This document discusses machinima, which is defined as fan-generated videos created using existing game assets and codes. It examines the symbiotic relationship between machinimators and the game industry. The document also explores various methods for creating and distributing machinima, as well as issues around ownership, authorship, and intellectual property related to machinima. It provides examples of controversies between Nintendo and Let's Play video creators over monetization of gameplay videos. The document envisions potential educational uses of machinima and how it could blend real and virtual worlds or be used as a form of Theater of the Oppressed.

1. Machinima:
Symbiosis of the Participatory Digital
Culture and the Game Industry
Sherry Jones
ISTE Edumachinima Fest 2016
http://bit.ly/machinimaart

2. Machinima: A Multivalent Term
Machinima, in basic terms, is defined as fan-generated and produced videos based on existing
game art, codes, and/or assets. Machine + Animation + Cinema = Machinima.
A symbiotic relationship exists between machinimators and the game industry, one in which
they rely on each other for content and/or revenue.
Not all machinimas are created for entertainment (even though the games from which
machinimas borrow tend to be for entertainment only).
Let’s examine scholar Tracy Harwood’s taxonomy of machinimas on the various creation
methods and purposes.

3. Methods for Creating Machinima
1. Perfect Capture
2. Screen Capture
3. Asset Compositing
4. ‘Bespoke’ Machinimation
5. Art Machinimation (my addition
to Harwood’s taxonomy)

4. Methods for Distributing Machinima
1. Game Channels
2. Social Networks
3. V-Learning
Channels
4. Walled Channels

5. Who is Machinimating?
● Machinimators
● Artists
● Educators

6. The Machinima Controversy

7. Ownership, Authorship, and Intellectual Property
● Are Game Designers/Developers, Who Authored a Game, Owners of that Game as Well?
● Who is the Author of a Machinima? The Game Authors, or the Machinima Authors?
● Do Machinimas Challenge or Preserve/Recognize IP rights?
● Are Owners of a Game’s IP rights Automatically the Owners of Machinimas Based on the
Same Game?
● Who, Ultimately, Get to Profit Off of Machinima?

8. Nintendo’s
Response to LP
Machinima
A Multi-Part Saga . . .

9. Nintendo’s Response to LP Machinima (2013)
“Now, it looks like Let's Play videos are one more piece of content that's being caught up in
YouTube's Content ID system. It's an automated copyright- enforcement system that's been
glitchy from the start and often criticised for taking down legitimate content.”
“It looks like LPers are the latest victims. A prolific LPer named Zack Scott took to Facebook
yesterday to complain that several LPers had experienced takedowns of the videos including
Nintendo games.”
“Nintendo Kicks ‘Let’s Play’ Videos Off YouTube Then Slaps Ads on Them” (May 16, 2013)

10. Let’s Players’ Response to Nintendo (2013)
Zach Scott’s Response to Nintendo:
“I got a Wii U at midnight when I already had one in the mail. I've been a Nintendo fan since the
NES, and I've owned all of their systems... I think filing claims against LPers is backwards. Video
games aren't like movies or TV. Each play-through is a unique audiovisual experience. When I
see a film that someone else is also watching, I don't need to see it again. When I see a game
that someone else is playing, I want to play that game for myself! Sure, there may be some
people who watch games rather than play them, but are those people even gamers?”
“Nintendo Kicks ‘Let’s Play’ Videos Off YouTube Then Slaps Ads on Them” (May 16, 2013)

11. Nintendo’s Response to LP Machinima (2014)
“It’s only in beta right now, but the Nintendo Creators Program hopes to give Let’s Play-ers a
way to gain ad revenue from videos of Nintendo games. However, by opting into the program,
Let’s Play-ers agree to share the profits with Nintendo, not just keep everything for themselves.
Currently, any Nintendo gameplay video that is posted to YouTube generates ad revenue directly
for Nintendo, and the content creator gets nothing from YouTube. This program would then take
some of that ad revenue and give it back to the creator.”
“Nintendo Introduces Content Creators Program for Let’s Play Videos” (2014)

