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<font face="Georgia">Hello Steven,<br>
<br>
Three quick points on your question:<br>
<br>
1. Even games that are distributed via traditional means, such as boxed
games, have similar problems, such as frequent patches, say, for
PC-based games.<br>
<br>
2. The questions you are raising have to do with software preservation;
another issue is how to save player activity. Until recently, this was
much easier with PC-based games, but now there are some replay and
capture tools for certain game titles on consoles (e.g., Halo).<br>
<br>
3. A few XBLA games have been distributed as "best of" sets on disk,
e.g., XBox Live Arcade Unplugged (2006), which includes Geometry Wars,
for example, and a few other less worthy games (in my opinion).<br>
<br>
Henry<br>
</font><br>
Steven van Stelten wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:FA0D9708-5E3B-4A9D-93AC-561BC45453E4@gmail.com"
type="cite">Hello SIG mailinglist members,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and than throw in a
bone. I am Steven van Stelten, Dutch student Reinwardt Acadamy of
Cultural Heritage. And currently very busy with a paper about
preservation of the world of video games. This mailinglist and its
archive have been very helpful. So thank you for that. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And now for the bone:</div>
<div>It probably is not the biggest issue out there right now. And I
do not know very much about the future of releasing games. However I
have come across some speculation here and there that games will be
released (downloads) and/or played solely via internet. So nothing
tangible will be put out on the market anymore. Now MMOs and the sorts
fit in to this, and there are XBOX 360's XBLA and Wii's Wiiware. For
MMOs and such there are other problems. But nowadays XBLA releases
games exclusively, see:</div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(81, 81, 81); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">This
title is only available to Xbox 360® owners with an Xbox LIVE® Silver
or Gold membership, through download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.</span></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#515151" face="Verdana"
size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">From:<span
class="Apple-style-span"
style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bngxboxlivearcade/default.htm">http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bngxboxlivearcade/default.htm</a></span></span></font></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A hit game like Braid is also available as a PC game. But some
XBLA games are, I think, only available as a download for the XBOX 360,
where it hides somewhere on that platform/console. If a game is brought
on the market on disc, and there are several tens of thousands or more
made there is a bigger chance that something will live (I think). I do
not how those downloadable games are stored by the publisher, however I
can imagine that collecting these downloadable games will be something
quite different in the future. Acquiring a game from someone who still
has that game on a certain hard disk will be different. And I reckon
that quality control can be something that will be more important,
because these games are more prone to be (accidentally) fiddled with.
And they need to be migrated and without viruses and such.</div>
<div>Especially the XBLA games are fragile, I think. Because they are
harder to access for making copies, and are more likely to turn
obsolete at some time.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sorry for the long text. In short I am interested in your
thoughts (maybe more broad than mentioned above) on this as brought on
the market intangible stuff. And if you agree that these intangible
artifacts are more susceptible to loss than the games on let's say,
discs. And maybe someone knows some interesting resources or could
direct me to a earlier post, because I remember something about
delistings a while back.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Many thanks en best regards,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Steven</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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 USA
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood">http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:lowood@stanford.edu">lowood@stanford.edu</a>; 650-723-4602
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