8bitlibrary.com » gaming

If this is the future, count me out.

JustinLibrarian — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:25:22 +0000

My son Finn has this really strong desire to watch me play Super Mario Brothers Crossover on Google Chrome. I don’t mind it at all, but there’s only so much side scrolling one gamer can take (the plus side? My son can now identify Samus). With that in mind, I decided to seek out a new game for my Google Chrome netbook. I wanted something quick and easy that would make my son giggle. After much internal resistance over the past year, I decided to give into the Angry Birds phenomenon last night.

Twenty levels later, I leave the experience thinking only one thing. If this is the future of gaming, count me out.

Just how did this game take off? Well, it’s very easy to see. It’s easy to pick up, you get to destroy things, and the birds and pigs are all cute and shit. The controls are simple, so simple in fact, that my 2.5 year old son even figured it out (granted, he’s a born gamer but anyways). All of these things combined make it ripe for mass consumption.

But that’s not to say it is a good game. Level after level, you’re faced with the same task…get those pesky pigs by launching birds from a slingshot. Yes, the puzzles appear to get harder, but in reality all that you’re making attempt after attempt based on luck. There’s no real strategy to the game. You launch birds and hope to knock pigs down. And that’s where it gets addicting. There’s the illusion that there’s some thought behind the game. You start to believe that you can become an Angry Birds master. The catch is that you can’t. You can only hope that this bird launch will do the trick. You are hooked. Goodbye precious hours of your life.

I’m a strong supporter of gaming entering mainstream culture, but this isn’t the way that I was hoping it was going to happen. We need games to be recognized as a legitimate form of literacy, as a way for people to learn, understand, and interact. Knocking pigs off of wooden structures with birds is just putting us a few steps back. We need to highlight games that teach skills such as reading, writing, social interaction, and more. We need games that change lives, not waste precious time.

And that’s my goal as I continue to write here at 8BitLibrary and join together with some amazing librarians to help start up the Games and Gaming Roundtable within ALA. I hope to shed some light for the world on how important these games can be for the people experiencing them.

Video Game Collection Development (UPDATE!)

JustinLibrarian — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:00:56 +0000

Video Game Collection Development 101
VERSION 2

Much thanks to Alex Lent for giving us the nudge to update this post!

1. Start small

I still stand by this idea 100%. You don’t have to go for broke with your new collection. I recently had a great conversation with Devin Burritt of the Jackson Memorial Library about starting up a video game collection. He made it happen at his library recently and started off with a small collection of Wii titles aimed at all ages. By keeping things small at the start, you will understand how your collection is being used by your patrons. With this information, you can continue to build your collection and have it guided by patron input. Which brings me to my second point…

2. Know your audience

Who will be playing these games? Your patrons. As fun as it is to buy video games, you have to put aside your personal preferences. Sure, I really dug Elite Beat Agents but you know what? My patrons didn’t. It’s one of the few games that constantly stays on the shelves here at my library. What did I learn from this? Don’t trust my gut reaction when purchasing games. Instead, TALK to your patrons when they’re browsing your game collection. Notice what they’re checking out. Heck, just simply ASK them what they want!

3. Plan ahead

You have to have a plan for your collection. Are you going to collect games for systems that are no longer supported by companies? Are you going to invest in the newest video game systems even though there is a chance they may not take off? Once again, gauging your patrons interests is key to planning ahead. At my library, we recently received a donation of Nintendo Gamecube and Playstation 1 and 2 games. I decided to add them into the collection just to see what people would think. It turns out that they circulate like mad and now I have people asking me to get a bigger selection of older titles. I’ve even had to submit an interlibrary loan request for a title I couldn’t find in print anywhere.

4. Gamer’s Advisory

Over the past year, I’ve found the topic of what I’m calling Gamer’s Advisory key to making a video game collection work in your library. Sure, you will most likely have a rabid set of patrons that will check out your games, but the collection only really starts to show its true worth when you can add recommendations (not just for other games, but for other materials and experiences the library can offer). Keep the patrons coming back for more at the library. Turn the avid gamers onto something that else that they may not have tried in the past.

