I have a confession to make: I’m still trying to figure out machinima — not because I can barely operate the standard two-joystick video game controller, but because to me, in comparison to other online-only content, it’s new media’s complicated stepbrother. Despite the longtime success and of popular machinima series like Red vs. Blue, gamers using Halo, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and other titles as a medium for telling their own stories simply don’t receive the same level of respect that even the most low-budget web series producer might.
However, the folks at Machinima.com (where former NewTeeVee editor Chris Albrecht now works as vice president of the director’s program; see some of our previous coverage of the company) have one of the most-viewed channels of all time on YouTube, with 800 million views, and have found a loyal audience by curating and enabling this genre in its infancy. The site straddles the line between being content creators — they co-produced the first real machinima project by a major studio, the official prequel to Terminator Salvation — and commentators on the world of gaming. That latter approach, for the most part, falls under the banner of Inside Gaming, Machinima’s game review show hosted by actor/writer Adam Kovic under the guise of a Halo warrior known as The Dead Pixel.
Knowing that the people who make and watch machinima are the same people who play and enjoy video games, Inside Gaming this year decided to give them a voice by creating an awards ceremony through the Machinima.com YouTube channel, allowing viewers to vote on 18 categories ranging from Game of the Year to Best Replayability. Voting was handled through YouTube annotations, and the winners were announced informally last Friday at an industry-only affair structured around a 20-minute video presentation.
As a video package, the Inside Gaming Awards were well-produced and tightly written, albeit with a distinct lack of emphasis on the talent behind the games being produced. In the clip for Best Original Score, for example, which was won by well-known film composer Hans Zimmer for his work on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Zimmer’s name is never mentioned.
As a member of the live audience, it was interesting to witness the crowd’s responses to the various categories, which ranged from the technical to the creative. A category honoring the most compelling character in a game was won by the Joker from Batman: Arkham Asylum (no telling if the award will be split equally by the game’s designers and voice actor Mark Hamill), but the cheers that award was met with were nothing compared to when the AC130 Kill Streak from Modern Warfare 2 won Best Weapon. There were perhaps more employees from Call of Dutys parent company present (I know this because the Machinima.com staff kicked their butts at their own game prior to the ceremony), but even unbiased fans were excited.
Perhaps that’s where the break in comprehension lies for me and video games, what keeps me from seeing the storytelling power of the genre. Trained as I am to value narrative and character, I’m still struggling to understand how in this medium, the game play is just as valuable a part of the experience, the weapons as essential as the plot points and acting. This isn’t a leap machinima fans have to make. Inserting themselves mentally into these exotic worlds and navigating them with ease comes naturally to them. They’re not just used to being a part of the story — they expect it.
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