A funny thing happened on my way back to Machinima.com
I made such a loud statement when I departed from Machinima.com earlier in 2007, it seems only right that I also make public my reasons for returning. And I’d also like to share something I discovered after I returned… something very pleasantly surprising.
That’s right, all of my films are once again available at Machinima.com. And there is but one reason I took steps to make that happen, and that reason is the one I indicated at the time of my departure. Receiving an apology was a plus, but I had to see for myself that the circumstances which made me want to leave were, in fact, an isolated incident - not the beginning of a pattern of behavior. To be specific, a moderator over there had handled a disagreement in a way I found inappropriate. So naturally, I was on the lookout for subsequent “crises” to see how they were handled.
Several months ago, I was able to observe just such a situation. There were a handful of people who were extremely disgruntled about some circumstances surrounding some of the contests being sponsored at the site. Mind you, I think the charges were fairly meritless and stemming from a hyper-sore-loser complex (and from someone who had already accrued a troublemaker’s reputation)… but of note was the level of vitriol being directed at the site and its staff. And I am happy to report that I witnessed the staff defending themselves in a rational and cool headed manner, never resorting to censoring posts or deleting posts, banning users, etc. And an amazing thing happened when the staff laid back: other users came to their defense, the trollish behavior was poo-poo’d in the public eye, and the users resolved the situation naturally and among themselves.
I think the restraint shown by the staff is remarkable, and was decidedly contrary to the impression I’d formed from my own experiences earlier in the year. Whatever it was that transpired before I left, it was not ongoing, it was not the norm, it was not a pattern as I’d feared.
So I’m back. I won’t really be a regular on the forums; I’m not much of a forum regular anywhere right now other than at Moviestorm, where discussions are largely practical and product-specific. I’m a bit disillusioned with forums as a mode of communication outside that specific kind of context. There are certainly exceptions - small, private, heavily moderated fora seem to fare the best - but for the most part they seem to be a bit outmoded. But forum aside, Machinima.com is now one of the places where my films will be syndicated. (It’s worth noting that some of my films - even from the not-a-game Moviestorm - accrue views there faster than at YouTube!)
And now, the discovery. I noticed something the other day, and I had to double check it to make sure my perception was accurate. Firstly, Machinima.com - with a notable lack of fanfare - has changed the way their videos are viewed. Instead of being taken to an ad-enslaved pop-up viewer, videos are now viewed inline in Flash… with no advertisement prelude (in the tests I did, I saw none). That’s a very important step on their part which will yield happier visitors (count me as one). Secondly, you can embed their videos elsewhere, as I’d mentioned previously on this blog. Users have a single site login, their own profile, movie management, etc. Their syndicated YouTube channel is amazingly popular - no small feat in the YouTube ocean. Those shifts in presentation style are all very positive, but they are not what really caught my eye.
What is most impressive is: the video quality of Machinima.com’s flash encoding is VASTLY superior to that on the billion dollar YouTube, better than most video sharing sites in fact. Considering the wide array of input formats they accept, that’s a stunning achievement. Somebody over there decided to make video quality a priority… and it shows. It doesn’t hold a candle to Machiniplex’s hi-res glory, but it’s still damn good.
Machinima.com is now a top tier video sharing site in terms of quality, ease of use, etc. Who’d have thunk it?
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I’ve admittedly not visited machinima.com too much in the past few months (especially the forums), but I did catch wind of their update allowing embedded movies which I thought was pretty cool (and it was about time!).
Your insights into things always seem to be, well, insightful. Hearing you say all of this makes me raise a brow and almost want to take a second look myself. I recently checked out their “Inside Halo” series which seemed to be a bit… gamey? But then I realized who was voicing the host: SodaGoD, who happened to be one of my machinima heroes when I first started up. If you’ve never seen his “Pie” series, I have to recommend it. Some of the most bizarre and creative stuff I’ve ever seen done with Halo.
Question about m.com’s YouTube channel (which is a question probably better directed towards them) - do they put all of the movies submitted to m.com on their YouTube?
Oh, and I checked out the iPhone / Lynch short. Definitely my YouTube favorite of the week! It’s pretty interesting though, he talks a lot about the rise of digital video (and iPod in particular) being a generally great thing for film in “Catching the Big Fish.” I personally have “Superbad” on my iPod, but I saw it first on a good screen with a good sound system, but that’s OT - and probably not the kind of film he had in mind when he said that!
Comment by kradproductions — January 7, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
Glad to hear they’re still going well. I’ve not really checked M.Com for a while now - they’re suffering from the same community malaise that I mentioned in my 2007 article over on MfD, and mostly I read articles and forums!
The video quality issue is great to hear - although it’s not hard to beat YouTube quality.
Comment by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock — January 8, 2008 @ 7:35 am
@kradproductions, it appears that they are selective with what ends up on the YouTube channel, they want to try to put their best foot forward. An interesting occurrence there… they put up my Xmas video after I’d already put it up on YouTube… and then they pulled their copy without me even asking. I interpreted it as a “right of way” maneuver, and I thought that was very courteous (assuming it was intentional).
