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<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?<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'>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.<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'>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.<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'>Anyway, it’s late and I think I rambled a bit, but I hope
I got some coherent thought across. Happy Thanksgiving. : )<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 21, 2008 7:48 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> IGDA Game Preservation SIG<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [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>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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