12. Nintendo’s Response to LP Machinima (2015)
“If you have already submitted your channel for registration and it includes video(s) that contain
game titles outside of the list of supported games, please remove those videos from your
channel within two weeks of the submission date,” the update reads. “If the video(s) are not
removed from the channel within this time, your channel will not be registered with the
program.”. . . “That whitelist omits some big-on-YouTube titles like Nintendo’s own Super Smash
Bros. series. More crucially, it means that anyone who makes videos of games made by
Nintendo’s competitors — since those games are also not on the whitelist — will have to
submit videos one by one and take only a 60 percent cut of the revenue.”
“Nintendo Wants YouTubers to Pretend Its Competitors' Games Don't Exist” (Feb. 4, 2015)

13. Let’s Players’ Response to Nintendo (2015)
Pewdiepie’s Response to Nintendo:
“I also think this is a slap in the face to the YouTube channels that does focus on Nintendo
game exclusively. The people who have helped and showed passion for Nintendo's community
are the ones left in the dirt the most”. . . ."[Nintendo] have every right to do this and any other
developer / publisher have as well. There'd be no "let's play" without the game to play. And we
(YouTubers) are humble to this fact.”. . . "But what they are missing out on completely is the
free exposure and publicity that they get from YouTube / YouTubers. What better way to sell /
market a game, than from watching someone else (that you like) playing it and enjoying
themselves?"
“PewDiePie criticizes Nintendo's Let's Play plans” (Jan. 30, 2015)

14. Solving the “Machinima IP” Problem

15. Recognizing Machinima as Fan Advertisement
● Some game developers want to ban machinimas because they desire to protect copyright
of their games.
● The purpose of copyright is to protect the creator’s rights to obtain monetary gains from
personal creations.
● Recognizing machinimas as fan advertisements can override game developer’s concern of
maintaining copyright.
● Machinima as fan ads can serve as reviews/recommendations for game purchases, which
in turn, increase monetary gain for good, game developers.

16. Recognizing Machinima as Co-Authored Content
● Since machinimas are composed by both game developers’ and fan generated content,
machinimas can and should be recognized as co-authored content.
● However, the “extent” of co-authorship has yet to be clearly defined.
● The question remains: When and how much should a machinimator receive monetary gain
from a machinima piece?

17. Recognizing Machinima as Performance Art
● To recognize machinima as art is to recognize that machinima has its own integrity,
performance context, and performance artistic expressions beyond the original creators of
game assets.
● As the original game provides its own context and vision, a machinima provides an
alternative context and vision that counters or builds upon the original game.

18. Machinima’s Educational Futures

19. Machinima that Blends the Real with the Virtual

20. Machinima as Theater of the Oppressed (TO)?
What is Theater of the Oppressed?
“The Theater of the Oppressed, established in the early 1970s by Brazilian director and Workers'
Party (PT) activist Augusto Boal, is a participatory theater that fosters democratic and
cooperative forms of interaction among participants. Theater is emphasized not as a spectacle
but rather as a language accessible to all. More specifically, it is a rehearsal theater designed
for people who want to learn ways of fighting back against oppression in their daily lives.”
Augusto Boal and the Theater of the Oppressed

21. Visions of Machinima as TO
Imagine students retelling machinima stories through the perspective of . . .
● The Green Pigs who suffer unfair capital punishment without fair trial, due to the law
enforced by Angry Birds.
● Princess Peach’s inability to escape and acceptance of imprisonment in enemy castles,
under the watch of Bowser’s minions, such as Koopas, Gombas, Spinys, through Foucault’s
Panopticon Social Theory.
● Big Daddy having a conversation with Little Sisters about why the girls are being harvested
due to splicers adapting Ayn Rand’s Objectivist ideology.

22. Questions? Comments?
Sherry Jones
Philosopher | Educator | Author | Game Designer
http://about.me/sherryjones
Access Slides
http://bit.ly/machinimaart