Microsoft & Machinima

The machinima blogosphere has been abuzz for the past two weeks with discussions of Microsoft's new Game Content Usage Rules. The new rules allow machinimakers to do their thing using a number of Microsoft video games, with a few restrictions. The devil is in the details, and negotiations are underway to loosen the new rules a bit.

Machinima, in case you're not a devotee, is the art of producing animated films using video games: instead of playing the game, the filmmaker (machinimaker) makes the characters interact with each other and records the interaction, adding dialog or a sound track.