Gray here. I wanted to do a little writen blog about my feelings concerning my Machinima.com partnership, particularly the audience the channel has. I’ve had slightly too much Relentless this evening so I’m on some sort of sugar buzz right now, fast typing, fast typing.

So, today ‘Taxi’ got uploaded to the Machinima.com YouTube channel, of course when I saw this I was pretty darn pleased. I have been waiting for one of my videos to be uploaded onto the channel since I first found out about it, Ottae got ‘Thawed’ uploaded to the channel back in the summer and since then, I’ve wanted it even more. The intergration into the Machinima.com partnership program helped speed things up slightly.

For the first half hour it was up I was pressing F5 like mad, waiting for the comments to come in.

“First”

“1ST XD”.

“SeCoNd!”

The evening went on, and I began to question everything I thought was true about Machinima. I was under the impression it was a new, exciting form of expression that would change the way we looked at gaming and showed ordinary people that they can do exceptional things if they put in dedication and hard work.

It would appear, this was about as true as Father Christmas.

Machinima, in my eyes is different to what others see it as. I know a fair amount of people agree with my view on it, I know Ottae does, as well as 7, Luca, Dmitri and a host full of other Machinima people I know. To me, machinima is literally what its definition is – Machine Cinema. The key word there is Cinema. Creating movies with machines.

To other people though, Machinima does not hold such a meaning. To them, Machinima means Halo 3. It means action, explosions, gunfights, warhogs, Arby N’ The Chief (which is not even really machinima to begin with because most of it is live action). While that is a small part of cinema, it only a small section of a huge world.

In the first…4hours…Taxi has been up it has received mixed reviews. Comments ranging from “lame…” to “terrible choice of game” to “Get a life”. Of course, I have got a lot of positive feedback, to which I do appreciate greatly. If you look on the profiles of the people who have posted the negative comments you see Halo 3 videos. Shock horror.

To some, Machinima is nothing more then gunfights and explosions. To others however, it is more then that. It really is an artform. One day the fans who like watching gunfights will move on, and the ones left – the ones who really understand what Machinima is, and know the potentional it has in years to come will be left to develop the art of movie-making at home into a true expression form. First though, we need to challenge peoples view of what they feel is a good machinima.

_____________________

Right, that makes little sense but you get the idea. Cliffnotes below.

Machinima is too Halo orientated, people complain the second their view of Machinima is challenged. Not every video is a Halo 3 video with gunfights and explosions. Some of the best machinima ever made comes from unexpected places, and creates emotions in the viewer. Like real films. Until peoples narrow view is shattered, something that has the potentioal to enspire thousands of people will never blossom. It will wither and die, on the steel floor of Cold Storage.

The game is set in the fictional state of San Andreas, comprising three metropolitan cities. Set in late 1992,[9] San Andreas revolves around gang member Carl “CJ” Johnson returning home from Liberty City to Los Santos after learning of his mother’s murder. CJ finds his family and his old gang, the Grove Street Families, in disarray. Over the course of the game, CJ gradually unravels the plot behind his mother’s murder while reestablishing his gang and exploring his own business ventures. Like other games in the series, San Andreas is composed of elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features “open-world” gameplay that gives the player more control over their playing experience. The game adds several features, such as gang wars, car customization, and character personalization.

Much like the previous entries in the Grand Theft Auto series, San Andreas’s critical and commercial success has not been without controversy. The most notable controversy was over the explicit “Hot Coffee” sex minigame found on the Microsoft Windows game, which was disabled but left within the game’s code. Its discovery led San Andreas to be re-rated briefly as an adult game and pulled from retailers’ shelves.