The author assesses machinima’s role in the contemporary cultural and academic milieu, and whether online video sharing sites like YouTube were important but not essential in the diffusion of machinima. Machinima’s apparent user-friendliness is also questioned. The author concludes that machinima appeals to a traditional technophile demographic: white, male, middle class, age 14 to 45. Although the vast majority of machinima are self-referential and game-based, the medium as a whole could expand beyond gaming. Machinima is a powerful and versatile filmmaking practice, not a simple byproduct of gaming.
