Results tagged “games” from WorldCat Blog
...demonstrates how ubiquitous, popular and streamlined many of these spaces are becoming across the intraweb / ‘cloud’. With over 300 million frequenting or registering for the non-game based worlds and millions of new investment in 2nd and 3rd generation services..
There's quite a bit of disagreement about how widely (or deeply) some of these spaces are used; that is, how accurate are the gate counts for the services. But even allowing for some reasonable level of churn... 300 million is an enormous number. Habbo Hotel, which is aimed more at kids and tweens, references having had more than 7 million visits in the last 30 days. Second Life, one of the earliest and most technically advanced worlds, notes that more than 850,000 users have logged in during the last month, and that more than 400,000 of those users spent a total of (approximately) $159,000 in that virtual world (I converted from Linden Dollars to $USD at 125-to-1, which is pretty close to the usual exchange rate).
My purpose in posting all this info is to point out that social virtual worlds are still growing, both in numbers of services and users. For those who haven't ever tried even one of these spaces, it may seem like a fringe activity or "out there" thing to do. Increasingly, it's not. People are meeting, playing, chatting, studying, learning, creating and making money in these spaces. Unlike online games -- which are almost entirely entertainment related -- these services are usually built around communicative and creative activites. They are a new media.
I've started a working bibliography of works related to virtual worlds. Let me know if you have suggestions for things to add. Thanks.
Related note: I'd like to point out that Julian Dibbell's excellent "My Tiny Life," which has been hard to find for many years, is now available for purchase or free download from Lulu.
I am a gamer. At 42-years-old, I calculate that I've been playing video games for about... 34 years. I had the first Atari 2600 system, a TRS-80 computer (on which I learned to make my own games in Basic), a ColecoVision machine... and a bunch of other platforms over the years. Everything from the same computer I do work on, to my phone, to an XBox 360 and a Wii. I now play with my 8-year-old son, who kick's my... scores... in Super Mario Galaxy, Star Wars Battlefront (1 and 2) and BoomBlox. He's just started playing the XBox version of Sid Meier's "Civilization," and I couldn't be prouder. It's a hard game, with lots of reading, and a lot of elements that are absolutely required for strategy games.
Yes. I'm proud of my son's gaming abilities. For years, computer/video games were the social and cultural equivalent of, well... something nasty and bad. I don't even know. But when I'd talk to non-gamers (just about everyone) back in the 80's, I got blank stares. By the time I was in college, video games were clearly "here to stay," but were also something adults talked about as being bad for kids in the same sentence as drugs, booze, partying and "that rock-and-roll music."
Sigh. Oh, well. Part of being into a fringe activity is being misunderstood, I suppose.
Now, however, games are clearly big business, and a big part of the cultural and social landscape. And libraries are getting into the act.
This is not new news.Jenny Levine (here, not here) has been doing library game stuff forever. In fact, I found my way to an article on library gaming in my home town paper, the Columbus Dispatch, from a post on her blog, the Shifted Librarian. It's a good post, and a good article, and explains many of the benefits of gaming in libraries.
The best quote of the piece, which Jenny also highlights [stop taking my blog fodder! ;-) ], is, I think, the following: "Gaming is storytelling for teenagers."
Except I haven't been a teenager since Regan was president, and gaming is storytelling for me, too.
Years ago, I was asked by a non-gaming friend to explain the attraction of gaming, specifically playing MMOs. "It just makes no sense," she said to me. "Why do you want to pretend to be someone else, in a made-up place, with a bunch of other people who are pretending to be someone else?"
I remember shrugging and saying, "I don't know, exactly. You read novels, right?" She did, and nodded. "Well," I asked, "What's the attraction of reading something that came from someone else's imagination, that is explicitly untrue, and that only ends up existing in your head?"
She smiled and said, "You got me."
I'm not saying playing games is the same as reading. And I'm not saying that doing one in any way replaces doing the other. But there are stories in games. And there is imagination, strategy, thinking, creativity, fun, friendship and community. Those are all things I hope my son can find at every library he encounters.
Big news this week as Grand Theft Auto IV breaks not just video game sales records but all entertainment industry (film, music, etc.) records for first day ($310 million) and first week ($500 million) sales. If Halo 3 didn’t do it, GTA surely cements the video game industry as a, maybe even the, leading force in entertainment.
So what does this mean in terms of you and your local library? Quite a bit:
The Games
The first and most obvious (although maybe not if you think of your library only in terms of books): there’s a good chance many of the games you’re looking for, and shelling out 50 bucks or more for, are sitting on the shelves of your local library. And don’t forget the walkthrough books. Many libraries even loan game consoles.
The Job Market
An industry growing this fast and pulling in this much revenue is hot for new talent. From coding to writing to art and animation, your library is the perfect place to start researching the ins and outs of the business and what it takes to get your foot in the door. Here is some material to get started with, but there are dozens more. Your reference librarians are also a great resource to get the best information in your hands if you’re having trouble locating what you need. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Critical Analysis
From health concerns and marketing sex and violence to children to improved hand-eye coordination and visual analysis of information, there’s no shortage of critical material regarding video games. The industry and its products are valid topics for academic consideration at all levels of education, and your library can serve as a research hub.
