It’s important to realize that youth (children and teens) are not the only people gaming. People who grew up playing Nintendo are now in their 30s, and they’re still playing games.
- The Daedalus Project – PhD research by Stanford grad Nick Yee, covers many aspects of MMOs, such as demographics, leadership, gender issues, etc.
- Virtual Worlds, Real Leaders – study issued by IBM and Seriosity on how gaming hones real-life leadership skills.
- Social Study Games – research on games and 21st century skills by Lisa Galarneau.
- Games, Learning and Society Conference
- MMOs and Learning (from The Shifted Librarian)
- Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium- July 22-24, 2007
- Library Game Lab at Syracuse University – Scott Nicholson
- Google Group: LibGaming – talks about creating Gaming programs in libraries
from MUDs: multi-user dungeons
Some early MMORPGs:
Ultima Online
EverQuest
Currently:
World of Warcraft: over 8.5 million subscribers(individual players) – current 800 pound gorilla
More than 2 million in the U.S.
- can play single player, but many quests require groups.
- 5 person groups
- Raids – 5+, often from 25-40 needed for high level dungeons.
- Guilds: formal large groups of players that band together to raid dungeons and help other players.
EverQuest 2
City of Heroes/City of Villians- superheroes
Dark Age of Camelot
Lord of the Rings Online
Dungeons & Dragons Online
Star Wars Galaxies
Second Life-more of a virtual environment/community than actual game
Soon:
Age of Conan
Warhammer Online
Pirates of the Caribbean Online
More Comprehensive List from Wikipedia
WoW Resources:
- World of Warcraft Community Site
- Encyclopedia
- Glossary
- Thottbot – search engine
- WoWwiki
- Petopia – database of hunter pets
- WoW Insider – blog devoted to Warcraft
Videos:
- Raid of Serpentshire Caverns – a raid of a high level dungeon, demonstrating group tactics
- How many level ones does it take to kill Hogger? – a group of first level characters taking on a level 11 boss
- WoW Dances – the origins of some of the racial dances in WoW
- WoW vs. Guild Wars – another fun dance video comparing WoW and Guild Wars
- Make Love Not Warcraft – first part of the Emmy-Nominated South Park episode. WARNING: not safe for work!
- Simpsons Episode – a spoof of MMOs in general from The Simpsons
Librarians In Game:
ibrarians in game as quest giver NPCs.
Mae Paledust of Ironforge
From a quest:”The Royal Library is very large, but the head librarian, Milton Sheaf, knows each shelf like it was his own son. Speak to him, he’ll retrieve the book for you”
July 24, 2007 at 5:35 pm
[...] Gaming and Libraries [...]
July 27, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Anali, This was an awesome presentation and showed a lot of hard work. The other two speakers, Rick Glady and Rosann Santos had wonderful things to contribute about gaming as well, making your message very consistent. Libraries need to pay attention to the gaming generation–or risk losing them. I wish I’d said this myself but it’s a quote from some smart person, “The more we orient our services away from young people the more we endanger the future of our organization”.
Thank you again for your hard work.
August 7, 2007 at 9:15 am
I had put this site on my del.icio.us account awhile back but only recently returned to check it out — and was delighted to see the Gaming in Libraries section. I just got back a few weeks ago from the Techsource Symposium in Chicago, and my first career was in gaming as well. I’m overjoyed that the Valley is looking into this area for teens and older folks too. Gaming is truly cross-generational — or can be, at least.
I’m a WoW player myself (2 years and counting), and I can tell you that there are MANY librarian NPCs in the game who are quest-givers (though darn few of them are female!) It’s something that has always delighted me to see — that, and an emphasis on books and tomes as readable objects in the game (giving lore and deep background and texture to the game’s history), and as quest items in their own right.
Please let me know if there is anything I can add to this subject from Baja Arizona. I am working to develop gaming systemwide in Tucson’s libraries, and we have the support of Admin and many frontline librarians.