WHAT?  Picross 3D is a sort of sequel to other handheld Nintendo Picross games (see here and here) which finds the user chipping away at numbered blocks in a puzzle like manner in order to reveal a picture.  It’s sort of part puzzle, part sudoku, part trinket collecting, and more.  And it’s really addictive

WHY? I gave this game a shot a few months ago and since then I’ve been thinking about it nonstop.  The simple puzzle mechanics of the game combined with the ability to work towards an end where you get something (hey, everyone loves a blocky dolphin) has got me hooked.  It takes just enough brainpower to keep the player learning and working towards a goal and at the same time saves just enough energy for fun.

WHO? I really think Picross 3D could be a gateway drug into video gaming for many non gamers.  When I play the game, I imagine it having the potential on a non gamer as say, something like Angry Birds has had on the world…something that sucks up time, is enjoyable, and requires some planning to play.  The game will require a tough sell though…”hey, you figure out puzzles by decoding numbered blocks and the prize you get is a blocky dolphin/dog/Nintendo character”.  I recommend talking up the game as an investment.  It is something that may seem clunky at first, but the potential for a rewarding experience are there.

Reading Rainbow (Captain Culo Remix) by Cutso listen | download

Reading Rainbow (Dj Protege Remix) listen | download

Nas!!

by DJ Nique

Yeah, I know we all love our games, especially the more retro they become, but as gamers we can donate our games to a good cause–

DonateGames is an innovative social enterprise dedicated to supporting children with rare diseases through the collection and re-purposing of donated video games and gear

Just put your game in a padded envelope and send…if you give your email and return address they’ll send you a tax-deductible receipt.

Maybe if we think about a library without books, we could start to imagine different and new ways to stay relevant in the future.

This was a question that someone asked me at a party when he found out that I was a Librarian. Not really a question so much as just a blatant put down. I let it go. It was late, I was getting ready to go home. Maybe if I’d had a few drinks, I’d have made an issue of it, but I was driving. The fact that the guy who made that comment was an Iraq War Vet with combat experience might have had something to do with it, too. Besides, it was just a question. Other librarians among you may have realized that it’s probably the most common question/put-down/joke that we get these days. Then we get up on our soap-boxes, say that Google will NEVER replace a librarian, because …

… because peer-reviewed journals, damn it! And Boolean operators, and the reference interview! Furthermore, Human Information Behavior, open-ended questioning, and that one web-site of false information about Martin Luther King that’s really just a front some White Supremacist group. And let’s not forget that anyone can edit Wikipedia! Ha. HA! [fumes]

Really, it comes down the fact that computers simply can’t process information in quite the same as a human being. Oh, they’re QUICK alright. If you play a computer in chess, a game with less “thought” and more “calculation”, and the computer will kick your carbon-based butt all the way back to Azerbaijan. But when you’re dealing with human syntax, and the countless vagaries of human speech; the machines don’t stand a chance. Right?

Last week’s Jeopardy featured a new contestant, one unlike others that had played on the quiz show previously. It was an artificial intelligence program run on a cluster of 90 IBM Power 750 servers and packing over 15 terabytes of RAM. The system was named Watson, after IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson. IBM challenged Jeopardy to friendly competition between their machine, Watson, and two of Jeopardy’s most relentless contestants.  Jeopardy’s all-time biggest money winner Brad Rutter, and the record holder for most consecutive games won, the “Mormon Assassin” Ken Jennings.  These two powerhouses competed against Watson in a three day tournament lasting from February 14-16.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: “But they humans don’t stand a chance! A computer AI can do billions of calculations per second and potentially has access to the accumulated knowledge of the human species! While the humans are reading the question, Watson will be running through the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica online!”.