Comment by overman — January 8, 2008 @ 9:41 am
This is great news. Like (I suspect) a great number of people in the community, I’ve let machinima.com drop totally off my radar recently. But the changes you’ve listed here are all positive, and are definitely enough to get me to pay another visit.
Comment by Johnnie Ingram — January 8, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
Very interesting about their YouTube channel. I haven’t read the fine print on their submission form in quite a while and I’m not sure what all they can and cannot do with your vids once you submit them. I know it’s not uncommon to see duplicates of videos on YouTube, and so long as they give you due credit, I guess there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no such thing as bad exposure I suppose, unless the video or audio quality sucks. Interesting case with yours. If they are taking into consideration who uploaded it first, ETC., then that’s very cool.
Comment by kradproductions — January 8, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
**When I said “their submission form” I meant m.com’s submission form.
Comment by kradproductions — January 8, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
They’ve covered their bases in that regard; I think they modified this quite a while back, not too long after the Google Video uproar in ‘06:
“I hereby acknowledge that by submitting my video, I grant Machinima.com a non-exclusive license (not ownership) to display, promote, or modify my video and the information in the submission form herein, in whole or in part, in any form or format now in existence or yet to be invented (Flash, WMV, PSP, etc.), on Machinima.com and its affiliate and partner sites and networks.”
Comment by overman — January 8, 2008 @ 3:52 pm
It’s good to hear about the streaming service they are offering.
I have tried it once or twice in the past, but the media heavy (slow to load) pages, use of popup windows, ads before movies that would play over the movies’ audio, etc. sort of put me off of it. If they have improved it, maybe it is worth taking a look at again.
Oddly enough my interaction with the site was somewhat opposite; I occasionally went there for the forums, but after my interaction with the video portion of the site, discounted it and stopped looking. Unfortunately while there seems to be forum traffic, there doesn’t seem to be much discussion that I find interesting. The repetitions of people asking “how do I make halo videos” or “how do I capture video” — while understandable — somewhat put me off of actually trying to start a discussion on the site.
What I am most curious about is why you are disillusioned with forums. Although the machinima related ones do seem to be overly quiet, what do you think would be a better substitute?
I realize that a lot of conversation goes on in Skype or via other such chats, but scheduled, announced events like the machinima audio conference aside, I think this is somewhat unfortunate. Forums have the benefit of persistence of information. Someone new to machinima may come to them years later and find something interesting that was written. This is for the most part impossible for real-time conversations (be they Voice, IRC, etc.), and mostly impractical with things like weblogs, where old content gets buried and lacks categorization. Sites like Wikis may be information heavy, but lack the feeling of personal interaction and time-sensitivity that members of a community want.
If you are trying to build and serve an online community, I really think that there is nothing better than a well run, active discussion forum. It has the benefit of allowing everyone to participate and have their say, rather than just whomever is on your buddy list, or subscribed to your RSS feed. It also keeps information archived for the future, in a readily accessible manner.
Comment by Elf — January 9, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
@Elf - I’m not sure that I know of a better substitute, and you’re very right about the strengths of forums. Unfortunately, they also seem to be chronically vulnerable to extremes of misunderstanding - the downside of that “persistence of information” strength. Arguments tend to turn personal suddenly and without warning, and I find myself susceptible to that misplaced passion.
Some of it may be inversely proportional to my having somehow mutated into a regular weekday blogger; the kinds of conversations I tended to start up in a forum, I tend to deal with here instead, and there’s enough back-and-forth between the comments and the emailed feedback to scratch the same discussion itch for me.
I’m not Mr. Down With Forums or anything like that; I’ve just grown fatigued of their recurring behavior patterns, and my own contributions to those patterns.
Comment by overman — January 9, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
Ah, ok. I understand completely now
Comment by Elf — January 10, 2008 @ 1:26 am
“The repetitions of people asking “how do I make halo videos” or “how do I capture video” — while understandable — somewhat put me off of actually trying to start a discussion on the site.”
No doubt. There are so many terrific articles that have been written that tell you step by step how to capture video with a capture card, how to make Halo movies, ETC., that it’s ridiculous. People are just lazy there sometimes and want other people to come to their thread to answer their question without reading up first. I’m somewhat guilty myself, but at m.com it was (haven’t been there lately) ridiculous.
My big gripe with forums is that they’re either flowing over the top with dialogue (and inevitably petty arguments that don’t seem so petty at the time) or they’re dead. I think it comes with the territory though, at least with machinima - people go to work on a movie and just kind of do that because they don’t have the time to post I think. But yeah, I’m with you on the persistence of information thing too. There are a few good forums that I’ve read up on when in search of answers by people who have already been there and done that.
Comment by kradproductions — January 10, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Also, and this is a bit of an aside, but when you look at it it makes sense. A lot of the big forum-goers at mprem.com aren’t there much anymore. Ricky, Jason, and Ingrid have Machiniplex, Michelle is working for Bioware, Todd at EA, I’m busy with school, I don’t know what CJ or Tom are up to, and Phil posts here.
Comment by kradproductions — January 10, 2008 @ 12:20 pm