Originally formulating my researching question, I felt a need to investigate the common traits or links between a small number of case studies of Australian Machinima. However, shortly after beginning my investigation, I concluded that there are no defining commonalities between Australian Machinima projects, or indeed any Machinima created in a localised region. The two most significant reasons for this are as follows:
Global Machinima Community:
Machinima emerged and thrived through an online community. As with all online communities, members come together and engage with one another through a common interest. The barriers of race, religion, belief and geographical location are eliminated, as the internet provides for the increase in levels of one’s anonymity and reach, or ‘connectivity’. (International Journal of Web-Based Communities)
Thus, it is typically this community that is reflected in Machinima, rather than national or other cultural communities. As geographical and cultural differences are of little significance in the minds of online communities, they are rarely reflected in the Machinima works that they share. An example of this can be seen in Thuyen Nguyen’s Bookstore projects, as the humour used here is more often related to gaming and the internet, rather than using local references. Like all media, Machinima is created with audience in mind. Nguyen explains: “By virtue of making something that is based on a game, you end up having game-jokes and stuff which is really specific to your audience.” (Nguyen, T. 2006)
Limits of Set:
Arguably one of the most defining characteristics present in a majority of Australian films is the use of landscape. “Landscape in the Australian cinematic sphere is still a contested site, still the grounds on which notions of national identity are played out… ” (Probyn, F and Simpson, C. 2002) However, in Machinima there is no landscape to capture. There is ‘land’ at all. The images are generated by pixels — artificially replicating life. Thus, such themes of national identity cannot be explored. Machinima producers are forced to explore other more universal themes.
This is further enforced by the universality of the sets offered, as they typically limit a Machinima maker’s choice. This choice is first limited when deciding on which game engine is to be used to create one’s project. For example, the Sims gamespace is limited only to suburban housing, whereas Halo confines one to a futuristic war zone. And although creative freedom is offered to some extent in terms of set design, once confined to the predetermined parameters of setting, it is almost impossible to transcend them. Thus, the setting of any Machinima story is never determined by the director/producer and always by the game developers, long before the Machinima project has begun. And seeing as how the majority of the world’s computer games are designed and crafted in Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, Australian Machinima is confined to the settings visualised by other nations.
“The only way to make [Machinima] more Australian would be to have an Australian game that reflected Australian culture.” (Berkeley, 2006)