The truth is, it’s not really that simple. As it turns out, human thought is really REALLY complex. The things that you or I might take for granted, are the areas in which artificial intelligence really sweats it out. The clues on Jeopardy are never as simple as they first appear. Sure, intelligence is a factor, but many clues use figures of speech such as puns, idioms, pop culture references, rhyming, and slang. A Jeopardy contestant doesn’t merely need to be “smart”. He or she needs to be able to think on his or her feet. The proper question isn’t so much: “What is the correct response”, as: “Where are they going with this clue?”. A recent PBS special on the series: Nova, explained some of the difficulties in teaching artificial intelligence to mimic human thought. A simple word like “milk”, is something that children learn before they’re even old enough to go to Kindergarten. But the very concept of the word: “milk” has an elaborate framework connected to it that the human brain is specialized to understand. We humans know milk to be a white liquid produced in the bodies of mammals to feed their young. We also know that it’s usually a white liquid, that humans take the milk of other mammals to be packaged and sold in supermarkets. We know how it tastes, when it’s gone bad, and that one of the greatest experiences of human existence is a glass of milk served icy cold with a stack of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. We know this instinctively when we hear the word “milk”. A computer has to search for this information. The PBS special describes how Watson got one question wrong, through a simple, almost “human” mistake. The clue was: “In 1698 This comet discoverer took a ship called the paramour pink on the first purely scientific voyage“. The correct response was: “Edmund Halley”. (really, how many comet-discoverers do YOU know?) But Watson picked up a description of the 1975 film: “The Return of the Pink Panther” which described one character in the film as a “paramour”.  So between the copious mentions of the words “pink” and “paramour”, Watson decided that the comet discoverer who embarked upon the first purely scientific sea voyage was: “Peter Sellers“. Now, I’ve never made it onto Jeopardy myself, (despite numerous attempts at the online Jeopardy test) but I can say for certain that Inspector Clouseau never discovered a comet.

Warning! Spoilers Below!

Watson was put through a rigorous series of mock Jeopardy challenges, first against the programmers at IBM, then against a series of former Jeopardy contestants. This wasn’t merely a test to see if Watson could hold its own on Jeopardy. This was a learning experience for Watson. Watson’s sophisticated computer brain allows it to actually learn from its mistakes.

Oh please let's not put Watson in charge of NORAD, okay?

As Watson continues to fail against its human opponents, it learns more and more about the complexities of human thought and speech. Once inside the competition, Watson was unable to access the Internet to look up answers. Watson would be forced to rely on its pre-existing knowledge base, just like a human. The longer Watson practiced, the smarter it got.

In the end, the oversized pile of silicon and metal managed to beat its pathetic human competitors. It beat them handily. Every so often, Ken and Brad would start to rally, and things started to look better for the human race.  Each response provided an insight into the mind of Watson. The questions that it got wrong were wrong in such a way that it was logical to see exactly why Watson got those particular clues incorrect. But by the final round, Watson was far ahead of the human contestants and could not be caught. Jennings and Rutter took it in stride, but the results were imposing.

Jennings: (I for one, welcome our new computer overlords)

So what does this mean for us poor squishy humans? According to the IBM team who created Watson, this competition was still a win for the humans. Watson was not conceived in a vacuum. The artifical intelligence that is IBM’s Watson is nothing less than the result of 7 years research and development by brilliant humans working in IBM’s research division. The mere fact that humans can actually design and build a machine, a tool, out of metal and wires and silicon that comes this close to human thought, could be considered a resounding victory for humankind. How much longer until we actually have machines to speak to? Machines that can empathize with human emotions? How much longer until we have machines that do all of our thinking for us, as we sip margaritas on a beach in Cabo trying to think of the next big step in human advancement?

Will these machines ever replace librarians? Well at this rate, that could be a very real danger. Will there come a day when your friendly local librarian will be replaced by a metal box and a microphone for you to read queries into? Let’s just say that I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that ever happening.

They’ll probably have all risen up against us by then. [nods]

"Come with me if you want to access our periodicals databases"

Get ready for the biting humor, and slightly asynchronous conversation that will ensue. For more information, check out Feb 16th’s post, 8bitlibrary+Unshelved+IMchat=#MIH.

List of characters:

