LIS 9763

Ah games: there’s nothing so relaxing after a hard day in the office or classroom as coming home and be taken into a world so different than our own, with new problems to take your mind off of any plaguing in reality. I’m not as hardcore a gamer as many others, but I certainly enjoy playing a few titles, particularly since Nintendo came along. I’ve been tempted by friends to try World of Warcraft, but as of yet have refused: I’ve seen with my own eyes just how addictive that can become. If nothing else, games are fun, which is why those who play keep coming back.

When it comes to using video games as an educational tool, for now, I recommend using what’s out there, rather than searching to design something new. Aside from funding issues, I agree with Van Eck on past problems with the development of electronic games and education: certainly, I’m no stranger to such games where in an attempt to build math or vocabulary skills, the designer had ripped apart the “fun” part of the game and left something so entirely bland it wasn’t worth picking up off the shelf. This may change as more librarians and teachers enter the workforce as players themselves, however for now our best bet might not be to directly tell industry what the game should be or how it should work. We can suggest themes & problem solving skills that we would then encourage our users to try, and if the developers think it has potential, they can combine our ideas into their own analysis of what gaming users would enjoy. Given their success developing games based on other areas, including fitness, cooking, music and history, it isn’t too hard a gamble that the game designers may yet suprise us with new titles that suit our needs

So if we’re not creating the games, where do we fit in? Can the library use the fun factor of games to excite, educate and promote our services our users? Absolutely! There’s still a lot of potential. Some of the articles, such as that by Educause commented on using existing virtual world videogames as training modules: set up a virtual environment to practice in before trying a real one. Van Eck recommends a few commercial off-the-shelf games that can be used to educate such as The Sims and RollerCoaster Tycoon. If the costs of this, hardware and software, appear too much, some libraries use video games for special programs and activities. When I worked on Co-op over the past fall, our library promoted special events in part by providing Guitar Hero, DDR and other games to our users.  Some rental facilities now do offer to rent electronic gaming equipment, and may be willing to allow a rental for single day special promotion.

Another feasible solution is to consider non-electronic games that are popular but less expensive to provide: Hialeah Public Libraries provides a great example with their Yu-Gi-Oh Tournaments, stating clearly that these activities are inexpensive to sponsor, but a lot of fun for participants.

Although points for trying, I recommend against a generic gaming blog such as the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County unless you have a blogger who really knows what they’re talking about. I recommend against this because better to present something new; if your users want input and reviews of videogames we really can’t compete with the sheer number of internet gaming blogs out there. However, it is possible to make a gaming blog attractive, by making it unique and relative to the user community: Ann Arbor District Library has a much more successful gaming blog that announces games and library competitions within the Ann Arbor District area.