“Crow”) to rationalise their monotonous behaviour. "Doesn’t it strike you as strange," MacIntyre asks, "that we keep doing the same thing over and over and over?" MacIntyre raises questions about what the purpose of life as a virtual soldier is, why they have to follow orders and who exactly is it that gives them the orders that they dutifully follow to the death anyway? MacIntyre almost manages to successfully persuade his 'young' team mate Crow that there could be “another way”, but indecisive Crow is coerced by Sgt and Lizard, who are fully indoctrinated into the call of duty, into filing rank and following orders. Discussion Whereas other machinima films tend to use the context of a video game to reflect real life scenarios, Deviation turns this idea on its head and instead uses ideas of human introspection to tell a computer generated story and satirises “the absurd repetition of first-person-shooter games” through character MacIntyre’s existential crisis. Whereas other machinima sequences have been distributed freely on the internet via sites such as YouTube and remain an inherent part of gamer culture, in Deviation, Jon Griggs attempted to separate the genre from the video game world and establish it as a film in its own right. To this end, Deviation was only released in full form at the Tribeca Film Festival; before this, only a movie-style trailer was released and even after its premier, though made freely available, Deviation earns royalties and is subject to a licensing contract with independent film network, Atom Films. It has been suggested that in the script of Deviation, Griggs is asking a politically loaded question; “Who is leading whom?”, which invokes thoughts of the political outcry surrounding George W. Bush’s War on Terror in Iraq. Cast and crew Macintyre: Virtual player - Rick Albee, Voice - Jeff Jackson SGT: Virtual player – Anthony Esposito, Voice – Vinny Nestler Lizard: Virtual player – Grant Kehrig, Voice – Curtis Brien Crow: Virtual player – Ben Armbrust, Voice – Glen Brackenridge Pilot: Voice – Ritchie Duncan Command: Voice – Aaron Simms Editor: Jon Griggs Music composer and performer: Nicholas J. Sumner Sound design: Neil Fazzari Sound supervisor and re-recording mixer: Tom Efinger Sound Mixer: John Moros Foley Artist: Leslie Bloom ADR Recordist: Nicholas J. Schenck Assistant sound editor: Michael Vondras Audio post facility: Dig It Audio Inc. Post production facility: Post Logic Studios NY Technical support: Joe Tackaberry