Not sure how most studios deal with development material, but in a recent interview with Michael Kelbaugh of Retro Studios, we find out they have an interesting - and definitive - solution:<div><br></div><div>"I always like reading the posts about Raven Blade. There's this
underground mystery about that game. When you start reading the blogs
and newsgroups and what have you, there's always this post that says,
'Oh, they're going to work on Raven Blade' or 'I wonder if they're
bringing Raven Blade back?' And at one point I went back and had them
burn the last copy of Raven Blade -- and this was probably two or three
years ago -- and I looked at it," says Michael Kelbaugh, president of
Retro Studios..."I just couldn't believe that we even came close to making anything like that because it was absolutely horrible."</div><div><br></div><div>Despite my game preservation obsession, this brought me a chuckle. I think we can learn from it.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In other news, there was an article in the Times the other day about how some Tintin comics have been placed in the back room of the New York Public Library because they were deemed too racist for visitors. They don't mention them by name, but the Tintin comics are undoubtedly in the same storage area as the Uncle Remus children's books. This brings some interesting things about game preservation and also relates to some other current events. Now hopefully, this won't get into such a huge long argument that it did on the WIG SIG mailing list...</div>
<div><br></div><div>Essentially it involves how we deal with games depicting objectionable material. I think what it comes down to is a situation similar to the Uncle Remus books, which are horribly offensive by today's standards but which have historical importance about the culture of the time. I think if you look at the worst examples from videogames, there's Custer's Revenge which is used as an example in many game studies books (such as Miguel Sicart's book on game ethics). I would argue that from a purely formal standpoint, even though the material is about as offensive as games have become (even in its crude simplicity), because it is a work referenced by so many people, it should be archived for that reason alone, but kept in a similar category as the Uncle Remus books (not that I think there's anything really redeeming about Custer's Revenge other than an example of what NOT to do - also makes me wonder if anybody tracked down the developers and asked them what they were smoking when they made it).</div>
<div><br></div><div>Anyway, I just figured I'd bring these two topics up here to see if anyone had any reflections or anything they wanted to add.</div><div><br>-- <br>Devin Monnens<br><a href="http://www.deserthat.com">www.deserthat.com</a><br>
<br>The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br>
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