me: Andrea Davis of 8bitlibrary

JP: JP Porcaro of 8bitlibrary

Bill: Bill Barnes of Unshelved

Gene: Gene Ambaum of Unshelved

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Bill: Okay, I think we are on the record… NOW.
JP: HA!
me: —– mic on ——
10:30 AM (metaphorically speaking)
Gene: First fact for the interview: our store manager, Jana, eats Nutella out of the jar with a spoon.
Bill: Second fact: that’s all she eats, ever.
JP: can we start with the philosophical: why are we here?
EWWW i hate nutella
me: We’re doing a great experiment today for 8bitlibrary – a 4 person IM chat interview
Bill: You hate Nutella? This interview is over.
me: let the madness ensue!
…
me: go ahead an give yourselves an introduction
Gene: I’m Gene. Only not really.
Bill: I’m Bill Barnes, I take Gene’s amorphous blatherings and turn them into comedy gold every day in Unshelved.
Gene: The Italian one is the good one. No yeast, just hazlenut and chocolate.
I’m the hairy one.
Bill: This is going really well.
JP: how hairy is hairy?
me: HAAAA – yea, let’s see what happens
Bill: Pretty hairy.
Gene: Not like, “Gah! Get that off the beach!” hairy. My back looks like Angel (member of the X-men) when he started getting his wings, only I’m getting black wings.
JP: i always wished i had wings.
me: I’m Andrea Davis, a newly minted librarian, stirring things up and pushing to put the fun back in li-boring-ian
JP: Im JP Porcaro
I run 8bitlibrary.com
Gene: Hey JP. Have we met before?
JP: and also do virtual services at a university library
me: black swan style? (disclaimer, i stil need to see the movie, but i’ve heard)
Gene: (And hey to you to, Andrea, though I can’t remember, hard a or soft a?)
JP: OMG I hope we didn’t because I don tremember if we did
me: soft like my belly
Gene: And i stress about vowels. Now I will never forget.
I don’t think so, JP. Bill just pulled up a pic.
me: memornics are an amazing skill to master (i’m working on it still)
sooooooo – unshelved….
happy early birthday!!!
Bill: Thank you.
Gene: Thanks!
Bill: Next year is our 10th. I think we’ll have to do something awesome.
me: how does a 9 year old comic strip behave?
Gene: I’m thinking cake
me: (you’re doing something awesome now)
Gene: Lots of random crying and temper tantrums. We’re hoping Unshelved will hit puberty soon.
JP: Why “un”shelved. Why not “de”shelved?
like that whole defriending/unfriending scandle
Bill: Unshelved predates defriending.
It also predates Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone.
Unshelved is your grumpy uncle who doesn’t understand technology.
JP: Do you guys work in a library now?
Bill: I never worked in a library. And I never will.
Gene: Occasionally. But very occasionally. I left my full-time job in library land in October 2009.
10:39 AM me: So Unshelved has become a fulltime gig?
Gene: It has!
Bill: It’s a little more than fulltime.
me: How does that feel?
Gene: fulltime+
me: Where do you get your “material” now?
Bill: I love answering to no one other than my wives.
10:40 AM me: plural?
JP: Poligamy!
Yes!
Now we’re getting somewhere
Gene: It feels strange whenever I have a moment to think about it. It’s usually when someone asks me what I do for a living. “I write a comic.” “You draw a comic?” “No. Let me explain.”
Bill: I have my actual wife and two collaborators who I very much feel married to.
me: makes sense, interesting phrasing
JP: Ok, so you left your job(s) for Unshelved. Is this a “forever” thing for you guys?
Gene: I get my material mostly when I’m in line at Target, trying to return something, or just watching people lose it with their kids. Probably my favorite place to people watch these days because the red shirts make it so easy to figure out who’s the employee behaving badly and who’s the customer.
I’m like two questions back…
JP: Sorry lol
hit send too soon
Bill: STOP IT WITH THE ATTACK JOURNALISM, ANDREA
me: (we’ll take it – cut & paste is a magical tool)
Bill: Forever is a long time.
Gene: It’s not long enough.
Bill: But so long as people are reading Unshelved and we figure out a way to get paid for it, I’m in.
me: (Bill was that “there will be blood” sneaking in?)
Gene: Thar she blows!!!
Bill: I love working with Gene, and I hope we’ll do lots of other stuff together in addition to Unshelved.
(I’ve never seen it, actually)
Gene: (holding hands)
me: like lunch pails?
Bill: I love you man.
Gene: You told her about the thermos?
JP: i want to know about the thermos
Bill: Unshelved: Hot on the inside, cool to the touch.
Andrea, I assume you are referring to the Gale lunchbox promotion?
me: that’s the one
Bill: I am pretty excited about that, I have to say.
me: (and hopping back a moment: http://www.toonzone.net/homemovies/WalterPerry.html)
Gene: It’s going to be fun.
Bill: At Midwinter I went around and introduced myself at a bunch of big-company booths. The Gale guy took my card and said, “cartoonist? we’re talking about making superhero lunchboxes” and here we are.