5. It’s not just about lending physical items out

I’m a big fan of this topic. Libraries are struggling to grasp how to circulate electronic materials in the library. This is cause for some concern, but at the same time it opens up a new door for us. Instead of lending out items, create experiences. Give the patrons something they cannot get elsewhere. I bring up the example of the local Portland, ME store The Fun Box Monster Emporium. They’ve got a row of awesome pinball machines in their store that their customers can play. Why can’t libraries do something like this? Invest in some gaming tools that will give patrons gaming experiences that they can’t get everyday at the local video game store. Personally, I want to buy a Pac Man arcade machine for my teen lounge.

Gaming Reader’s Advisory SMACKDOWN

librarymafia — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:07:01 +0000

Calling all 8bit contributors and readers – time for some friendly competition! Working together, we can compile an awesome list of Reader’s Advisory recommendations based on our favorite games. Here’s how to play!

Leave a comment on this post with the following info:

First, the game you’re using as a jumping off point. You can use console, PC, MMORPG, board games – whatever floats your boat – and give us a few words about why you love it.
Then, three recommendations based on #1 – a book, a movie, and another game. Also, a quick explanation for why you chose each.

Next – the friendly competition part! Others will reply to your post giving your RA a score, out of a total 15 possible – 5 for synergy (“Those recommendations TOTALLY work together!”), 5 for originality (“Dude, I NEVER would have thought of that!”), and 5 for pure AWESOME (“OMGWTFBBQ, I need to go get those RIGHT NOW!!!”).

Winner gets eternal 8bit glory. All participants benefit from each other’s kickass ideas.

Let’s do this!! And I’ll go first…

What type of media belongs in a library? (or, Who Are We?)

JP — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:32:45 +0000

I’ve been getting alot of questions lately: “what IS 8bitlibrary“?

6 months ago i would have said “it’s the gaming-in-libraries blog”! And I’m not, 6 months later, saying that statement is wrong. But we’re about a bigger issue, and that is: “we’re the #makeithappen blog“.

In libraries, #makeithappen is a taking new exciting ideas and seeing them through to the end. It’s the blog about all the really cool new stuff people are actually doing in libraries.

I had the opportunity to watch the Joaquim Phoenix movie I’m Still Here thanks to the Netflix instant queue. It was a great documentary about Joachim trying to become a Hip-Hop star. I won’t give spoilers, but the end, to say the least, “leaves you wondering”.

Tonight, again because of the Netflix Instant Queue on Xbox, I got to see the 1998 documentary Wrestling with Shadows, which ultimately chronicles the end of Bret Hitman Hart’s WWF career, with the Montreal Screwjob being the crux of the story. Everyone KNOWS wrestling is scripted, and the movie takes you through the process of how wrestling IS scripted. However, the end of the movie is the story of a script gone wrong, where the person who was supposed to win was “screwed”. In the 90s wrestling era, this was a defining moment of “OMG, wrestling can be REAL sometimes!!!”.

When the movie started, I felt that the fact that a documentary was being recorded at the convenient moment when the ultimate wrestling “real” outcome (vs the usual fake wrestling) was proof that even at the time wrestling was “real”, it was also an elaborate hoax.

I suggested to my wife that this would be a great program for a library (like a book discussion, but with movies instead of books). Show both movies and have people discuss the fictional and the factual elements of both, and maybe try to decide which told a better fictional but factual story.

My wife said “this doesn’t belong in libraries“. There’s lots of dicks, boobs, balls, sex, and drug use in the Joachim movie after all, and the wrestling movie was full of violence: everything we love to censor.

I thought back to all the books I have read since becoming a librarian. Lots worse violence. Way more sex and drug use. Much more graphic violence. They are making a MOVIE out of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, after all! As an aside, that book was set right in the same historical period as the Montreal Screwjob.

I said to myself: WHY is it ok to have certain forms of “inappropriate” expression in books but not movies? Why do we treat some forms of media as sacred, and other forms as dirty?

This, of course, is also what 8bitlibrary.com is about. We believe that storytelling media shouldn’t be judged just because it is presented in a certain media format and not another.

