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Thank You All So Much for Making the Time to Come to My Early Morning Presentation

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Thank You All So Much for Making the Time to Come to My Early Morning Presentation Thank you all so much for making the time to come to my early morning presentation. I’m really excited about this workshop and am happy to start it off. 1 First, a little background on what I’m doing. These are the 4 kinds of collections Henry Lowood called for in 2002. I’m sure we’re all well-versed in these different kinds of collections. 2 In 2008, I got an IMLS early career award focused on examining the creation behaviors in the videogame industry, primarily to help build models for collecting archives of documentation: what kind of documentation is created, what are some best practices for collecting and representing that documentation, what are some of the roadblocks… Towards that end, we conducted interviews with anyone who would talk to us in the industry, including producers, developers, programmers, and artists (both visual and music) – Primarily, we were interested in finding out more about their work environment, their communication methods, and how they documentated of decisions. Some of the more notable interviewees were: • Tarn Adams (Dwarf Fortress), • Russell Lees (Interactive Designer & Playwright – the Dark Eye), • Gordon Walton (Bioware / Playdom), • Bobby Prince (music & sound effects Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom), • Harvey Smith (Deus Ex) A project partner was the Videogame Archive at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, and the transcribed interviews, as well as the sound files from those interviews are available there. 3 The videogame archive at UT Austin was the brain child of Warren Spector, primarily, with Richard Garriott taking a secondary interest. There are three main collections within the videogame archive: Warren Spector’s papers, Richard Garriott’s papers, and the papers of George Sanger (musician). The collection is small, but growing, and includes artifacts (and here I have pictures showing some of their consoles and controllers, as well as standalone systems) 4 They have Libraries of games 5 They have magazines from the golden age of arcade gaming, and while they’re not complete runs, they’re extensive, and just looking at the covers gives a kind of interesting view of, for example, evolving characterizations of women within the gaming community… 6 But the focus of the collection is on documentation. They want to be the manuscript repository for the gaming community. Like authors have their manuscripts with drafts and early versions of their work, the videogame archive is attempting to collect the documentation from game creators. The example I’m showing here is the Game Design Document for Deus Ex, which started out as “ “Shooter: Majestic Revelation” 7 Here’s a map…from the Garriott collection – no one could tell me exactly which game this referred to… 8 character studies… 9 So this is really interesting, and very fun to look at – I recommend a trip to Austin to anyone who’s interested game history – but I’m afraid that the industry has changed significantly since Warren Spector and Richard Garriott started making games. Collecting documentation for modern, contemporary games is going to be difficult for 2 reasons: For one thing, there’s the secrecy problem. Millions (billions?) of dollars are at stake with these games. The big studios don’t want their employees sharing their design process, or their design materials with outsiders. This is understandable, but problematic from an institutional or historical angle. The second problem is more basic, and that is related to the game design process itself, and the unclear demarcation of what constitutes a game and what does not… 10 So here’s my illustration of how I think the development process is working: We have the game, we have the studio, which includes groups of people who have particular tasks: the Engineers, the programmers, and the interface and design people. Additionally, there’s often a publisher (X) and in some cases (X), an IP holder. Within the studio there are small groups (X) of people who work on very specific problems (X) – ad hoc teams (X) that form and disband (X) based on task completion. These groups also work and collaborate with each other (X) with a give and take (X) between (X) (X) groups. As for documentation and somehow representing the design process, the documentation that gets created today is paltry compared to the stuff created by people like Warren Spector and Richard Garriott. I have full papers on this subject, but the short version is that 1)While the two main forms of documentation still exist, namely the game design document and the technical design document do still exist, after a certain – pretty early – point in the development process, it no longer reflects reality in any significant way 2)Because of non-functional requirements, like whether the game is fun, immersive and gratifying, the game needs to be PLAYED to move forward, designers create playable prototypes (digital or physical) that they can immediately interact with. Decisions resulting from this play are not documented in any easily recognized way 3)Instead of documentation like we’re used to – the game itself becomes a record of how it was made – and we as archivists really don’t have any good way to model that… 4)Add to this the players (X), and the fact that they’re encouraged and empowered to modify games to their own needs, or to use game engines as a jumping off point for other games or other narratives (X)…the boundaries of where the game begins and ends becomes less clear, and the documentation problem is expounded – not only do we then have to deal with the industry, but maybe significantly important mods?! 11 If we don’t know exactly where the game starts and where it ends, what should we collect? Well, in a number of our interviews, the developers said that they were actually not that interested in retaining the ability to play the games – this was due to a number of factors… but most referred either directly or indirectly to the idea of authenticity. There are lots of privately run emulation sites out there and its difficult to know what you’re interacting with on any given site; also, there’s a difference between playing a game on its original hardware and playing an emulated game…and there’s a difference between playing a game immediately upon release, and playing it twenty years later – having to constantly remind yourself that you’re playing something that was, at one time, innovative… What did the developers want to see in a videogame archive? And therefore what kinds of materials should a National Game Archive collect? - Development documentation (which is what I was looking at, and is going to be difficult) - Comprehensive game representations (both technical and theoretical) (formal and narrative) (metadata) - Contextual Materials I actually don’t have enough time to go into the issue of comprehensive game representations deeply, but it’s essentially concerned with determining What is the nature of the thing we are trying to collect, describe, manage and preserve? Like I said, I don’t have time to argue for this adequately, but I firmly believe that any representation that doesn’t allow for some formalized and comprehensive description of the social aspect of the game will, in my opinion, be inadequate. 12 So contextual information could include those materials created or supported by the industry: - (The delivery mechanism (the console / computer / handheld device)) - The published game (in all its formats?) (and I’m not just being a pill – the Wii version is a different game from all the other versions…) - Published documentation 13 There are also other kinds of authoritative materials related to videogames, but not related specifically to particular games. Formally published magazines… Antic was the name of a home computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit computer line (Atari 400/800 and compatibles). Its ISSN is 0113-1141. It took its name from the ANTIC chip which produced the Atari line's graphics. The first issue was published in April 1982. While it began as a bimonthly magazine, within a year it had gone monthly. The last issue was in June/July 1990. All told, 88 issues were published. A.N.A.L.O.G. (from Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games) was the name of a computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit home computer line. It was known for its "advanced" programs in comparison to most type-in magazines of the era, especially its main rival, ANTIC, another long-lived magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit line. ANALOGs first issue was released in February 1981 and it was published bi-monthly and then monthly until 1988 when it was sold to LFP, Inc. It continued to run until its final issue in December 1989. Important websites like Gamasutra or Kotaku… 14 Then finally, there are fan-created artifacts – things I’m calling “Artifacts of Participatory Culture.” I’ve got a chapter in a book coming out about this material, and I don’t have the time to do this material justice, but I believe that these materials, if we can create robust and formalized collection development policies, will be very valuable for representing how people interacted with games, what they found engaging, and important – what touched them about the game world. The three examples that I don’t have time to talk about are: If you’re interested in hearing more, I can talk about this at length! 15 That’s it for me! Thank you so much for your time and attention. If you have any questions about my work, or would like to know more about the artifacts of participatory culture or my interviews, or even learn more about the videogame archive, please approach me - I’ll look forward to talking with you.
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