Game preservation

Newman, J (2015) 'Game preservation.' In: Mansell, R, Ang, P.H, Steinfield, C, van der Graaf, S, Ballon, P, Kerr, A, Ivory, J.D, Braman, S, Kleine, D and Grimshaw, D.J, eds. The international encyclopedia of digital communication and society. Wiley. ISBN 9781118767771 doi: 10.1002/9781118767771

Abstract

Game preservation is an emerging field of scholarship and practice that is concerned with the long- term availability and documentation of digital games. The discipline tackles issues as diverse as material conservation to stabilise hardware and data forensics to retrieve code from damaged or obsolete storage formats. The dominant strategy for ensuring access to digital games currently is emulation but this raises significant questions about the authenticity of reproduction as well as a host of legal challenges that arise from the copying of Read Only Memories (ROMs) and circumvention of technical measures of protection such as DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems. Documentary strategies focus on gathering contextual materials and capturing players’ performances rather than preserving games in playable form. Online games further complicate preservation efforts with their technically complex client-server architectures and authentication systems, and gameplay that may comprise intricate, emergent and massively multiplayer social interaction that is difficult to replicate or record.

Item Type:	Book Chapter or Section
Note:	Online ISBN: 9781118767771 Print ISBN (3 volume set): 9781118290743
Divisions:	Bath School of Design
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2015 16:41
Last Modified:	21 Dec 2023 19:16
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/6023

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