Thinking About Videogames

Megan WingetSchool of Information

University of Texas at Austin

Game Archives

1. Emulation Test-beds

2. Artifacts of Participatory Culture (i.e., game performance archives)

3. Archives of Documents, source code, digital assets, ancillary documentation of system development

4. Artifact collections

5. Collaborations among Libraries, Archives & Museums

Game Archives

1. Emulation Test-beds

2. Artifacts of Participatory Culture (i.e., game performance archives)

3. Archives of Documents, source code, digital assets, ancillary documentation of system development

4. Artifact collections

5. Collaborations among Libraries, Archives & Museums

The Game

Engine

Publisher

Art / Design

Game Tech

IP Holder

Mods

Level Mods

Total Conversion

Machinima

Etc.

Game RepresentationsObject? Artifact? System? Entity!

Game Representations

Context: The Games & Supporting Materials

Context: Cultural Materials

Context: Artifacts of Participatory Culture

Library of Books in Ultima Online

Stars of Intrepid Wiki in Star Wars Galaxies

Live Event Chat Transcripts in Matrix Online

How Am I For Time?

Library in UltimaBooks were collected

“…on the Catskills shard of Ultima Online. They were gathered sparingly from the inception of the server by a character named Stilgar of the Shadow Rangers until 1999 and in earnest [by Mr. Bacon] in 1999 and 2000”

“These obviously represent a small slice of the books that were written in game. Many books on Catskills were behind locked doors and their owners inaccessible. Many books before I started collecting in earnest were lost. I myself had small collection decay while trying to move them from a smaller house to a larger one. And obviously many years have passed since I was collecting. (I heard that the person’s house that I had left them to may have decayed so my offline copies may be the only that remain) Also there are many, many more shards than just Catskills with book collections of their own.”

Library in Ultima (Characteristics)

24 Directories717 Books

Intrepid History Project (1)Wiki to collect and preserve:

“This website is for sharing your memories, sharing your thoughts, and sharing your friends. Hopefully it manages to get enough community support so we can all dig through the memories. Even the vets want to be transported back to the magic that once was. There are many historical things that happened on Intrepid. We also have our own fair share of server legendary events. Share your dreams of times past and contribute to saving Intrepid's history.”

Intrepid History Project (characteristics)

1,403 pages

19 sections

Matrix Online (1)

Much more personal vision of player experience

Use of HTML rather than wikis to preserve content similar to Stars of Intrepid

Centralized web site for Matrix Online live event transcriptsI don’t think Matrix Online has guild-like entitiesAny community built around this site is created by site

content alone

Matrix Online (2)

Tectonic Shift

Production and authorship

Dissemination

Concept of authoritative content

Increasing importance of contextual information

Thanks!megan.winget@gmail.com