GDC08: Preserving Games panel
by JC Fletcher 
{ Feb 20th 2008 at 5:45PM }
Lowood suggested some future possibilities for gathering not only game code, but metadata as well, for permanent preservation, driving home the idea that we should at least intend for things to be available in 100 years. He suggested finding a way to capture data from existing game-data aggregators like Mobygames to associate with a library record.
Issues that were discussed in this panel, to be continued at tomorrow's part 2, included bringing information professionals and knowledgeable gamers, collectors, and developers together. Lowood likened gamers to destroyers -- fast, small ships -- and the colleges getting involved with the Library of Congress-funded Virtual Worlds Project (the overarching initiative to preserve games) to battleships who happen to know more about "industrial-strength preservation."
The attendees, a group consisting of developers, writers, academics, and collectors, discussed the issue of what constitutes a library, and what constitutes a "preserved" game. Is emulation preservation? Is the experience captured? Is it in a library's purview to attempt to capture an experience? Issues like these are what make the game preservation project difficult, and warrant further discussion.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rob Accomando @ Feb 20th 2008 6:05PM
for a second I thought it said, "Gamestop: reserving games" panel.
Adam S @ Feb 20th 2008 7:06PM
I hope that publishers can be encouraged to release obsolete games and techs into the public domain like what has been done with simcity and the quake 3 engine. Money isn't being made on old stuff so there is no reason for publishers to give themselves good publicity by releasing them.