Machinima
Machinima are movies made with images from game engines. The word is supposed to be a Portmanteau of "Machine" and "Cinema", but the guy who coined the term misspelled it. Since he misspelled it while coding machinima.com, the term stuck.
Since Machinima is a form of scripted video narrative, it could employ any of the Tropes from the main list, and there are also tropes specific to the medium. From a scriptwriting perspective, the technological limitations on the action are the only difference from other media.
Some common plots include
- "OMG, we're actually characters in a video game": Characters become self-aware and start assaulting the Fourth Wall with a big hammer.
- "But these are FUNNY Marines!": Red vs. Blue spawned a thousand wise-cracking faceless troopers.
- "Evil hackers are infiltrating the server!": Smashtasm spawned a thousand Super Smash Bros players fighting against the forces of digital evil.
- Affectionate Parody of the game being used.
Machinimas are almost always Web Originals, though they have appeared on television here and there. The best place to find machinimas to watch is machinima.com.
When Machinimators cannot muster enough horsepower (or bandwidth) to make video, and decide to turn their Machinima works into webcomics instead, see Machinomics.
- An Empire Revisited (Filmed in Jedi Academy)
- Arby 'n' the Chief
- Barney's Mind (Filmed in Half-Life: Blue Shift)
- Brawlgasm (Filmed in Super Smash Bros Brawl)
- Chells Mind (Filmed in Portal)
- Christian Brutal Sniper
- Chronicle of the Annoying Quest
- Civil Protection (Filmed in Half-Life 2)
- Clear Skies (Filmed in both Half-Life 2 and Eve Online)
- The Codex (Filmed in Halo 2)
- Devil Is a Loser (Filmed in Runescape)
- Deus Ex Machina (Filmed in Halo 3)
- Diary of a Camper (Filmed in Quake)
- Dramatic Hearts
- Felix's Mind (Filmed in Half-Life 2: Episode 1)
- Final Fantasy the Sorceress War (Made using The Movies; an adaptation of Final Fantasy VIII)
- The Forgotten Spartans (Filmed in Halo 3)
- Frenzy (Filmed in Halo 3)
- Freemans Mind (Filmed in Half Life)
- Garrymon (Filmed in Garry's Mod)
- The Gmod Idiot Box (Filmed in Garry's Mod)
- A Granary Adventure the Underdog Story (Filmed in Team Fortress 2)
- ICTON: Adventures in Minecraft (Filmed in Minecraft)
- Ken Dozin Must Die (Filmed in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
- Kinnikuman Reenactments (Filmed by kogu in Kinnikuman: Muscle Fight)
- The Leet World
- Mega Man Dies At The End
- Melees End (Filmed in Super Smash Bros Melee)
- Misfit Files
- Moments with Heavy (Filmed in Garry's Mod)
- One Life Remaining
- Oxhorn Short Shorts (Filmed in World of Warcraft)
- Parker's Mind (Filmed in Red Faction)
- Painis Cupcake
- Peachs Slutty Adventure (Filmed in Super Smash Bros Brawl)
- Profound Moments in Left 4 Dead 2 (Filmed in Left 4 Dead 1 and 2)
- The Raiden Saga (Filmed in Moviestorm) High-concept original Urban Fantasy.
- Red vs. Blue (Filmed in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Marathon, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach, with extra footage from Halo 3: ODST and some CG sequences)
- Reynaldo the Assassin (Filmed in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind)
- Sanity Not Included (Filmed in several games on several platforms)
- The Yogscast Minecraft Series' Shadow of Israphel, which is somewhat like a hybrid of a Let's Play and Machinima. (Filmed in, of course, Minecraft)
- Shephard's Mind (Filmed in Half-Life: Opposing Force)
- Smashtasm (Filmed in Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros Brawl)
- Smash King (Filmed in "Super Smash Bros Brawl")
- Soldiers of Misfortune
- Sonic For Hire
- Splinter Cell Co-Op Theater (with Bob And Steve)
- Spriggs a Halo 3 Machinima
- Star Trek - The Quasi-Machinima (Filmed in Star Trek Online)
- The Strangerhood (Made using Sims 2.)
- Tactical Noobs (Filmed in Halo 3)
- The Tale of Tarama (Made using "Soul Nomad and The World Eaters")
- Tales of the Past (Filmed in World of Warcraft)
- Two Worlds (Filmed in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind)
- The Underground
- War of the Servers (Filmed in Half Life 2 and Garry's Mod)
- Water Human (Filmed in Gothic II)
- Super Smash Bros MALR (Filmed in various games)
- Wait for It (Filmed In Halo 3)
- Wolfs Retarded Mission (Filmed in Super Smash Bros Brawl)
- Wrath Of Metal Sonic (Filmed in Super Mario 64)
Non-Video Game Examples:
- South Park - One episode was about World of Warcraft and it was filmed in said game.
- The Drew Carey Show had a scene filmed in The Sims.