Chris newman pc games11/12/2023 ![]() James Newman, co-founder of the National Videogame Archive (NVA) thinks that the real value of let’s plays is in suggesting a model for game preservation. ![]() “The only way to capture that is through documentation, such as YouTube videos and fan websites.” ![]() “What interests people about games such as MMORPGS, for the most part, is the human interaction going on there,” said McDonough. This is a viewpoint that Jerome McDonough, an Associate Professor at the School of Information Sciences at the iSchool of Illinois describes. Videos made by and about the community, however, can serve as important documents to preserve the spirit of many games of this type. A defunct MMORPG can be saved on a private server, as in the case of the secret City Of Heroes server that was recently snitched on, but the player base that was fundamental to the experience of the game cannot be archived in the same way. Any attempt to preserve online games in particular runs into the problem of how to preserve the community around a game once the fan base has moved on. Let’s plays preserve games in ways that simply archiving the software itself does not. Soapywarpig’s glee reflects not only the genuinely unexpected Silent Hills announcement as a point in video game history, but preserves the experience games such as these exist to create: joy. YouTube gaming in particular is prone to hyperbole and rehearsed reactions. The genuine nature of her excitement is important too. ![]() Soapywarpig was the first streamer to reveal the surprise announcement at the end of PT, and her genuine excitement at reaching the end of the game and seeing the twist reveal of Silent Hills, is a major part of understanding why PT was so influential. While the videos preserve how a game looked and operated, it’s the reaction of the player that documents the culture that builds up around the title. as an example again (which is slightly naughty on a PC only site) streamer Soapywarpig archived her entire stream on her YouTube channel. And, as McAllister notes, the players themselves are key to understanding the game’s cultural footprint. This runs the risk of smaller games being forgotten, but it’s useful to reflect what was dominating gaming culture at a given time and why. Youtubers are often driven by trends, covering the most exciting parts of the biggest games at the time. If you rip out all the pages of existential angst and whining from Hamlet and jump straight to him stabbing motherfuckers, you lose the understanding of the full experience. While yes, this can often reflect the core experience of the game, it doesn’t give a full picture. YouTube videos can be heavily edited, cutting out the more tedious elements of the game and getting straight to the action, or to the best reaction from the player. and certainly these videos preserve how we will understand and remember the impact of games later. You're not only capturing gameplay but you're capturing game style and game reaction, and all of those things will teach future researchers what games mean. And then there’s times where you’re preserving how people play, where you're shooting both from behind and at the player. “Some involve biochemistry where you're trying to preserve the materials, like textiles and wood and plastic, and those kinds of scientific endeavours. “There are all kinds of ways of preserving these things,” said McAllister. Ken McAllister, co-founder of video game archival group the Learning Games Initiative (LGI) endorses the idea of walkthroughs and YouTube-style let’s plays as forms of secondary documentation, vital to any preservation efforts. It was famously removed from the Playstation store following the cancellation of Silent Hills, and despite several fan attempts to remake it on PC, YouTube remains the best place to experience it now it’s gone. In some cases, that footprint is the most readily available form of a game, as in the case of P.T. They are perhaps best described as a game’s cultural footprint, rather than the beast itself. While let’s plays are unquestionably not preserving the game itself, they can function as secondary documentation, and preserve the cultural impact of a game as well as the community that built up around it. What gets overlooked is the (perhaps unwitting) contribution these YouTubers are making to the preservation of video games. Ryan Clark, developer of roguelike rhythm game Crypt of the Necrodancer told the New York Times that he had seen a $60,000 boost in sales after PewDiePie showcased his game. For developers, for example, getting a popular YouTuber to play their latest title can be a significant boost to sales. It’s a long-observed fact that the phenomenon of the YouTube let’s play has benefits beyond just entertaining viewers and gradually introducing teenagers to neo-Nazism via YouTube's algorithm. ![]()
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