And so, I ask, how have libraries dealt with “controversial” content in one form of media that is less-controversial in other forms? We already know that some library board in the middle of nowhere decided to ban their library from showing the Michael Moore movie Sicko just because they didn’t agree with the argument the movie made. I’m sure they already own books that make similar arguments, and no one cares. Cranky Kong, Donkey Kong’s grandfather, would probably applaud their ban.

So, should libraries ban content in some formats and not others? And, do you feel like 8bitlibrary.com is just a “gaming blog”, or do you feel like we talk about gaming so much because we are touching on an issue that is really relevant to current libraries?

I wrote an article in January 2011′s School Library Journal along with 8bitlibrary.com contributor Beth Gallaway on the USA Supreme Court Case on First Amendment Rights and how they apply to video game content (vs, say, the same content in a Bugs Bunny cartoon). Same issue, different media format.

I would really love to get a convo going, either here, on twitter, or on facebook, about what you think!!!

Thanks for reading, true believers.

#makeithappen!

Gaming for Children with Special Needs: What to Play?

Allen — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:50:50 +0000

Chances are, if you made it to 8bitlibrary.com, then you’re well aware of the benefits of gaming, including the development and reinforcement of various cognitive, literacy, and social skills. So the question is, what are you going to do in 2011 to enhance gaming services in your community? Our suggestion is expanding these programs to a new audience, and there is none better than children with special needs.

For complete information on the how and why of gaming for children with special needs, see the article from the December 2010 issue of School Library Journal, “Rated E for Everyone”. Then come back and check out this list of game recommendations and get a program started for this frequently under-served audience!

Card & Board Games

ThinkFun Zingo is a fun, fast-moving matching game similar to Bingo in which players try to match up their picture card with tiles that are revealed by pulling on a Zinger. The first player to fill his or her picture card wins. This game is great because it accommodates 2 to 8 players, keeps kids engaged, teaches image and vocabulary recognition, reading, matching, memory, concentration, and encourages social skills such as taking turns, following rules, and sharing.
I Spy Memory Game is a memory game, for 1-6 players, with riddles just like the I Spy book series, which can be played three different ways to accommodate younger and older players. This game helps young players to develop memory, reading, thinking and language skills, as well as important social skills such as taking turns, following rules, and sharing. Kids that enjoy reading I Spy books and playing I Spy computer games will enjoy this board game, which has simple rules, is easy to set up, and can be completed fairly quickly.
Jenga is a stacking game consisting of wooden blocks that are big and easy to grab. This interactive, engaging, and tactile game teaches kids the importance of strategy and concentration, while improving dexterity and coordination. Jenga is great because the rules are simple, a game can be set up and completed fairly quickly, and requires only 1 or more to play.
Pictionary Card Game is a fun, fast-moving card game that is played in teams as small as two, which combines the fun of Pictionary and Charades. Players race to act out the clues using only the simple images on the cards by combining them, building scenes with them or using them as props. This interactive game is great because no drawing is required, is easy to play, and improves concentration, while fostering imagination, creativity, thinking skills, teamwork and cooperation.
Sequence for Kids is a fun, fast-moving sequence game, similar to Bingo in some ways that preps kids for strategic thinking as they anticipate their opponents’ next move. This game is great because it only requires 2 to 4 players, fosters social skills such as taking turns, following rules, and sharing, and builds matching, pattern recognition, counting, and literacy skills.

