Happening across numerous works of machinima growing up, including the Red vs. Blue series and assorted World of Warcraft themed works, rewatching Rooster Teeth Animation’s Red vs. Blue episode 1, “Why are We Here?” and watching United Ranger Films’ Diary of a Camper in a more analytical lens was very insightful for me. Machinima’s use of videogame renderings in contrast to traditional frame-by-frame rendering as a medium for film production truly breaks away from the perceived purpose of videogames being “play, win, get a prize.”
The relative simplicity of especially the earliest works of machinima, specifically Diary of a Camper in 1996, using only game renderings with voiceover or added dialogue and some sound effects is a common trait of machinima. This form of production is inherently physically limited in terms of expression and control due to the graphics and mechanics, of course, but also open an accessible narrative separate from the “purpose” of videogame source material. While limited, machinima’s real-time production provides both cost-effectiveness and as a result, accessibility.
Art as a concept is meant to be accessible, which machinima almost perfectly encapsulates. Of course, the average videogame player isn’t going to play Call of Duty or Halo and think about making a feature-length movie. The fact alone that most machinima utilises game rendering but also possesses the flexibility of using commentary found in the game or script added post-production greatly increases the accessibility to create this form of cinematic art.
Machinima makers are able to create a narrative entirely separate from the traditional game storyline, as in many MMORPG related machinimas, or one which addresses the social aspects of the game, as seen in Diary of a Camper or Red vs. Blue. The former, for example, addresses the all-too-familiar annoyance with dealing with campers in Quake but also applies to any other first-person shooter game. What may be seen as a limitation in machinima may also then be seen as one of its virtues, as this mode of art is able to relate to players while allowing the artist to entirely create their own narrative.