Machinima

About

Machinima is a group of video game enthusiast who make fanfics, parodies, and videos using these games. The group identity, Machinima, is used to put it all together much like Anonymous. Their videos vary widely in subject; however, most have a point or story line. The official name comes from the portmanteau of the words "Machine" and "Cinema" to describe what the group does.^[1]

Purpose

Other than their entertainment focus, the group serves as a venue for actors to get their start and build some popularity before posting the stuff on their own profiles. This is due to the group's fanbase, which has thousands of members and far more visitors. Users post their videos under the collective identity and are able to branch out when they gain notability.

About the Videos

Some of the more successful users have found a template to work from to makes for a successful video. First, take a video of a game you like, this could be anything from any gaming console (e.g. super mario brothers on the NES and Portal on the PC). Then record yourself narating what the people are saying/thinking while you play through. It is most recomended to get some recording software as to not have to just hold a video camera up to the screen (which produces low quality results).

Live Streams

Machinima will often host live streams of various players and groups. These streams will often just include hours of game play and live chatting with people watching the feeds. They have done various feeds of games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and the Halo series.^[5] Upon the release of CoD: Black Ops, Machinima held a continuous live stream until the group reached prestige level 15 within the game.

Places on the Web

Youtube

Their most noticeable hub is the Machinima Youtube channel. Founded in 2006, the channel features various videos from all types of games. Among their popular videos are Garry's Mod mixes, many of which are music videos as seen below:

As of March 5, 2014 the Machinima YouTube channel has 24,232 videos and 10,876,369 subscribers.^[2]

Rooster Teeth

Though not originally a Machinima type group, this company is widely popular for their show Red vs. Blue, a Halo comedy series. The shows became so popular that they were featured as a regular in the app Halo Waypoint on Xbox Live.^[6]

Machinima.com

Machinima.com was registered in September of 1999. The website serves as a hub for all machinima outlets including the youtube channel, the official machinima store, the Facebook respawn army, a sing-up for their e-mail list, and various other machinima sites.^[3]

Respawn Army

Machinima opened a facebook app called The Respawn Army in which users can track other user's gaming profiles, achivements, games, and videos. Users of this app have the ability to earn badges and points for completing various task in games. The app also serves as a news outlet/ blog for machinima to feature various videos and machinima events.^[4]

External Refrences

^[1] Machinima – About

^[2] Youtube – Machinima

^[3] Machinima

^[4] Facebook – Respawn Army – Info

^[5] Facebook – Machinima Live

^[6] Rooster Teeth