me: i was just thinking this weekend (while walking around target no less) that i wish i could get a lunch pail instead of the boring cooler lunch sacks that make for an unexcitingstaffroom fridge
Gene: It’s hard not to be designing the characters already.
Bill: I actually did design one. He’s a stretchy guy like Mr. Fantastic called OUTREACHER
10:46 AM me: my left side is better ;)
Gene: Make a lunch sack out of the skin of your enemy. Then sell it on Etsy.
Bill: See, because he’s an outreach librarian.
JP: OOOO the Outreacher! I like it. How about an Advocacy superhero (villian)?
me: (i can only begin to imagine the pitching sessions you fellas go through each week)
10:47 AM the metadata magician
Bill: We probably don’t do enough actual pitching.
me: crosswalking up down and all around
Bill: Gene sends me scripts and I mangle them beyond recognizability.
me: dublic core got nothing on her!
Bill: But we are negotiating a couple of longer-term plotlines. We are really bad at it.
JP: Negotiating with who?
Gene: (You’re confusing Bill with your library speak, but I like the Dublin Core.)
me: how long term? many of your strips stretch across 4 or 5 sets of panels
Gene: We’ve got a few year-long arcs in mind right now, which is unusual.
Negotiating with each other.
(sipping green tea to make myself feel wise)
me: big themes like budget cuts? library as place? or dewey gets pregnant?
Bill: I’m trying to learn from Paul Southworth, my collaborator/wife on Not Invented Here, my other comic strip. He’s really good at plot arcs.
Dewey’s just a little overweight.
Gene: Budget cuts is one.
Bill: Yes, we’re already part way through that one.
me: ebooks
Bill: That’s not a plot arc, just a topic.
Gene: eBooks are always on my mind. Especially because it hurts my eyes to read my iPad after a while.
Library as place? You think we could build an arc out of that?
“Still here. Same carpet.”
JP: HAHAHA
Gene: “I made that stain when I was 12, son.”
me: i’m gonna touch that one, nor the drapes
JP: I have a serious question: how did you make it happen? Take your idea for a comic and make it a full time + job?
Gene: Terror.
Bill: We’re an overnight success 9 years in the making.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, kid, practice.
Gene: We just started doing it. And we kept doing it. We’re living proof of how low the bar is.
Bill: We do it by having about twelve business models and being very aggressive about coming up with new ones.
Gene: Also, our wives are spectacular. They make us look better (and hence more successful) than we actually are.
JP: Gotcha!
Bill: And we were lucky enough to have an audience loyal enough to forgive how truly primitive our strip was in the early days.
…
Bill: Yes, lots of non librarian readers. I’m pretty careful to filter out the stuff I don’t understand (like “dublin core” and “library as place”)
me: (my card catalog “never forget” has been a hit at the pajama parties thus far)
10:55 AM Bill: Pajama parties? Pics or it didn’t happen.
Gene: They like to feel like they’re part of the in-group, seeing behind the scenes at the library they visit.
me: wise to have a non-library filter
JP: HAHAHA, 4chan reference
Gene: Pajama parties on a military base?
Bill: Most of our humor is character based, usually just spawned by some random library topic that most people can grasp.
…
Gene: We’re just going to throw someone into the mix who makes us laugh.
That’s the secret, we’re just amusing each other. When we’re not trying to get each other to stick to a deadline.
Bill: It’s true. We’re just making each other laugh. That’s the best we can do. I’m amazed that so many people laugh with us.
me: yea, how do you work “life” into the comic schedule?
Bill: Normally I work a 45 hour week, and so life is no problem. Except that we also travel about a week a month.
Gene: It’s not that hard. It’s the most forgiving of schedules, really. I can work anywhere (and often do at my daughter’s swim lessons).
…
Gene: We’re going to a library conference in northern BC that I’m really looking forward to, in Prince George. It’s called “Beyond Hope” (there’s a town to the south called Hope). Greatest name for a library conference ever.
JP: i like it
me: no joke!!!!
Bill: Oh, travel. Well we’re doing about a dozen talks. And there’s nothing more exciting for me than making a room full of people laugh.
…
Gene: Someone at another library conference where we’re speaking in the fall said they were still looking for a theme. Someone had suggested “Where’s the Bar?” or something like that. But it was voted down.
Gene: No joke on Beyond Hope. And it’s a small conference, so it should be an ultra-cool experience. Plus Canadians really know how to throw an after-party.
Bill: How about “Leave the Bottle”
JP: Can I steal the “where’s the bar?” theme?
Bill: If you want to see what it takes to make a living as a cartoonist, check out http://www.unshelved.com/talks
Bill: ANDREA SLOW DOWN
me: …catch up ;)
…
