Informative: Machinima for the Uninitiated

Today I set out to learn a little bit more on the subject of Machinima and then to blog about it before class tomorrow, at Dr. Burton's request. This knowledge is coming in bits and pieces; hopefully this post is at least somewhat intelligible.

Machinima is the use of video game engines to create movies. Using an existing game engine means that the movie can be rendered in the original game's environment(s) and characters. The term is derived from Machine and Cinema.
(see also Machinima.com, "the next generation video entertainment network for video gamers")

Originally I was under the impression that you could only make Machinima from PC games, but the second video on this webpage taught me differently. He's actually choosing to focus on only console games and excluding PC games completely. Note: If you decide to watch the video, don't listen to or watch any advertisement preceding it-I liberally apply the adjectives "crass", "crude", and "monumentally stupid" to the one I was unfortunate enough not to mute. The language of the video itself is also NSFW. But the video is is informative!

It turns out that some games that have a history of Machinima (such as Halo: Reach) have what is called "Theater Mode" so you can act out and record stories. If the game you are using does not have a theater mode, you have to film in real time, using a program such as Bandicam.

Here follow a few (hopefully) instructive examples.

The following video is NOT an example of Machinima because it is simply video of game play. Whoever posted the video just recorded the game being played, they did not make their own story out of it.

Instead, Machinima includes a change to the original game. In the following example, the makers of the Machinima, using the game Lord of the Rings: Conquest of Middle Earth and their own dubbed in voices, created a sort of fanfic for Lord of the Rings. Warning! These are not professional voice actors! Unintentional cheesiness ensues!

Here is another example, and a fairly popular one (if you can judge by the number of views: just under 1.5 million). Warning! Some of the language is NSFW:

Up until this point in my search I was not much seeing the point or getting any enjoyment from watching these or any others that I found. I can see how it would be fun to make one, but that's about it. But then I found this next one. And you know what? I smiled. And I laughed.

I would be interested to know how this was done. According to The Keyhole (a wiki for Kingdom Hearts), a theater mode can be unlocked in a few versions after beating the game, but it doesn't sound like a normal theater mode. According to the wiki, "It allows the player to re-watch all voiced cut scenes in the game after beating it at any time via the main menu." But even if there is a record function, how did they make them dance?? Still much to learn.

Project Proposal: Mods as Remix

Here is my proposal! The project would be to create either a mod in Minecraft or a Machinima using a work of fiction. There is a bit of clarification on what we would actually do at the end of this post. We would be working with the idea of remix in video games. I am going to focus on the mod for this post.

Here follows some information about both mods and Minecraft.

First of all, what is Minecraft? In a word, Legos. Ok not really. But it's like virtual Legos for adults.

Minecraft is a indie PC game that has become extremely popular in the last few years. In the game you have 1m x1m blocks of materials (such as wood, stone, and dirt) to build with. There are two ways to play: adventure mode, where you collect your materials and at night monsters come out to try to kill you. I thought it looked kind of dumb until my husband had me play it; then I was (mildly) addicted. Look! I made a castle in my adventure mode game:

Then there's creative mode, where you have unlimited resources and no monsters (unless you choose to spawn them or other mobs). People do some crazy stuff with creative mode, such as this:

and this:

That's right. Someone built Minas freaking Tirith. And a to scale Starship Enterprise. Now, it's my understanding that they didn't actually have to place every single individual building block, but I don't know how that works yet. Another person build an honest to goodness working computer (a rudimentary one), and another guy built a computer that plays Pong.

So can we all agree that Minecraft is cool? Good. So what's a mod? Wikipedia gives us this definition:

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games (PC games), especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not stand-alone software and require the user to have the original release in order to run...Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions and mods that fix bugs are called unofficial patches.

In other words, when a gamer wants to create his own level, his own characters, his own weapons, or even his own game, he can create a mod. It is my understanding that this cannot be done with all games, only games where the developers allow this and mainly on PC games (vs games played on consoles such as PlayStation or Xbox).

I may or may not have spent a good hour today looking at Minecraft mods. I found some pretty cool ones, including 2D Minecraft and a mod where you can play a version of the Hunger Games. But this one was my favorite:

My actual proposal: to create a small mod or mods (because the examples I gave are a HUGE amount of work) in Minecraft that is taken from one of our fiction books. For example, we could create our own potion, that, when drunk, turns your character into a Mr. Hyde version of himself. I'm not sure if that is too small a scale to be considered remix, but we will run with it for now.

The only potential problem is that I don't know how much experience in programming we would need to have to do this. This may have to do with the fact that I spent a lot of time that I should have been using to research this subject just looking at the hundreds of cool things to do in Minecraft. I know that people use Java to mod Minecraft, and that's about all. If this turns out to be unfeasible then we can always do a project with Machinima (stay tuned for class Tuesday and another blog post).

Categories of Remix

Awhile back, Dr. Burton mentioned in class that too many remixes were just spoofs. Then, today someone asked a question about whether literature to film adaptation counted as remix culture. Dr. Burton said he didn't think so, but I disagree on both points. I think that both spoofs and film adaptations are simply different levels or categories of remix. With that in mind, I came up with a few classifications of remix. I am choosing to call them "classifications" rather than "levels" since the latter has connotations of varying, er, levels of value. I think that each of these classifications have both a place and value in the digital world. My categories are spoof, homage, borrowing, and adaptation.

