
had put in a lot of work. Should that work be preserved, if it was at the point
where the game was playable and viable? Does the decision of a marketing exec
ultimately define whether or not we want to preserve a title? I realize there
are intellectual property laws in play here, but ultimately we have these
“guerilla preservationists” who will do what is needed despite the
law, such as finding an old Atari 2600 game prototype on cartridge and then
dumping it onto the net so it can be preserved.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Anyway, it’s late and I think I rambled a bit, but I hope
I got some coherent thought across. Happy Thanksgiving. : )</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Stuart</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> <a
href="mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org">game_preservation-bounces@igda.org</a>
[<a href="mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org">mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Andrew Armstrong<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, November 21, 2008 7:48 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> IGDA Game Preservation SIG<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Hey all you people with knowledge about videogame history.
There's one part of the white paper we could do with major SIG work on as a
whole - we've decided the majority of the paper content, which you can check
out here (comment on it if you like):<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_Paper/Before_It%27s_Too_Late:_A_Digital_Game_Preservation_White_Paper">http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_Paper/Before_It%27s_Too_Late:_A_Digital_Game_Preservation_White_Paper</a><br>
<br>
The main part that we need information on is the Case Study: "What If We
Do Nothing?"<br>
<br>
This requires either a savvy fictional account of the future where we don't
preserve much of anything, or some good examples of what we have already lost
(a nice twist, we reveal this has already happened...<i>dun dun dun!</i>).<br>
<br>
There are a few examples <a
href="http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_paper_brainstorm/Compelling_Examples#Examples_of_Historical_Works_lost_in_Videogames">brought
up</a> before, but nothing much detailed for a real-life example. This means we
might have to come up with a fictional account anyway, or a hybrid.<br>
<br>
So: ideas welcome! What's the worst story you can think of, or the worst actual
thing that's been lost so far!<br>
<br>
It's aimed at developers remember - not historians/preservationists/archivists
themselves (we already know how important it all is) - so a relevant example
for developers (crediting of their works? people unable to play their games
soon in the future? simply them dropping off the face of the earth in
historical terms?) would be great.<br>
<br>
Thanks if anyone can help on this!<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<br>
PS: we still want logo ideas from an earlier thread, surely someone must have
some good ideas for them too ;) there's enough of you listening to these emails
I hope!<o:p></o:p></p>
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<pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre style='text-align:center'>
<hr size=4 width="90%" align=center>
</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>game_preservation mailing list<o:p></o:p></pre><pre><a
href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org">game_preservation@igda.org</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre><a
href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre> <o:p></o:p></pre></div>
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