JP: Can I ask a serious one?
Gene: sure.
Bill: We’ve been waiting for a serious one.
oneandoneandoneisthree: Do libraries need “saving”?
Bill: We’re like “when’s this gonna GET REAL?”
Gene: Some do, sure.
Bill: I defer to my actual librarian friend.
Gene: But they need saving from a lot of things, don’t they.
JP: LOL I’d love to hear from the non-librarian, too. There’s all this talk about saving libraries, and i wonder
Gene: I just watched Eli Neiburger’s presentation Libraries are Screwed. I like Eli. (Great hair!) But he scared the shit out of me.
JP: From what?
and also, are we doing that bad of a job?
Eli is one of 8bitlibrary’s team, and he’s our mentor!
Bill: I can only speak from my perspective as a patron. My wife homeschools our kids so we are MAJOR library users. We literally (and literarily) check out 50 books a week. So every little cut in hours really affects us.
Gene: But another big problem is libraries never fire employees that underperform (or completely refuse to perform). I think we’re too nice. And then your hard working employees look around and say, “Fuck, why am I working so hard when X never does?” and then they check out, too. It’s catching.
me: you have some tender-hearted moments in unshelved, but a good dose of the humor has the what-went-wrong
wow, gene, nailed it!
JP: Gene, man, you hit the nail on the head. Bill, I was homeschooled for awhile. Ok i defer to andrea
Bill: LANGUAGE, GENE
Gene: I seriously think we’re doing too much. My wife asked me the same thing the other day (after Eil’s presentation, which I made the family watch during dinner). In response, I asked my wife, the smartest person I know, what the library’s mission was. And she couldn’t tell me.
Bill: I really think libraries could just focus on traditional stock-books-for-people-to-check-out and they’d do great.
me: seems we’re all scratching our heads about that too.
Gene: And I think that’s crazy.
I think we do too much for folks who don’t vote.
Bill: Gene and I disagree about almost everything.
JP: So how do you guys feel about the non-book stuff then. gaming & such?
Gene: (And I’m a bleeding heart, don’t get me wrong.) I just think that since we survive on the (voting) public’s good will, we should probably focus on them and serve everyone else, too.
Bill: I like the idea of libraries stocking games that people can check out, same as movies and music.
As for programs, meh.
Gene: I like games. But I prefer board games to video games — they bring people together in an entirely different way and people get to know one another.
Bill: AGREED. WE AGREE.
Gene: Games are cheap programs, though, and libraries need to look at what a program actually costs them in terms of staff time, hardware, etc. Games are cheap.
JP: I guess the problem there, then, is exactly what Eli touched on…when we CAN’T loan ou tphysical stuff, what is a library there for?
Bill: I have never really understood programs. Why do libraries care if people come in do play games, etc.?
JP: Community engagement
Gene: Why do libraries do programs that serve the same 50 people, week after week?
JP: This is true!
me: (nodded here)
Bill: Do communities need to be engaged?
JP: On an event bigger scale, we loan out books like like, what, 5% of the population…what about the other 95%
even*
Gene: That’s my problem with it. We’re not making conversions, not really. Sure, we go to the new immigrants and let them know what we’re up to, which is great, but that’s low hanging fruit.
Bill: But maybe only 5% of the population really reads.
Gene: My other rant is about how libraries see themselves as retail environments. And I hate that. Because for retail, more business is a good thing. You can afford to expand. But when libraries get too much business the service falls apart (or standards fall, at least).
me: libraries have also become one of the only free access sources for internet usage
JP: Yea, i think that’s the struggle: do we need to fund something out of tax dollars that only serves 5%…not sure if that’s a question
Gene: And that’s great, free internet.
Shouldn’t municipalities just provide free wifi and internet stations scattered throughout the community? (If that’s what folks value about the library.)
…
Gene: Because making any adjustments to the library model would mean folks would lose their jobs. And that’s the last thing we want.
Bill Barnes: bastard.
JP: LOL
…
Ok since we’re almost out of time, will you guys party with the 8bitlibrary crew when you come out to the east Coast?
Gene: I’m just ranting in the corner. I’m going to start making things out of beads.
Sure. Where are you?
…
Gene: But only if you fly Andrea out.
bedazzled!
JP: I’m right next to NYC! She’s in the west coast now.
me: sweeeeet!!!
Bill: Well I hope you can parse something readable out of this chat session.
me: for your next batch of expo floor margaritas
yeaaa…we’ll see about that
JP: Thanks guys. I
me: it was fun
Gene: Those margaritas were good.

