Game Preservation SIG/Oral Histories
International Game Developers Association
Contents |
Project Aims
- Title: Oral Histories
- Purpose: The organisation of interviews with videogame developers to record their personal histories.
- Lead: Dean O’Donnell (Associate Director, Interactive Media and Game Development, Dept. of Humanities and Arts, WPI)
- Started: N/A
Project Overview
The video game industry is older than some may think. It is generally thought of as a new and budding industry, which makes it easy to ignore the fact that it is filled with interesting stories of how it began. These stories range from small-time, two-man jobs working out of a garage, to the founding of today’s publishing and development giants. There’s a lot of history out there, and unlike other industries and media, much of it has yet to be collected.
The IGDA Oral Histories project is an attempt to capture the history of the video game industry through the words of the people who made it what it is, the pioneers. The project aims to create videotaped interviews with these people and focus on their past; specifically, what the interviewee has contributed to or pioneered in the industry. Since the industry continually grows, and this trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down, future generations of game developers and academics will find that these interviews are an invaluable resource; they will provide glimpses into how the industry was made, how it grew, and how things were done in the early days. The best part is that this future audience will be able to see and hear this history directly from the people that made it.
Definition
Oral Histories are interviews dedicated to the past - and not, as most interviews are, the future. These ask about previous games developer have made, the history of companies and developments, and the developers own personal histories. The format will be in video, with transcripts, making it much more useful for archives.
Another possibility is to film histories in the "now" on what is currently going on, but only release the videos specifically in the future, allowing a glimpse at current happenings without censorship which might occur from NDA's or from not wanting to call out problems with people immediately. This can work well with players too, who would be subject to these histories just as much as developers, and would need to be able to talk candidly about the games they are playing now and what they like/dislike, and who they like/dislike playing with.
This is in the initial stages, and has no plans as of yet. If you feel you could be interviewed, in depth, on film about your past contributions to the industry more then your future contributions, or can help interview and film, feel free to contact us!
We will also likely be taking contributions from other parties, as long as permission can be granted to archive and distribute the material freely.
Examples
Examples of Oral Histories related to technology:
