- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Check out this post from The Codex Series website. (You can go there and see it on their front page.) I hope this clarifies as well as presents the extent the "Rules/Guidelines" Micro$oft has placed on the Machinima and Halo community as a whole. You might have to read the first paragraph slowly or multiple times to see exactly how far Micro$oft wants to go in limiting the usage of their intellectual property.
Microsoft 1, Community 0
Posted by Nerrolken Aug 15th, 2007 | 1:26 pm
As most of you now know by now, Micro$oft, in its infinite wisdom, has just released a set of guidelines determining how their fans can use their intellectual property. It seems that as long as you create purely G-rated material with their M-rated game, take a vow of poverty for the duration of your series, don't use any trademarked names like "Microsoft" "Bungie" or "Halo," recreate each of the thousands of sound effects from scratch and write all your own music, promise not to push the boundaries of what can be done in the game, and erase all relevancy to the game universe itself, then Microsoft has nothing against you using their games to make movies. And while I'm sure the world at large will enjoy all of the not-for-profit, silent-movie, non-violent gameplay montages to come, we here at Edgeworks think that this decision on Microsoft's part is not only incredibly damaging to a budding art form, but also a surprisingly counter-productive move for a company spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising to keep their games in people's minds for as long as possible. The amount of time a fan spends watching Halo machinima, let alone making Halo machinima, vastly outweighs the amount of time that same fan would spend watching ads for Halo 3 on television, and is much more effective at establishing the Halo franchise as something they want to spend their time enjoying.
However, Big Brother has spoken, and we must obey. Production was going to begin this week on a trailer for The Reclaimer, a sequel to The Codex and the final chapter in the Codex Series trilogy. Sadly, that sequel will never be made.
There is some confusion about whether these rules apply to future productions or are retro-active for all machinima, so until we get definitive clarification, we're going to assume that movies made before this announcement cannot be expected to adhere to principles unavailable during production. We are, therefore, going to remain online for now. However, rumor has it that Microsoft's Cease and Desist letters come with gag orders, preventing you from discussing why you went offline, so just know that if we go offline, it will be because Microsoft shut us down.
We at Edgeworks believe that machinima is a great way for budding filmmakers to learn and explore the art of storytelling, and we believe that a grassroots swell of creative people expanding upon their favorite games can only help the popularity and sales of the games in question. We believe that letting fans pour their creativity into a product elevates it even further, and that sort of passion should never be restrained. Microsoft had the opportunity to be at the vanguard of this movement and to go down in history as the company that shepherded community participation from the fringes to the heart of the entertainment world. Instead, they chose to strangle the infant in its crib.
Once again, I am reminded why I use a Mac.
[Edited on 09.06.2007 6:28 PM PDT]