No seriously, virtual worlds used to be my “thing”.

I love mmorpgs, I’m fascinated with gaming applications in education, and I was among that first generation of librarians who set up shop in Second Life.  I’ve given presentations on the viability of virtual worlds in libraries, as well as in the field of education.  Whenever I would give these presentations on Second Life, some smart-ass in the audience would invariably describe this richly developed interactive virtual world as nothing more than a passing fad. “Second Life won’t be around for long”, they’d say. “Nobody’s interested in Second Life”. … and I’d have to agree with them.

The truth was, I found myself trying to defend Second Life from myself just as much as I’d defend it against other people.  I just wasn’t sure whether it would last, but by golly, wasn’t it a lot of fun? So after a while, I’d stop trying to defend Second Life.  After all, it was just one product from a single company, and that company might not be around forever.  When that smart-ass in the audience would interrogate me about Second Life, I’d say: “You’re probably right. Second Life might not last forever. It might even be on the way out. BUT”, (I added this caveat to my repertoire very quickly) ” -if it DOES, it will be replaced by something better just as quickly”. This is something that we see a lot of in our profession.  New technologies materialize very quickly, and then just as you’re trying to grok the old, outdated tech, something new and exciting comes along. How many of my librarian colleagues out there remember databases on CD-Rom? How many remember searching with DIALOG? These interfaces are mostly a thing of the past, and yet the skill set required to use them hasn’t changed. When Second Life goes the way of the noble dodo, many virtual librarians will be forced to adapt their virtual skills to something new. But what will that new thing be? Many game consoles today have already begun to explore virtual communications in their menu screens. The XBox console allows users to scroll through their main menu with the help of an online avatar. Like any other avatar, your virtual representation on XBox Live is the way that other see you. It allows you to control your personal image in the XBox Live community.

Some areas of XBox Live actually allow you to interact with friends as your avatars. Although this virtual interaction has not yet attained the level of a virtual world on the scale of Second Life, it is already moving in that direction. Consider XBox’s new peripheral, the XBox Kinect. Last Christmas, I just got a brand new XBox Kinect. The Kinect, as many of you know, is Microsoft’s attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the Nintendo Wii. The device itself is a motion-sensitive camera that tracks the user’s movements, and allows the player to use their whole body to control their character’s actions on-screen. The virtue of this is twofold. Number one, it allows for a greater level of immersion. Players feel like they’re a part of the game. Seeing your avatar jump around on the screen to match your movements allows you to feel like a participant, rather than an observer. Secondly, it gets your fat butt off the couch and requires you to actually move around somewhat.

When you need to jump your raft in the game, you merely jump in real life, as gracefully as you're able ...

This screen capture illustrates an important point. Not only will the XBox Kinect track your movements, it allows the game to take frequent snapshots of you jumping around the living room in your pajamas; which you may then share with friends through KinectShare online, e-mail, or even Facebook. You can compare scores with your friends, and challenge each other in a variety of online games. So the Kinect adds a layer of social interaction, on top of the virtual interaction. This is where it gets spooky.

The next great advancement from Kinect will be “Kinect Avatars“, due out this Spring. Watch this short video, to give you an idea of what this will involve:

Kinect Avatars will allow the user to hold a little coffee klatch with other users and discuss anything you want. The device will pick up on your facial movements in order to render expressions. You’ll be able to conduct talk shows, create live performances, and even hold a small workshop, all through your XBox.** When finished, you can share the videos on YouTube or Facebook. Proving once again, that when Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, he was underestimating by a long shot.

Will XBox Live become the next virtual world? Surely the other consoles (Wii, PS3) will have similar ways of interacting online. Will they ever be compatible with each other? Or will something new come along that’s greater than all of these and Second Life put together? How do YOU want to interact with friends online? And once you invite all your friends into your very home, how will you ever get them to leave? >_<

* Feel free to mercilessly make fun of that title in the comments below. [nods] ** So, 8-bit contributors, shall we start scheduling the weekly 8-bit Library Talk Show now? :D

Somebody took a Guitar Hero guitar, hooked it up to a propane tank, and here it is. FireHero:

Here’s a link that leads to a how-to with photos of the construction process and more videos.

The following are selections for our fave-rave games of the year. These aren’t meant to be consensus picks, nor should this be mistaken for a definitive list. I just asked people to submit their choices, along with their justifications. Beg to differ? Have something else to add? You know what to do.

8BL Quick Picks:

• Fallout: New Vegas (Erin Mischak)
• Just Dance (Laverne Mann)
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Justin Hoenke)
• Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX (Toby Greenwalt)
• Red Dead Redemption (Chris Murray)
• Rock Band 3 (JP Porcaro)

See the full reviews after the jump.

Fallout: New Vegas – selected by Erin Mischak

WHAT? Fallout New Vegas is a RPG post-apocalyptic romp through the desert wasteland, for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s essentially Fallout 3 redux with new characters, weapons and quests. But New Vegas also brings a few interesting additions, such as a reputation system that affects a player’s interactions with different factions, and Hardcore Mode, which among other things requires your character to eat, drink and sleep to avoid, you know, death.

WHY? If you like RPGs, the Fallout universe is a great place to be – the maps are enormous with lots to explore, there are myriad quests and NPCs, and lots of opportunities to really customize your experience. Like Fallout 3, this is a game you can play again and again — your character’s karma and reputation with different factions open up different opportunities for dialog and quests, and the “perks” you choose as you level up add yet another dimension to the mix.

