Politics and Gaming

It seems that with the creation of the Video Game Voters Network, the Federal Government has started paying more attention to the positive benefits of gaming.

The committee on Energy and Commerce of the House held a hearing on
Digital Content and Enabling Technology: Satisfying the 21st Century Consumer

The United States Senate committee of Judiciaryheld a panel on
“What’s in a Game? State Regulation of Violent Video Games and the First Amendment “

Many states are holding hearings, attempting to pass laws, and taking sides on this issue.
Kansas
Tennessee
Missouri
Utah
California
Alabama
Michigan
Illinois

Just to name a few

All while the FTC reports that fewer “mature” video games are being sold to minors

An attorney who defends game developers speaks at the game developers conference

And Cognitive Daily writes about why not everyone becomes aggressive from games

This is an interesting time for video games.

Free online access to Games and Culture

Volume 1 of Games and Culture journal published by Sage, is available online from now until January 2007: http://gac.sagepub.com/
Articles include:

What Are We Really Looking at?: The Future-Orientation of Video Game Play
by Barry Atkins

Parlaying Value: Capital in and Beyond Virtual Worlds
by Thomas Malaby

On the Research Value of Large Games: Natural Experiments in Norrath and Camelot
by Edward Castronova

I think my prediction is accurate

I have a theory that video games will display the qualities of technology ten years into the future.

My teacher is now talking about croquet. Hum the future of the web is to be more like the video games from ten years ago. I may be on to something here.

What does it mean when a teacher starts lecturing on a theory you have had for months? Does that mean you really need a life, or that you really need to get out of school?

I have a feeling that no one really reads this so no one is going to hear what I have to say, but still. SOmethings wrong if my teacher is preaching what I already figured out.

Brain Age

At the Game Developers Conference in San Jose California, many attendees were given samples of games, and my husband received an advanced copy of Brain Age.

This game turns your DS sideways, and makes your brain work to solve tricky math puzzles that range from combination math problems to those difficult mind puzzles where you say the color of the word “white” and not what is written. The first time I played the game said my mental age was 58! I’m 22 and the machine has to be wrong, . . . right? Well, I’m going to keep playing until the mental age matches my actual age; if nothing else I could play for years to make that goal easier.

This game is highly addictive, and recommended for all ages. The math section was remniscent of my childhood math drills, but at such high speed that it wasn’t like a school time test at all. I would love to see this game be included in some ISTEP training.

Welcome

Welcome to all of the librarians and professionals that were at John Beck’s session Capturing the Hearts of Gamers at PLA.

If you found his presentation interesting you should join the YALSA discussion group about gaming. Beth Gallaway has posted detailed instructions for logging on, but I will repeat it here.

Go to http://communities.ala.org/
Log in with you ALA member number
Go to Discussions in the upper left hand corner
Click on Discussions–>YALSA–>Teen Gaming Discussion Group
You can join at this screen
Next go up to the top and click Discussion Forum.
It’s a Forum, where you can post and respond to messages much like a blog, but all posts are treated equally you can respond more. http://forums.keenspot.com , (Dominic Deegan) and www.insiider.com (Magi-Nation) are ones I used to live on.

If you are not a member of ALA or do not want to participate in the discussion group I would strongly encourage you check out http://groups.google.com/groups/Libgaming and http://blogs.ala.org/yalsa.php where I have blogged PLA.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you stay.

Free Online Games-March 2006

When librarians are told to play games, mostly they are directed to Runescape. Is this because the difficulty level makes it unlikely that they will become addicted? Below I have listed some online games that librarians may consider playing, or may offer to patrons.

Neopets- Adopt a pet in Neopia, then spend your time earning money to feed, clothe and spoil your pet. You earn money by playing games. The company is based in Britain. The game has many commercial aspects including name brand items you can purchase for your pet, and Neopets merchandise you can purchase for yourself. Most of the games require Flash.

addictive: 7 out of 10
Violence: 3 out of 10
Age: 8 and up

Other similar games: Virtual Magic Kingdom, Animal Crossing, Sims , and Gaia

Gaia Online- This is not as much a game, but a place to dress up your avatar. You earn points for posting on forums, and walking around the virtual environment. The avatar looks like an anime character.

addictive: 6 out of 10
Violence: 2 out of 10
Age: 11 and up

Lego Club- Lego has many flash games that allow players to build using virtual lego pieces. There is a section for Preschool, and another for older elementary school gamers. I enjoyed playing the interesting puzzle Brick game was an interesting puzzle played with another person.

addictive: 5 out of 10
Violence: 2 out of 10
Age: 4 and up with adult

Other games for a younger audiance: PBS Kids, Learning Planet, FunBrain, and FunSchool.

