(Above: Photo of exhibit at the Computer and Video Game Archive, Duderstadt Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.)

Save your records.

And no, I don’t mean those things that go on turntables and produce sounds — I mean your records. The paper and digital content you produce every day. The documentation of your work, your games, and your company. Your records.

Okay, before you think I’ve totally lost my mind, give me a moment to explain. I blog because I love it, but in real life, I’m paid to be an archivist  — someone who manages and makes accessible inactive collections of paper and digital records from various individuals and organizations for use by researchers, students, genealogists, etc. On occasion, I talk with these researchers to help them find items either in our collections or other collections in local institutions. Just last month, I spoke with two people who had been searching for collections of records that couldn’t be located. In both cases, it appeared most likely that the papers had been thrown out, discarded, trashed. Why wouldn’t anyone think to save their records, they asked. How terrible it is that all that knowledge has been (probably) lost forever.

Continue reading My personal plea to those in the game industry →