WHO? If you couldn’t get enough of Fallout 3, you’ll love having another chance to immerse yourself in the Fallout universe. Also, the tweaks they’ve made since 3 make the game a little more challenging, which will appeal to the serious gamer. But if you’re looking for a totally new experience from Fallout 3, look elsewhere. This is basically the same game, just more of it. (Which is just fine by me.)
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Just Dance – selected by Laverne Mann

WHAT? Some serious cardio can be done dancing to songs like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Girls and Boys, Hot and Cold, and even some rock like Lump (wow, saw the Presidents of the USA do this live years ago at the Masquerade in Atlanta!) Oddly, even annoying songs I’d never listen to are ok in Just Dance – Cotton Eyed Joe and Who Let the Dogs Out? were great hits with my 5 year old greatniece. The song selection is limited (guess that’s why Just Dance II is a best seller), but the variety does range from Mashed Potato, Surfin’ Bird to disco to 80s to rock. You can compete for points if you pull off a move perfect. There is also a last person standing competition.

WHY? Just Dance is the rare game where it’s entertaining enough to play by myself; or as a fun social party game. Even watchers are amused while players do moves like the lasso and punch and move.

WHO? In the library it could be great for all ages– from little kids who don’t care about points; teens who want to dance; to seniors who are game for a mashed potato contest!
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Kirby’s Epic Yarn – selected by Justin Hoenke

WHAT? Kirby’s Epic Yarn isn’t the most revolutionary platforming game to come out in the past few years, but it is tons of fun. You control Kirby who is on a quest to find 7 pieces of magic yarn to reunite Patch Land. Simple yet unique game.

WHY? Kirby’s Epic Yarn is both super enjoyable and ridiculously cute. Combine those two with excellent game play and beautiful graphics and you have a winner on your hands.

WHO? Anyone looking for a fun adventure game should check out Kirby’s Epic Yarn. It’s a must for libraries to have…patrons of all ages who own a Wii will get something out of this title.
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Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX – selected by Toby Greenwalt

WHAT? On the surface, it’s the Pac-Man we’ve seen in countless iterations. Our hero races through the maze, chomping pellets and avoiding ghosts. If he gets a power pellet, he can turn the tables and chow down on the ghosts for a few seconds. Lather, rinse, repeat. The principle is the same here with Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX, but altered just enough to make things new and refreshing. For most of us, success in the original games was something of a limited prospect. We’d race through the maze, hoping to stave off the spectres of death long enough to feel like we hadn’t wasted our time (or our quarters). Instead of avoiding failure, the DX edition is about chasing success. Dying is hardly an issue. Between the bombs (which knock the ghosts out of the way) and the bullet-time (which kicks the game into slow-motion during close calls, providing ample escape opportunities), you’re unlikely to lose a single life in a round, let alone all of them. Instead you’re chasing the Score – and given an endless route of changing maps, scoring opportunities, and power pellets with which to do so. And it’s there that the game becomes a thing of beauty. Instead of telling the player “don’t fail too badly,” the game asks “sure, you can succeed – but by how much?”

WHY? Because they took a perfect game, and perfected it. Because you’ll be searching for ways to build on your high scores or shave seconds off your Time Trial bests for hours on end. Because plowing through thirty ghosts in one go is a thrill that never gets old. Because for a measly ten dollars, Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX will show you the secrets of the universe.

WHO? You, that’s who. Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX provides ideally-sized portions of Pure Gaming Excitement that would be a hit at any library gaming event. Games are short, allowing many people to participate. The difficulty curve is set in such a way that even rank newbies can feel like Billy Mitchell, and experts will be racing to find ways to build on their high scores. And if the bullet-time near-misses don’t generate shouts and claps from the crowd, I’ll eat my hat. If you can work a joystick, this game has your number.
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Red Dead Redemption – selected by Chris Murray

A paddlewheel pulls into a large Western town. Among the disembarking passengers is a grizzled, scarred cowboy, escorted by two lawmen. The cowboy is perp walked onto a train, where he sits quietly listening to his high-class fellow passengers talk about how the American West is finally becoming civilized; motorcars are replacing horses, naive young girls are replacing cowboys, and the white man is here to gentrify the savages. Red Dead Redemption is the story of John Marston, the taciturn former outlaw. Marston quit his gang and was attempting to live the rest of his life peacefully with his wife and son, giving up bank-robbing and horse-thieving for a simpler life of farming and ranching. But, as so often is the case, his past will not leave him behind. The gang of which he was formerly a member is terrorising the Southwest, and the FBI have, let us say, transported his wife and children to a remote — but safe — location, where they will stay until Marston brings the rest of his former gang to justice and clear his name (the “Redemption” of the title).

