Marvel at Machinima Part I_e

Martin Picard argues that “machinima’s production techniques are similar to filmmaking practices” (2006, p.2). It should be safe to state that machinima can be considered a form of digital cinema. In Blizzard’s massively multi-player online role playing game, World of Warcraft, the cinematic possibilities are limited unless the creator resorts to expensive software tools like Cambot. This stand-alone software application models the traditional film making process in a variety of ways. Elson and Riedl explain that once the script and the scene parameters are set, the program automatically “blocks characters, identifies possible shot compositions, and edits available shots into a final reel” (2007, p.10). The inputs that need to be given to the program are sets, environments that are labeled “indoors” or “road” and a script that is analogous to a script in traditional filmmaking. The commands that are contained in the scripts, like gestures or positions, are translated into algorithms and later rendered by a separate visualization engine. This very complicated process within a program (that is still in the development phase) leads to crafting “aesthetically acceptable movies” that come close to digital cinema and animation.

The importance of studying the relationship between the creation of machinima and filmmaking leads to a wider context of the study if video games constitute an art form. Opponents of video games point in unison to the dangers of violence and addiction in young adults, and push the discussion of video games as an art to the periphery, if not out of the picture at all. Thus, most of the discussion about video games and art stems from academics who have a serious interest in this fundamental question. The same group, art historians and new media scholars, show an increased interest in machinima productions and many regard them as an art form (Picard, 2006), and thus machinima make a valuable contribution to the expansion of game studies. In order to take this discussion from a theoretical to a practical level, I decided to create a machinima myself.