A New Jerusalem in Cyberspace

    1999 saw the evolution of first-person shooter games like Quake and Doom metamorphose into a medium well suited for the construction of temples in cyberspace. The 3-D body, representing you, the viewer, is called an avatar. In the form of your avatar, you look up and the view changes in the same manner as your field of vision does when looking up from Stonehenge to the rising moon. No longer satisfied with playing only games in which one moves around in underground chambers shooting monsters, today's architects of cyberspace hack at the space they inhabit. With desktop computer technology available in the year 2004, we have turned the originally intended use of games like Quake and Doom on their heads: we are on our way to creating our own sacred spaces inside the machinery of the Net.

    Popular gaming giants Quake and Doom were among the first to let players design and program their own maps (environments), skins (character avatars), weapons and tools. This innovative software features gives us the creative freedom to create our own worlds by allowing us to alter both the forms and the spaces in which we play. Imagine having the capability to change our location from Machu Pichu to the Temple of Artemis with a click of the mouse. This opens up new worlds -- it's inexpensive, has easy-to-clone avatars, has a built-in audience begging for distribution, and even comes complete with Quake Oscars. Game code modifications (called mods) written by players or groups of players (called clans) are posted online for other Quake enthusiasts to download and use. Production and post-production costs for these Temples in Cyberspace are incredibly affordable: They're free. You simply acquire the open code and hack away -- providing you're willing to take some time to learn the code. Forget about having to book time (and money) on an Avid. This is freeware! Computer graphics budget? The only limitations on temple columns and goddesses are our imagination and coding skills.

    I remember how this all started. Back in '96 when I began writing the Internet versio of Psychic Investigator at the Muddy River 'Bot Works, my fellow code-slingers were addicted to the new first-person shooter Quake. These hard-core gamers were able to finish playing through all the various levels (scenarios). What was left to do but go through the levels even faster and try to beat the record? This type of competition against the clock, known as speedrunning, was recorded on demos for posterity and posted. Demos were then used to publicize a player or clan's prowess as well as inform other gamers of the tricks and cheats they discovered. Gamers with hacking talent and enough time on their hands started writing code that transcended the vision of the original game-engine code into uncharted virtual landscapes. One gamer, "Zoid", became legendary when he created a Capture the Flag mod (CTF) that included a Batman-like grappling hook in the tools arsenal. This mod gave us god-like powers to advance into areas previously inaccessible. Zoid's mod-pioneering efforts lead the way for the rest of us, including "CRT." CRT created Key Grip, which opened up movie editing to gamers. This new community of gamers differs from Hollywood and Silicon Valley game companies in their desire to share: their code, their avatars and their 3-D landscapes.

    In late 1996, a Quake clan, The Rangers, ushered in the New Age of Cyberspace with their Diary of a Camper. They came up with the idea to record a game demo that takes advantage of the software's built-in moviemaking capabilities. Quake players were transformed into actors on the virtual movie set, opening the doors to the temples in cyberspace, where every player can be a god or goddess. By the year 2000, the new form of moviemaking has produced more than 160 movies ranging in time from about a minute to two hours. Free access to tools has challenged non-gamers like us to rethink our assumptions about the uses of video game technology as it mutates into tools for creating virtual sacred spaces with movie-like plots.

    When you download the average Quake movie, you probably notice that the storytelling is not as sophisticated as in a movie like The Matrix. The reasons can be traced to two factors: the filmmaking experience of the creators and the nature of the storylines themselves. First, keep in mind that Quake movie makers are gamers expanding the domain of the game. Typically, they're filmmakers by default, not by training. Second, storylines tend to be of the shoot-'em-up variety where action, not spirituality, is emphasized. A new breed of 3-D filmmakers will emerge, and then those temples in cyberspace can manifest themselves.

    The tools and methods for such ambitious projects are slowly emerging as we enter the next Millennium. Two groups who will help us find our way are ILL Clan and Strange Company. Both have narrative films using 3D computer game engines. The three major participants at Strange, Hugh Hancock, Gordon McDonald, and Anthony Bailey, have coined the term 'Machinima' to describe this new practice of filmmaking and have developed a web portal--Machinima--dedicated to the genre. We don't need to be gamers to download ILL Clan's Looney Tunes-influenced Apartment Huntin' or Strange's Lovecraft-based Eschaton series; they're available via MPEG and Quicktime formats.

    Gamers and non-gamers alike are taking an interest in these movies. A real coup was achieved, for example, when Wired's animationexpress.com asked to stream Apartment Huntin' on their website. ID Software (the makers of Quake and Doom) gave ILL Clan permission to show the flick - which uses Quake wireframes and maps -- even though it was outside the gaming world. Apartment Huntin' has the added distinction of being the only Quake movie on animationexpress.com. As an emerging subculture within the virtual cosmos, Machinima is now at the root level of interactive movie experiences. Don't like what you're watching? Think that scene drags? Well, not only are we players but we are producers/directors, too. Participants can latch on to any production department they desire: from map builders (location), coders (screenwriters), actors, on to the model makers (special FX). As creators we are not alone, there is a community out there to assist: web sites such as Quake Movie Library , Psyk's Popcorn Jungle, Planetquake's Cineplex , and Zarathustra Studios , support us by offering tools, tutorials, movie reviews, and, most importantly, downloads of the movies that have already been produced.