Is it just me or does it seem like machinima is dying off?

[JB1528]

Do you guys remember what machinima was like around 2005-2008? Every day it seemed like a new series was being started and while most were crappy we had some really decent shows going on like Red vs. Blue, The leet world, Freeman's mind was just getting started, Strangerhood, Spriggs, Deus ex machina the list went on.

I was extremely bored today so I decided to look up any new machinima that I might not have heard of, and then I realized that besides some series that are still ongoing like Freemans mind I could barely find anything made after 2009. Was it a fad that just died off or am I missing something?

 

[saucecode]

Well, maybe all the good machinima. All thats left is Arby n the Chief (which is AMAZING) and Red vs Blue, but season 9 just ended.

We're running out, soon "machinima" will be defined as "tactical & realistic" games with commentary.
A sad future indeed.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I suspect its more because of halos decline in popularity. Most machinima was halo, or before that was half life stuff.

Mind you, Minecraft machinima is on the rise. You can make some good stuff in it, go look up bashcraft: the legend of hobo

 

[ChupathingyX]

Yeah I agree, but as long as Rooster Teeth is still around I'm happy.

Machinima seems to have changed from TV style shows made with games to people playing a game and giving commentary and top 10 360 no-scope CoD videos.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

--

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I still go on to watch "Freeman's Mind" and "All Your History Belong to Us" to be completely honest I've never been that into the channel. Most of the videos seem like ether a sports news cast like aspect except instead of football you have video games or really terrible stories turned into shorts using a video game world. I'm just not that into those anymore.

 

[Kermi]

A lot of the older Machinima have died off and not been replaced, and I'd say a big part of that is the decline of Halo's popularity. However, Red vs Blue is just as great as ever, even if it is only 40% machinima and 60% rendered CGI these days.

 

[Zeema]

its just easier to blame Kootra for all the unfinished projects

;]

 

[Shadowstar38]

Sanity Not Included and Sonic for Hire are recent things. And they're pretty decent.

 

[Dalek Caan]

Arby n The Cheif, Red vs Blue, Sanity not Included, Minecraft PSA, Shadow of Israpheal, Freemans mind and All Your History Belong To Us. These are the only ones that I ever watch anymore. There used to be more but I can't think of theme. I guess your right then =(. Lets hope this doesn't last long.

 

[chif-ii]

Dang, you're right. The age of machinima has, by and large, passed.

Arby n The Cheif, Red vs Blue, Sanity not Included, Minecraft PSA, Shadow of Israpheal, Freemans mind and All Your History Belong To Us. These are the only ones that I ever watch anymore. There used to be more but I can't think of theme. I guess your right then =(. Lets hope this doesn't last long.

Wait isn't...oh yeah, I guess Shadow of Israpheal is sorta machinima (is it bad that I keep wanting to spell that word with a capital letter?

 

[Wolfram23]

Machini-what?

Seriously though, never been interested in their stuff... I guess I have better things to do than watch random videos all the time. Hell, I'm a few weeks behind on shows I actually think are good, like Walking Dead and Community.

 

[XMark]

Machinima cutscenes within games themselves is certainly becoming far more commonplace now that real-time rendered graphics is of a suitable cinematic quality level. Most of the cinematic sequences from the Metal Gear Solid series is done that way, for example. Although at the same time a lot of games are leaving you in control of the main character while scripted events happen rather than presenting those events as traditional cutscenes.

The other side of the coin is amateur machinima... I think we're just in a brief lull between game engines that work well for machinima purposes. I've seen some really great recent machinima based on the GTA IV engine though.

Side note: anyone else remember the really old days of machinima, before it became a widely known term? I'm talking back in the Quake I days, when Devil's Covenant came out and everybody was amazed that someone made a dramatic feature-length movie completely in the Quake engine. Ah, those were the days...

I wonder if it would be a financially viable venture for a game company to make an engine specifically designed for machinima purposes? Something like "The Movies" but allowing you greater freedom of movement and scripting for characters and camera angles and such.

 

[archvile93]

I think machinima might be dying off is because it's very hard to make. While it's very simple and cheap to do since you don't have to learn to draw or build extravagant sets, it's a very inflexiable system since you're completely constrained by the game's design. If it's not in the game, you can't use it for your plot is what I mean.

 

[Iwata]

Machinima, in particular Machinima Respawn, is pretty much just CoD: The Official YouTube Channel. It's all Top Ten Plays, weapons features, Top Ten Fails, Play of the Week, etc. I even LIKE CoD, but even I think it's too damn much! Machinima introduced me to some good directors back in the day, but I now follow those directors themselves, not Machinima.

 

[karkar]

If you don't mind taking a few minutes to sift through the all the shit they put out, there are some exceptional videos to find. "Two Best Friends Play" is freakin hilarious, as is "Sanity Not Included". Any CoD related videos they put out are usually garbage, though, and there's unfortunately a lot of those.