Video Games

Wii Active Life Outdoor Challenge is a fitness game that will get kids up and moving, similar to Nintendo’s Wii Fit, in which players are actively engaged in a variety of 16 fun, energetic, fast-paced mini-games such as river rafting, mine-cart adventure, log jumping, see-saw, jump rope, water trampoline, and many more. Using a specially-designed eight pad Active Life mat, this game will help kids will improve their overall fitness level, sense of balance and coordination, eye-hand coordination, literacy skills (reading on-screen directions), as well as foster teamwork, cooperation, and social skills such as taking turns and sharing. (ESRB Rating: E for Everyone)
Wii Boom Blox Bash Party is the exciting sequel to Wii Boom Blox that challenges the players’ reflexes, dexterity, and problem-solving skills. Like the original Boom Blox, players use the Wii Remote to direct objects and forces toward structures made of blocks in order to knock them over. The Jenga-like gameplay requires players to pull out blocks, with the goal of toppling over as many blocks as possible, without bringing down the entire structure, and like Jenga, kids will learn strategy skills, improve dexterity, and observe physics in action. Wii Boom Blox Bash Party is great for all ages, is easy to play, and features quick games that foster teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration. (ESRB Rating: E for Everyone)
Wii Just Dance 2 is the energizing sequel to Just Dance, featuring 45 songs that can be used in four different dance modes to help kids improve their overall coordination and physical fitness levels, build teamwork and social skills such as sharing and taking turns, and work on memory, pattern recognition and following instructions. Basically, players hold a Wiimote in their right hand, and copy dance moves presented by an animated dancer presented on the screen. Just Dance 2 is suitable for tweens and teens, but if you have a younger audience, you may also want the very recently released Just Dance Kids (ESRB Rating: E for Everyone), which will contain more age-appropriate songs and lyrics targeted toward a younger age group, which also helps kids work on similar skills as noted for Just Dance 2. (ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+)
Wii Party is an interactive and engaging kid-friendly party game featuring 13 different party game modes and 70+ mini-games, which provide kids with lots of variety that includes cooperative and competitive gameplay that turns over quickly to keep the game moving. This game helps kids improve their eye-hand coordination, builds literacy skills (like Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, players can read on-screen instructions for help), and social skills (taking turns and sharing with other players). (ESRB Rating: E for Everyone)
Wii Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party is the third Wii game in UBI Soft’s popular Rayman Raving Rabbids series, and features 60+ fun, quick minigames. The “rabbids” are bunny-like creatures who communicate by screaming and occasionally hitting each other with any object that comes into their hands. The rabbids have taken over the TV stations, broadcasting a series of nonsense shows in an effort to drive Rayman crazy. Players will discover new and innovative ways to play with eight types of gameplay, which will help them improve their sense of precision, dexterity, balance, and coordination, and reading written instructions to complete the mini-games will help kids improve their literacy skills. This game also fosters teamwork, cooperation, and social skills as kids practice taking turns and sharing. (ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+)

Game reviews by Peggy Wong, Children’s Services Librarian, Piscataway Public Library

pwong AT lmxac DOT org

Things I’m reading (January 13 2011)

JustinLibrarian — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:24:58 +0000

Who Wins? Playing Games With Kids takes a look at playing games and parenting. What really blew my mind was the whole cooperative game play theme the entire post presents to the reader. Gaming isn’t about winning…it’s about the experience, something that we here at 8BitLibrary have been saying for quite some time.

Download Free Kaplan Educational Textbooks for eReaders: As a teen librarian, how could I not be excited about this? Sure, the teen has to have something to read eBooks on (which, from my experience, most do not) but in any case, this offer could help out some people in need. Lasts through January 17, 2011.

Moss Rug: The living bathroom mat goes on sale File this under neato. Basically, it’s a rug for your bathroom created out of moss. The humidity from the air and the water drops from your shower/bathtub water the rug, and in turn, you get this really cool, organic feeling when you step out of the shower.

Review: NHL ’94 (Sega Genesis)

JustinLibrarian — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:00:04 +0000

WHAT? Bursting onto the scene in 1993, NHL ’94 forever changed how we envision sports games (particularly hockey, duh) on home video game systems. The perfect blend of strategy and fun, NHL ’94 showed the world that it was possible to have a game that took time for a gamer to master but at the same time could be played by anyone just picking up the controller. NHL ’94 showed the world that multiplayer gaming could open a whole new world of competition, community, and enjoyment.

WHY? Retro gaming shows the world where we came from and how we ended up where we are today. Playing NHL ’94 will give gamers a glimpse into the evolution of multiplayer sports gaming and how the balance of fun and competition is a struggle for sports game developers. You want a bit of statistics geek mixed in with a little casual gamer in sports games. Getting that mix is tough, but NHL ’94 manages to get there.

WHO? Everyone should play this, sports fan or not. You get a glimpse into just how much care is put into a title by the developers. I recommend checking out NHL ’93 before playing this game. To the untrained eye, they’re the same game, but if you look closely you see the minor tweaks the development team made to give NHL ’94 that slight edge. It’s all about learning, and boy oh boy, you can learn a lot from this title.

