The term machinima has been around for years now. Gamers create these game montage movies for entertainment and take pride in them. In his article, Henry Lowood explores the user-created movies that come from World of Warcraft. Lowood, although he appreciates them, isn’t investigating the visual aspects of the WoW movies, but rather how they connect with the game’s social space, community, and technology. He introduces the term "community players" whom are those who use their creativity and technological skills to produce their own ideas into movies. Lowood says they are “consumers who also produce.”
Although I have never played WoW, it is obvious why there are so many player-created movies. The flexibility of the game mechanics and diverse customization of characters almost encourages people with creative minds, computer skills, and extra time on their hands to create movies. With that said, different "community players" represent a good percentage of gamers. Whether the machinima is serious or funny, gamers with varied preferences seem to enjoy them because they can oftentimes relate to the story. Therefore, game movies can accurately represent gaming culture.
I have not seen too many game movies, but there is one that is classic. I remember a while back watching Halo’s Red vs. Blue. Throughout Halo’s lifetime, a bunch of these videos were made, and most Halo fans have probably heard of it. Rob actually has an entire post dedicated to the series. Anyway, here’s the first episode that started it all.
http://www.machinima.com/film/view&id=275
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