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323 Machinima Michael Nitsche Machinima is based on the use of virtual environments for the creation of linear cinematic videos. It reflects play as artistic expression and documents an evolv- fl ing gaming culture through a reframing of games and play. Machinima is not a defined fi genre but a real-time computer animation practice that combines elements of digital puppetry , filmmaking, and performance to create music videos, full-length feature fi fi lms, fi gameplay recordings, and experimental animations, among others. Machinima evolved from two main origins: One foundation for machinima is found in the early hacker scene. To claim the fame of hacking a particular game first, hackers fi often added short intro sequences, “crack intros,” to the software they distributed once the copy protection was broken. Over time, the artistry of these sequences became more important, spinning off to form its own community: the demoscene (Tasajärvi 2004). ff Demoscene members aim to code highly compressed yet visually stunning real-time computer-generated imagery (CGI). Their work largely detached itself from games as it evolved into an independent culture of animation and extreme programming. The second foundation for machinima depends on commercial game engines. Since the early 1980s, developers have used game systems to script animations and to create cut scenes (see cut scenes). Eventually, games like Stunt Island (1992) made these techd niques available to players. Others, such as DOOM (1993) and Quake (1996), allowed players to record their game sessions in log files, called demos, which could be played fi back inside the individual game engine. Players recorded virtual performances and distributed these demos to the larger community of fellow video game players, who soon started to experiment with it. Machinima evolved as an example of emergent play (see emergence) as gamers showed off their skills but also applied basic narrative ff structures (e.g., Diary of a Camper [1996] by The Rangers), created their own demo editr ing tools (e.g., Little Movie Processing Center by Uwe Gierlich [1994]), and formed their r own communities (machinima.com [2001–]). Depending on the engine, each demo had its own file structure and reused available game assets. Thus, they could only be fi played back in the game engine in which they were produced. Machinima remained engine specific but evolved in parallel on diff fi erent platforms. In this wake, the term ff ff itself was assembled by Anthony Bailey and Hugh Hancock as a combination of “cinema ” and “machine” to replace the widespread, but increasingly inaccurate, “Quake movies.” M With advances in home computer technology, game sessions eventually could be recorded directly from the screen by the late 1990s. Ever since, by far most machinima have been produced and distributed as linear pre-rendered videos. This reduced the onceunderlying technical distinction of real-time animation to an optional animation effect, ff ff but machinima’s transmedia appeal grew as videos could be easily shared. The potential value of machinima “to revolutionize visual-based storytelling as we know it” (Marino 2004, 3) was hailed, and it was tested for commercial productions such as Douglas Gayeton ’s Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator (2007). But unresolved limitations, r particularly the restrictions posed by many games’ end-user license agreements, slowed the evolution of a professional machinima community. As a cultural practice, machinima remains in a form of “arrested development” (Salen 2011, 37) that sees many players engaged but no central unifying and evolving core to their art. It largely remains a reflec- fl tion on and documentation of gaming on the one side and an exercise in guerilla video production and experimental animation on the other. ■ See also digital and net art, film and digital media References and Further Reading Hancock, Hugh, and Johnnie Ingram. 2007. Machinima for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Hanson, Matt. 2004. The End of Celluloid: Film Futures in the Digital Age. Mies, Switzerland: RotoVision SA. Kelland, Matt, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd. 2005. Machinima. Boston: Thomson. Lowood, Henry, and Michael Nitsche, eds. 2011. The Machinima Reader. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. r r Marino, Paul. 2004. 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press. Salen, Katie. 2011. “Arrested Development: Why Machinima Can’t (or Shouldn’t) Grow Up.” In The Machinima Reader, edited by Henry Lowood and Michael Nitsche, 37–50. Cambridge, MA: r r MIT Press. Tasajärvi, Lassi. 2004. Demoscene: The Art of Real-Time. Helsinki: Evenlake Studios. Markup Languages Kirstyn Leuner “In the age of new media, there is no way to avoid markup. . . . Markup is writing...

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