In true sandbox tradition, there is more to do than simply follow the plot from A to B. You learn to lasso and break horses; you can find herbs for local doctors or flowers for lost wanderers; you can hunt deer or buffalo, skin and butcher them, and sell their hides and meat. You can play poker in the local saloon, or practice your coordination with a knife in a back alley. You can hunt down local troublemakers and collect the bounty on their heads, or you can be hunted yourself by bears, mountain lions, or particularly vicious javelinas.

You are drawn into the story and the setting from the start, and the game doesn’t let go. The West is a wide, wild, lonesome place, and is gorgeously rendered. The music is the familiar, atmospheric, whistle-harmonica-and-snare of the best Western movie tradition; even without the visuals, simply close your eyes and you can imagine the tumbleweeds blowing through the sagebrush, feel the dry desert wind in your hair, taste the gritty red dust in your teeth. You feel the confusion and bitterness as Marston is strung along, a pawn in a game he never wanted to play in the first place. You fight off gangs, you rescue hostages, and you even take part in a revolution south of the border; but through it all, Marston never loses his determination to reunite with his family and finally put the past to rest.

There is a fairly intensive online multiplayer element, but as a firm believer in the sad truth of John Gabriel’s GIFT, i have not ventured into that particular wilderness. There is also downloadable content available; standing out from the rest is the brilliant “Undead Nightmare”, where Marston must save New Austin from a zombie outbreak. I recommend waiting until near the end of the game to play it, as while it takes place in an alternate universe, it starting point is about 9/10ths of the way into the plot, and much could be spoiled by playing it too early. Not only is this game my choice for “best of the year”, but it is one of the best of this generation, and far and away the best of its genre. Red Dead Redemption takes every element of the Western — every cliche, every stock character, every overarching theme — and rolls them up into a beautiful, immersive, and overall incredibly fun game.

WHAT? The best Western game on this or any other platform ever, Red Dead Redemption is a well-told tale that proves that even the hoariest cliches can be put to novel use.

WHY? A beautifully bittersweet run through an underappreciated genre; one of the best sandbox games of this generation, even if you don’t like the Old West.

WHO? Adults. This isn’t the sanitized Davy Crockett Old West; there is death and blood and sex and cursing and skinless animals just lying there all pink and grody. Seriously, ew.

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Rock Band 3 – selected by JP Porcaro

What? The funnest party game of the year. Rock Band took all the fun of music gaming, but tried to remove the “staleness” of the genre by adding a real MIDI Keyboard (Keytar!), real guitars, 3-part-vocal-harmonies, and doubled the amount of drum pads. On top of that, it nearly doubled the amount of simultaneous players per song.

Why? The game has 80+ on-disk songs, a library of over 2000+ songs to download, and allows you to export almost all the songs from Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Lego Rock Band for use in this game. My personal song library is nearing 500 songs. This in itself makes for hours of karaoke fun at a time.

Who? Up to 7 players at a time means that this game supports more play action than every Xbox game in any genre. For that reason, it fits better in a library setting than most games, because the more engagement we have, the better. With the addition of Pro mode and multiple microphones, the game has raised both the top level and lowered the bottom: even the most hardcore music gamers can have new challenges, and those who’s never even played a video game could jump on a microphone and get the full gaming experience.
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What are your Games of the Year? Share your opinions in the comments.

Hobby Games Up, Video Games Down

Recession Related or Long Term Trend?

Hobby games up, but sales of video games were down 8% in the first seven months of 2010.

The board game category, which is one of the main beneficiaries of the increased interest in family gaming, continues to grow with distributors reporting increased sales through independent toy stores as well as hobby game outlets.

The full print article had many quotes about the social nature of family games, and how parents don’t want their kids ‘sitting in front of the TV playing videogames’  ’looking for stuff to do with their kids’  ’play a board game you are interacting with people, not staring at screen’.

As librarians that promote gaming as social interaction, we need to be aware of this perception from people about playing solitary videogames.  I can say that our library gaming programs make kids social– they have the same console and games at home, but want to come and play with other kids.

Also,  $50 for a playthrough video game is not the same as a board game because ‘every time you play it it’s different’.

Final quote is from Lori Aitken at Pegasus Games in Madison “There’s a backlash against videogames and solitary games….people saying they want a game that gets my kid interacting with someone”.

Halloween candy for thought…