Lemonade Stand- Remember those days as a kid when you wanted to make money so you sold glasses of lemonade or koolade for a nickel or a dime. Well know you can play this game to analyze the best business strategy for selling this refreshing cold drink. In addition to controlling the amount in your pitcher, you also have to anticipate the weather.

addictive: 8 out of 10
Violence: 0 out of 10
Age: 9 and up

Phosphor- This 3D First person Beta, is meant to be a multi-player browser-based first person Shooter, but when I played there were no other players. The environment is ideal for simulating a first person shooter game, without worrying about the enemy. I spent 45 mins exploring the environment before I quit playing. Surprisingly just walking around in the new environment was fun. (yes I know I’m weird). If you ever wanted to know what playing Halo or Perfect Dark was like, you can try this Beta.

addictive: 4 out of 10
Violence: 10? out of 10
Age: 15 and up

Tommy and the Magical Words – Do you like crosswords? Do you enjoy Scrabble, well you can use your skills honed at many Sunday papers to help Tommy fins his way out of a book. The developers on this game have been nominated by the Independant Games Fesitival for Innovation in Visual Art

addictive: 6 out of 10
Violence: 2 out of 10
Age: 8 and up

Dinner Dash- Help Flo run her own restaurant. Be quick to seat customers, take orders, serve food, and clean tables.

addictive: 5 out of 10
Violence: 2 out of 10
Age: 10 and up

These are a few of the online games available I have by no means talked about all of those available. Feel Free to leave a comment about any other games you know and love.

More than just video games

Much of the focus for incorporating games into libraries has been on video games, but there are more innovations in board games and card games than I think most librarians realize.

1. CCG. A collectible card game is sold in starter decks and booster packs. The player designs a deck of normally around 60 cards to play with. The cards serve as objects to play with such as a person, a spell or a weapon. These cards are used to enhance each other as well, so building a deck can take months even for the most skilled players. I have heard it referred to as cardboard crack, and I must agree. The uncertainty of opening a new booster pack, the anticipation of the card you have been searching for, can be very thrilling, and expensive. Many poorer players have turned to CCG Workshop to play.
   • Magic has been popular for 20 years (and it isn’t going away). There are many card games that have 3 year lifespans, but I haven’t been to the gaming store to know the current trend. Examples are Magi-NationLegend of the Five Rings, Neopets, and Pirates.
2. Miniatures- This type of play uses tiny figurines resembling the character you play, the terrain, and any other objects encountered in the game. Fans of this type of game will are very precise in their representation emphasizing scale. Everything is calculated to be a proportional smaller version of the world, including movement.
   • Dungeons and Dragons, Hero Clix, Mage Knight, and Mechwarrior
3. Crazy Card games- Traditionally card games involve a deck of 52 cards from Ace to King, but some developers have creatively taken the card, and printed their own game on these hand held pieces of true oddity. Unlike CCGs these games are playable without the purchase of additional cards, but expansions are available to make the game more fun.
   • Made mostly by Looney Labs, Steve Jackson Games, and Cheap Ass Games. (Sadly this is a mini-glance of my living room) Flux, Munchkin, Ninja Burger, Killer Bunny’s and the Quest for the Magic Carrot, Bohnanza(RioGrande), Guillotine, WaterWorks and The Big Idea
4. Board Games- In addition to the games that most played when growing up, there are large variety of European games that are played by teens and adults. Most of the companies are based in Germany, but come to the United States for Conventions and sell at local gaming stores.
   • Some newer games: Avalon Hill is re-releasing its older games which are nice such as Aquire. Settlers of Catan/Seafarers of Catan/Starfarers of Catan, Empire Builder/Iron Dragon, Blokus, Puerto Rico/San Juan, Mystery in the abbey, Tikal/Java/Mexica(RioGrande Family), and Dragon Delta, Carcassonne.
5. Role Playing- A role playing game(RPG) is created to allow the player to take on a different persona. If you have heard of Role Playing then you most likely have heard about Dungeons and Dragons, but there are many other titles available. The world in controlled by large books of rules, that quantify all aspects in order to be calculated into probability equations, equated with rolls of dice. This is more a genre of games than a type of game, but it is important to note the paper RPG which plays differently than the immersive video RPG.
   • Dungeons and Dragons is still very popular paper RPG. A few years ago, Vampire was popular especially with the players that LARP( Live Action Role Playing- Dress up and walk through the “Dungeon” as character). My husband is currently working to adapt the Hero System, which is an revision of the Champion system.
6. Social Games - These games serve as ice breakers, and are designed to allow people to interact. Most of the games involve trivia, or word usage, but also are fun to play with family and friends
   • Cranium, Taboo, Catch Phrase, Apples to Apples, Scatagories, Scrabble, Scene It, Man Bites Dog, Once Upon a Time, Nano Fictionary, Why did the Chicken…, Outburst, and many others that escape me at the moment

I hope that my outline helps librarian understand the different games played by their patrons. The first step to relating to patrons that play these games, is to be familiar with the different types, and offer a place at the library for them to possibly play.

As found on Lita

ISSUE #5: Game Technology

Video Gaming, Education and Digital Libraries
D-Lib Magazine, February 2002
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february02/kirriemuir/02kirriemuir.html

An overview of video games and their possible application to libraries. Includes a list of references. Author John Kirriemuir has collected links to U.K. gaming statistics, organizations, conferences and articles on his personal site as well: http://www.ceangal.com/gaming/

BECTa Information Sheet: Computer Games to Support Learning
http://www.becta.org.uk/technology/infosheets/html/computergames.html

BECTa (British Educational Communications and Technology agency) gives an overview of platforms, genres, and learning skills. There is also a list of educational projects, resources on the gaming industry, articles at: http://www.becta.org.uk/technology/software/curriculum/computergames/sources.html

Game Culture
http://www.game-culture.com/

Links to an extensive list of articles, books, conferences and other materials maintained by Sue Morris, University of Queensland (Australia).

