Machinima.com

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Machinima.com

URL	http://www.machinima.com/
Type of site	Machinima, Gaming Community, news site, download site
Registration	Free, Optional
Available language(s)	English
Owner	Machinima, Inc.
Created by	Hugh Hancock
Current status	Active

Machinima.com ( /məˈʃiːnɨmə/ or /məˈʃɪnɨmə/) is a gaming and media streaming website, that aims to be a hub for machinima, the art of creating animated videos in real-time virtual 3-D environments. The site features machinima-related articles, and news. Machinima productions can be submitted for possible redistribution after staff review.^[1] Founded in January 2000 by Hugh Hancock of Strange Company, the site helped to bring attention to machinima and to encourage productions based on game engines other than those of id Software's first-person shooter computer game series Quake.^[2] The site currently operates under the name Machinima, Inc.

Content

According to the Machinima.com home page, the site hosts thousands of machinima videos. Videos are organized by channels, which group the films by game engine, and by series, for episodic works.^[3] The site contains articles, interviews with people involved in machinima, and tutorials on the creation of machinima.^[3] Visitors can submit news items, which are moderated and posted by the site staff.^[4] Community forums, powered by the phpBB software, are provided for the discussion of machinima.^[5] Additionally, Machinima updates their community with internal and external machinima-related news via dedicated Facebook and Twitter feeds daily.

Machinima Respawn is an off shoot of the larger Machinima family which is dedicated to showing video of raw gameplay, often commentated by the uploader instead of actual Machinima employees. Machinima Sports is Machinima's second YouTube channel off-shoot, which is dedicated to the showing of all Sports related content that Machimima.com previously featured with everything else. It contains a mix of raw gameplay (similar to Machinima Respawn) and traditional machinima but with sport themes.

On June 19, 2010, another Machinima offshoot was created, dedicated to trailers of previous and upcoming Video Games. Named the Machinima Trailer Vault, all trailers on the main channel were retracted and re-uploaded onto this channel. It was formally announced on Machinima's Facebook page on that day.

Machinima Realm is the latest branch in Machinima which is focused on RPG, RTS and MMO(RPG)games.

History and impact

In December 1999, id Software released Quake III Arena. According to Paul Marino, executive director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, film makers who had been using prior versions of the Quake series to record animated videos, then called "Quake movies", were initially excited, but the enthusiasm dampened when id announced that, in an attempt to curtail cheating in multiplayer games, it would take legal action against anyone who released details of Quake III's networking code, which was included in the game's game demo file format. This precluded the use of custom demo-editing tools that had facilitated the creation of videos that used the older Quake and Quake II demo file formats, slowing the release of new Quake movies. Another contributing factor to this decline was that the self-referential nature of the gaming-related situations and commentary of Quake movies was losing novelty. Marino explained bluntly that "the joke was getting old".^[6] Therefore, the Quake movie community needed to reinvent itself.^[7]

In January 2000, Hugh Hancock launched Machinima.com, a resource for video makers who used computer and video games as a medium. The site's name was foreign to the Quake movie community. The term machinima was originally machinema, a portmanteau of machine and cinema. However, Hancock had misspelled the term in a previous email, and the new name stuck because he and Anthony Bailey, who had worked on Quake done Quick, liked the now-embedded reference to anime.^[8]

The site opened with multiple articles, interviews, and tutorials, and was soon able to acquire exclusive releases of new productions. One such work, Quad God, was the first to use Quake III Arena^[8] and the first to be released in a conventional video file format instead of a demo file format exclusive to a certain game. The switch to conventional media offended some machinima producers, but Quad God, by Tritin Films helped to introduce machinima to a wider audience^[9] and to solidify Machinima.com's launch.^[8] Matt Kelland, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd called the release of Quad God "a key moment in the development of machinima.^[9] In turn, as Machinima.com became more popular throughout 2000, other game engines, such as that of Unreal Tournament, became the basis of new productions and the focus of new software tools for machinima.^[8]

On 30 January 2006, Hancock announced his resignation as editor-in-chief of Machinima.com and that control of the site would be transferred to the staff of Machinima, Inc. Among the reasons cited for the change were differences in approach to the site and a desire to devote more time to Strange Company's 2006 machinima production BloodSpell. Hancock called the decision "possibly the biggest step I've taken since I founded Strange Company nearly nine years ago".^[10]

In May 2009, Machinima released the series called Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series, a prequel before the 2009 film, comprising six episodes.^[11] It was about the story of one of the characters named Blair Williams (voiced by Moon Bloodgood) and her story about her reaction to the apocalyptic war between machines and humans. It was also distributed by Warner Premiere, Wonderland Sound and Vision and The Halcyon Company. It is currently for download in iTunes, XBOX Live, Playstation Network and Amazon Video.^[12]

Towards the end of 2010, Machinima revamped their webpage and removed the forums (wanting users to use the Facebook page instead), and the ability to upload videos.

Inside Gaming

One of Machinima's most notable and popular series is their daily segment of Inside Gaming. The segment combines the aspects of creating machinima and delivering gaming news. It is hosted by Adam Kovic, an employee of Machinima, under the alias The Dead Pixel. It was under this alias his notability and fame were built, when it was his initial Xbox Live Gamertag. Kovic has since risen to be a "star" within the Machinima community. He is often seen in Halo 3-themed machinima form, which is recognisable by his lava-red Recon helmet. Inside Gaming is the successor to Machinima's discontinued segment, Inside Halo, which was less successful due to the lack of news surrounding the Halo series. Inside Halo was also hosted and started by "Soda God" and he let Adam host the show one week and Soda God the other. When Soda God ceased hosting Inside Halo as often, Kovic unintentionally gained control of the series given that he was doing more recent episodes.^[13]

Arby 'n' the Chief

Another one of Machinima's more notable and popular shows is their weekly episodic Machinima/Live-Action hybrid series, Arby 'n' the Chief. The series focuses on the lives of two living Halo action figures, Master Chief and The Arbiter. It was created by Jon Graham, an employee of Machinima who lives in Canada. The series had originally focused on Game Culture and the toys doing various shenanigans around Jon Graham's apartment. However, beginning with Season 5, the series had grown to become more plot-driven and more dramatic elements added. Jon has stated that the series is now used to expose the Online community for what it really is. Arby 'n' the Chief was originally conceived from Jon Graham's smash-hit three part mini-series, Master Chief Sucks at Halo. The series has also been recognized by Bungie, creators of Halo, and with that Jon Graham was awarded the then-exclusive Recon armor permutation.^[14]

Expansion of distribution mediums

Currently, Machinima has expanded onto many websites and platforms to distribute their content. Machinima currently maintains their main website, five YouTube channels, an iPhone/iPad application, an Android application, and Facebook/Twitter feeds that distribute news content.

After seeing popularity spikes solely on their YouTube channel, Machinima focused on expanding it, and now all videos featured on their website are now available via the Machinima YouTube channel. Machinima has also released an iPhone application, where all videos can be viewed from Apple Inc. mobile devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. On May 19, 2010, Machinima released a statement on their Facebook page that they were developing an Android App, and they were in need of "fan beta testers". The App was released on October 2010.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Main YouTube Channel
  • Machinima Respawn
  • Machinima Realm
  • Machinima Sports
  • Machinima Trailer Vault
  • Machinima Happy Hour