Project Name :

Game Archive Project (GAP)

Abstract :

            In Japan, recently, various digital archive has been made by public sector and business enterprises. In spite of the vast funds invested, most of these archives tend to be restricted to cultural and traditional assets and to be handled as a "picture postcard" rather than as a unity of tacit knowledge. I can point out three weak points. 1) Many digital archives are limited to cultural assets and tradition industrial arts. 2) Many archives are "ready-made" and therefore a ethos to "do it ourselves" is not brought up. 3) No device that utilizes a digital archive as a unity of knowledge exists.

            We hypothetically determined three levels of organization / community. We have categorized them as "organization", "community" and "city" for the present.We experimentally set fields of research for "community" and "city". We are creating a concrete digital archives and establishing experiment to utilize it. Our research interest is how to revitalize organization / community by using devices to utilize a digital archive. In this project research, we selected "Video game community" as a field of research.

            We launched the "Game Archive Project" earlier 1998. We have turned our attention to the contents of the leading video games and have collected, arranged and classified it to construct a database. Using the database, we will examine on how to nurture talents effectively. By classifying and arranging the authors, time of production and specifications a basic data base has been constructed. To deal with the research, we have been given a kind cooperation by Nintendo Co.,Ltd. through software for Family Computer, which is the original form of a current video game. After the construction of the data base, while receiving cooperation from many other related organizations, groups and enterprises, we are aiming at Archives enrichment and utilization of new research. We opened a part of research results using the internet, "Game Archive Title List (GATL)".

            Except for official user groups organized by the game maker, many video game user communities seem to be a narrow private group based on personal interpretation or liking. We considered how to connect these closed communities and how to promote knowledge circulation around them. We thought the key would be in peculiar style of knowledge interchange within the communities, and developed "game++" system as its prototype.

Partners :

Kyoto Research Park Corporation (sponsor), Kyoto Prefecture (coordinator), Nintendo Co.,Ltd. SEGA Enterprises,Ltd., Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Computer Entertainment Software Association (cooperators).

Term :

1998 -

References :

1. Digital Interactive Entertainment Conference 2005 (Official Website, English)
   
2. Presentation slides (Microsoft PowerPoint, English)
   
3. GATL (Japanese)
   
4. gam++ (Japanese)
   
5. Event Report "GAME++" (1999-2002, Japanese)
   
6. Official Website (Japanese)