The Future of Education: Lessons from Video Games and Museum Exhibits
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/NorthwesternCommencement.html

Text from a commencement address given by Don Norman, Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University in June 2001.

MIT Games to Teach Project
http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/

MIT and Microsoft are partnering to develop games for math, science and engineering education and the high school and college level. They are also studying how how people learn through gaming. Site includes prototypes and research reports.

Designing for Motivation and Usability in a Museum-Based Multi-User Virtual Environment by Chris Dede (Harvard University) and Kevin Ruess (George Mason University)
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/ICLS.pdf

Report on a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project that studied how a computer game-like environment affected the motivation of middle school students.

PLA Confernece

I was planning out the sessions I wanted to attend using the online programs and I came across an exciting program:

Capturing the Hearts and Minds of the Gamer Generation presented by John C. Beck
Thursday, March 23 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM
Room: Hynes Convention Center – Rooms 304/306

I hope to see you there, but make sure you leave me a seat

Innovate Webcasts-Social Learning

I participated in three of the Innovate’s webcasts. I was surprised at the themes brought out in all three session’s I attended.(Teachers’ Perceptions of Video Games: MMOGs and the Future of Preservice Teacher Education;Using Games to Promote Girls’ Positive Attitudes Toward Technology; and Neverwinter Nights in Alberta: Conceptions of Narrativity through Fantasy Role-Playing Games in a Graduate Classroom)

One of the themes that were brought up was the importance of getting students to play games, even college students. The first session focused on primarily using Online Multiplayer games in the elementary classroom. We discussed a survey that was given to pre-service teachers. The results displayed that many teachers had been exposed to gaming, but didn’t make the link to incorporating into the classroom. The major question was why. I think the reason is that teachers are overworked, and underpaid. I don’t think that with the heavy focus on standards teachers can incorporate video games into the curriculum. This is an area where the library can excel. We have more freedom with instruction than teachers (even if sometimes we have more difficult topics to teach, and less time to teach them). I would love to see a school media center incorporate video games into instruction. I know many have games installed on computers, available for any student to freely use. Let’s take it one step further.

The second topic was about girls and gaming. The author of the one of the articles hypothesized that girls do not play games, and that is why they do not go into technical jobs as frequently as boys. I personally feel that just as many girls play games, as boys, they just choose diffrent games to play.

The last session focused on a graduate program, that takes graduate students through the process of creating a ten minute movie, Flash animation, then element of NeverWinter Nights. The professors that organized the program focused on the theory behind the design, not the mastery of the tools, admitting that previous skills were not related to the sucess of the creation of the projects. I was surprized to find that they had student create games individually. This seems odd, since the game industry, business world, and even library environment relies on the strengths of a group to create quality work. I asked if current teenagers would perform differently in the graduate classes, being exposed to the creation technology such as The Movies, and machinama. Their response what that even though the teens may have the skills to create movies, they most likely will not understand the theory of technology design. This is another area I think that libraries can pick up. I’ll post some suggestion titles after I pick my husband’s brain.

I found the conversations very interesting, and during the course of the discussion many of the participates shared links to research, blogs, and games.

Pablo Moreno-Ger is working on obtaining a Ph. D. in Madrid Spain researching electronic learning related to game-based learning and immersive environments. He publishes his research on his blog.

Game Learning is a website documenting projects created by the Computer Game Design, Programming, Multimedia and Mathematics cluster of the Australian Schools Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Project.

Haileybury Edrington’s computer club, started with some female participants, but after a year all had dropped out. The website displays examples of games members have created.

One participant linked to the article Playing Together Beats Playing Apart,
Especially for Girls, written in 1995.

Another website referred to was Game Learning. Net. Designed for teachers to assist in designing curriculum around video games, it documents the author’s research towards a Ph. D.

One interesting event that was brought up was a contest among elementary students for the design of a movie.

Lastly, three games that interest girls were discussed. Also, much discussion about Second Life,and the educational community on Second Life.

While I was participating in the sharing of all of this great information, it dawned on me that I was interacting the same way I participate in World of Warcraft. I was listening to the presenters’ discussion, which was reacting to the participants’ questions while displaying a powerpoint. On the side, a list of all participants was listed, much like my guild and friends list. On the bottom of the window there was a very active chat session going on that included private messages and messages to the presenters (much like party or guild chat). I was amazed at the similarities, as well as impressed that the same technology was being used in the business world as the gaming world.

In conclusion, I wanted to state that I was thrilled to be able to interact with the authors in this way, and hope that in the library world we may be able to use the Breeze software to have similar discussions amongst librarians. That would put a whole new meaning to “discussion group.”

Here’s to the future!

Jami