Spoof

Rough Definition: A production that makes fun of or has fun with the original work. 

Quick Example: Warning: Both videos have dance moves that are somewhat NSFW, but only mildy. Both are kind of ridiculous, but Grant Imahara spoofs this video (the original)

with his own work here (the spoof):

Grant does not really add anything new, just does pretty much the same thing in a different environment.

Homage

Rough Definition: A reference to another work, large or small, embedded in something new.

Quick Example: Borderlands 2 pays homage to Minecraft. For those not into gaming, Borderlands is a popular FPS whose sequel was released today. Minecraft is an indie game that gained a large following and is hugely popular in the gaming world.

Borrowing

Rough Definition: Taking elements of one work and incorporating them into another but no so much that the new work could be called a straight adaptation.

Quick Example: Alfred Hitchcock seems to have borrowed elements from Hamlet when making his Movie North by Northwest, such as the idea of a play within a play. However, no one is going to argue that North by Northwest is a straight up adaptation of Hamlet; there is too much missing. According to Professor Dennis Perry, North By Northwest then went on to  inspire many elements in other films, becoming a borrowed from source itself.

Adaptation

Rough Definition: Taking an original work and adapting it to a different audience. This could be taking a book and making it for a film audience to taking a story written for a 19th century audience and changing it with a 21st century audience in mind.

Quick Example: Turning J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit into a three movies. Not only is Peter Jackson adapting this story for a film audience, he is adapting it for an audience who has become accustomed to epic movies with giant budgets and massive amounts of CGI. On top of that, he is adapting it for an audience that is becoming used to having their books adapted into multiple movies (see Harry Potter 7 parts One and Two, as well as Breaking Dawn parts 1 and 2).


These are just four categories that I came up with (quickly) off the top of my head. I'd love it if someone or several someones would critique these, suggest others, provide more diverse examples, etc.

Making Connections with Jekyll and Hyde: Some Initial Thoughts

When I mentioned on Google+ that I was thinking about using The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for my fiction book, Dr. Burton posted that I might consider making the connection of the split worlds. I intend to do just that!

Dr. Jekyll postulates that every human consists of two separate natures: pure good and pure evil. He explains that these two natures are in constant conflict with one another. He theorizes that if these two natures were separated, the pure good half would be unimpeded in its with to do good for mankind, and the world would be a better place.

With this view in mind, Jekyll creates a potion that will split his personalities. However, at the moment when Jekyll actually consumes the potion, his motives are not pure. He anticipates the guilt-free fun that he will have as his "evil" self. Because of this, his personality is split in a slightly different way than he expected: his pure evil self is indeed made to be a separate entity, but his other identity remains much as it ever was, with all its grey areas.

The world is much like human nature: full of good, evil, and the grey areas. The Digital World is no exception. The internet is a marvelous thing, full of potential in both directions. As with Dr. Jekyll, it is our intentions that will determine our experience when venturing out into the Wide Internet World. We have a choice: to be productive and improve ourselves and the world, or to waste a lot of time or venture into the darker areas of the internet. 

Video Game Acceptance:Because Have No Other Choice?

I just read an article about possible benefits of playing video games. The authors laid out a few benefits that included possible improved motor skills, increased pain tolerance and relief, possible improved eye sight, faster decision making, and help with psychological issues. Great, right? Maybe.

But the author placed these benefits against the oft purported negative affects of video games, namely, "they're addictive, they make kids fat and they turn us all into trained murderers." If those are indeed the downsides to gaming, they are not to be ignored.

Don't get me wrong, I have no desire to get rid of video games. If any of the negative effects are true they can be avoided by using caution and moderation.

No, this article simply made me wonder if we (as a society) are coming up with ways to make gaming ok in our own minds since it appears that gaming is not going anywhere. A little bit like doublethink? Kind of. Do we do this with anything else in our culture?

Book Review: All Your Base Are Belong to Us

I do not yet have the physical book (Amazon estimates the delivery date to be between Tuesday September 11 and Wednesday September 26, 2012) but I have been reading what I can on the Amazon preview and Google Books. I've gotta say, so far I'm disappointed.

The subtitle for this book is "How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture." Maybe the 'conquer pop culture' part is hidden in the parts that I do not yet have access to, but so far the book is just an overview of the history of video games, with little to no crossing into the pop culture realm. 

The introduction was promising, beginning with the author's own experiences in gaming and his thoughts on the subject. Then it moves into the history, which, so far, is just a recounting of what happened with little to no discussion of the implications. I have learned some interesting things (such as Pong was not actually the first video game, a fact that I always thought was true), but have little idea how video games function or functioned in the world culture.

Based on the title, what I was hoping to get from this book was a little information on gamer culture, what makes game companies tick, how the market affects their decision making and vice versa.

If, when I get the physical copy, I find more about pop culture and video games, I will report back.