Gaming and Libraries
PLA Blog – Saturday, January 15, 2005
When the Santa Monica Public Library held a LAN party (linked 30 computers together so kids playing the game Counterstrike could play against one another), over 60 teens lined up outside the library an hour before the program began, eager to play
That would be so cool. Something most people don’t realize is that it’s also fun to watch other people play games. So that while only a limited number could play at one time, others could enjoy being spectators. You could build up anticipation beforehand by holding a raffle for the chance to play and ensure everyone who entered would be there by not announcing the winners until that night. After that, schedule regular LAN parties and you’ll have them hooked.
MMORGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games) are highly complex, consist of a virtual world that is mapable, and incorporate literacy activities beyond the reading of signs or directions. There is chat within the gameplay, lists of supplies and weapons to content with, map-reading and geography, math and finance, and more. The content of the game itself becomes much more that what the publisher created because the players and fans, as they play that game, are not only developing the unique stories of their characters, but they go on to produce fanfiction, forums, cheat codes, reviews, walk-through stragegy guides and more. All of this is housed at fan sites and forums a a collective intelligence. Research shows that gamers spend 4 times – that’s FOUR TIMES – as much time in forums and study planning how to play the game as they do actually playing it, indicating that these games are NOT just passive entertainment and there is literacy learning taking place, even amid the typos and keyboard shortcuts.
So on the nose. No game today is passive. The gamers wouldn’t buy it. They (or at least the ones I know) expect to be enthralled, to have a purpose and be challenged while they’re having fun, or there are plenty of other boxes on the sale rack.
I particularly like that the presenters included the part about the reviews and forums. Gaming isn’t just a huge business, it’s also a large community made up of overlapping smaller communities for each game. So, while appealing to one game community, you’re appealing to all of them.
I really wish I had been at the session myself but Beth has done a great job describing it. And if anyone reading this wants to try a game, I could reccomend one. 