This study on cross-media through fandom investigated the American and Korean machinimas as a case of game users independently producing content and expanding their experiences beyond enjoying the game content provided. Compared with its counterpart ...
This study on cross-media through fandom investigated the American and Korean machinimas as a case of game users independently producing content and expanding their experiences beyond enjoying the game content provided. Compared with its counterpart in the past, today’s game fandom is evolving from a group sharing the same taste to independent producers. They are also influencing the process of turning games into cross-media. A fandom reflects a cultural perspective or cognitive process, which led to the prediction that the patterns of cross-media would be different between South Korea and the United States. The present study thus compared the machinima videos created by the Korean and American fandom in terms of production motivation and methods.
The comparison results show that they created various forms of machinima including game play video (FLAC video), movies, and music video in the United States, whereas they mostly remained in the domain of play video in South Korea. As for production methods, they remained at the level of replay and edited capture images in South Korea, whereas they expanded the realm of machinima production through replay, edited capture images, virtual worlds, and production programs for machinimas.
There are limitations with clear comparison in machinimas between South Korea and the United States due to the different rates of development between them. If the Korean machinimas develop further to be comparable with their American counterparts in terms of quantity and quality, more in-depth discussions will be possible as part of cross-media through fandom.