Go here for a pretty basic but informative wiki entry on this most excellent title.

PS GO HARTFORD WHALERS.

PPS I reviewed the Sega Genesis version because, to this day, I still maintain the belief that the Sega Genesis was far superior to the Super Nintendo in terms of sports gaming. Why? I don’t really know.

“Get Your Game Face On” via At Your Library

JustinLibrarian — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:50:32 +0000

Click on the picture to be taken to the full article

Via atyourlibrary.org

Check out this awesome article by Rebecca Walden on gaming in libraries over at At Your Library. It features two 8BitLibrarians, myself and resident author Eli Neiburger talking about gaming in their own libraries.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE!

Amateur Video Game Composers

JP — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:28:44 +0000

Coming off of yesterday’s post about the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom Machinima contest, I decided to talk more about using video games as a medium for creative expression. Yesterday I talked about video games & film, today, video games & music!

CHIPTUNE

Chiptune is a genre of music where the composer and/or performer uses the sounds generated by “retro” video game or computer hardware as the instrument. Instead of playing a guitar or a trumpet or a violin, they play a Gameboy. Or a Commodore 64.

The phrase “8 bit” evokes a certain nostalgic emotion attached to video game culture, which is why the movie we linked to in yesterday’s post was titled 8-bit, why we’re called “The 8bitlibrary”, and where this collective of chiptune musicians get their name:

8BITPEOPLES

Before I was a librarian blogger, I was a video gamer. And as such, I got into this crazy genre of music called chiptune. The 8bitpeoples are a collective of musicians who use classic video game hardware to make music and then give it away free on the internet. I actually think they are at least part of the reason why I ended up becoming a librarian: the idea that information and expression should be free (including artistic expression) is one of the core principles of librarianship. The contest that spawned yesterday’s post, and inspired today’s, is thanks to the efforts of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom in fact!

8bitlibrary.com is inspired a bit by them as well; while the “8 bit” in the name we took because of its nostalgic nature, and the “library” because of our love for Library Garden et al, the idea of “a collective of creative outside-the-box thinkers” in this field is at least partly inspired by the 8bitpeoples.

This is something librarians should seriously think about as we move forward: we aren’t book depositories. Even things like literacy are only part of what we do. Let’s take our inspiration from a variety of sources. Musicians. Chefs. Artists. I would love to see a wave of librarians who say “I became a librarian because of an example set by a musician“. I had a convo with Allen McGinley on our way down to #ALA10: he said he would love to see a librarian on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, not as a musician, but as a librarian. I ended up using that as one of my two goals for an exercise we did during an ALA Emerging Leaders event.

Anyway, enjoy some free Chiptune music via the 8bitpeoples:

one of my favorite Christmas Albums, ever:

Who doesn’t love Axel F?

National Gaming Day ’10 / HELP!

JP — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:25:02 +0000

Via http://ngd.ala.org!

We’re happy to announce that libraries can now register for National Gaming Day 2010, which will take place on Saturday, November 13.

Registering will also get your location on the national map we’ll be promoting to both the public and the press. Does your library plan to participate in the national Rock Band and/or Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments? Be sure to register so we can work with you ahead of time to get everything in place and tested.

National Gaming Day needs your help!!!

Please visit this link for the full post. Help us help the gaming-in-libraries cause!

Hi, Everyone –

I’m happy to say that we have more international libraries signing up for National Gaming Day this year. Unfortunately, we can’t ship the free donation to them, but they still want to participate (hooray for international libraries!).

Right now, a foreign services librarian with the State Department named Elenita is working with libraries worldwide that are partnering with U.S. embassies. She’s asking for our help to give them ideas for games they can play on NGD (Saturday, November 13).

“I would like to suggest free games that they can find on the Internet to play on NGD. Do you know any paper-based games, such as crossword puzzles or word games for them to try? Anything that is low-tech or no-tech based is preferable. Many participants are learning English as a foreign language.”

Does anyone have suggestions to help with this? TIA!

HAPPY GAMING, 8BITLIBRARIANS.