The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is Out Now

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on August 21, 2008.

LucasArts is pulling out all the stops for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. In addition to the video game, their cross-format media event will feature a tie-in novel, a graphic novel, and an art book (The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed) detailing the making of the game.

Joystiq got a first look at the book and posted a bunch of excerpts on their site. The 224-page tome, which was written by Brett Rector and The Force Unleashed project leader Haden Blackman, definitely looks to raise the bar for game art books everywhere. The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be available in stores this week.

And for more Star Wars fun, the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo will be added to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace tomorrow.

Who is the “Author” of a Video Game?

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on August 16, 2008.

A post on the MTV Multiplayer Blog today attempts to answer one of the age old questions of video games: why doesn’t a game’s director get his name on the box?

It’s a good question as librarians routinely suggest books based on the author. Furthermore, with the game industry regularly comparing themselves to the movie industry, film’s “auteur theory” has never made the jump.

There could be any number of reasons for this. A book will usually only have one author and collaborations between two or more authors is rare. The auteur theory in film studies declares that the director is the final voice in the creation of a movie. So in these industries, the “creator” of a work is very clear cut and librarians can use that information to suggest other works that may be of interest to a patron.

The problem with games is that there’s no cut and dried creator of a game. Right now, two very different entities could be considered the “author” of a game. The first, which would tie in most closely with the writer of a book or the director of a movie is the game’s lead developer. Continue reading →

Popular Culture and Philosophy Will Release The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy This Fall

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on August 13, 2008.

A new book titled The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy recently popped up on Amazon. The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy is an essay compilation edited by Luke Cuddy, and it’ll be released on November 28.

Using the game franchise as a springboard, here’s a look at some of the philosophical questions the publisher believes the book might be able to answer:

With both young and adult gamers as loyal fans, The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved video game series ever created. The contributors to this volume consider the following questions and more: What is the nature of the gamer’s connection to Link? Does Link have a will, or do gamers project their wills onto him? How does the gamer experience the game? Do the rules of logic apply in the game world? How is space created and distributed in Hyrule (the fictional land in which the game takes place)? How does time function? Is Zelda art? Can Hyrule be seen as an ideal society? Can the game be enjoyable without winning? The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy not only appeals to Zelda fans and philosophers but also puts video games on the philosophical map as a serious area of study.

The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy is the latest entry in the longrunning “Popular Culture and Philosophy” series. The series has spawned dozens of volumes looking into the deeper meaning of our favorite entertainment, with previous philosophical deconstructions focused on Seinfeld, The Simpsons, The Beatles, zombies, James Bond, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, poker, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Legend of Zelda is the first video game entry in the “Popular Culture and Philosophy” series, but it won’t be the last. The popular plans to release World of Warcraft and Philosophy in 2009.

Programming Idea: Fantasy Football

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on August 5, 2008.

Fantasy Football has nearly become a sport unto itself. For football fans, it’s the next best thing to actually watching football. And for some, being “involved” in the sport in this way is much better. So a fantasy football league would be a great community gathering event for a library of any size. But manually running a fantasy football league is tough work. Thankfully, Yahoo has a full set of tools available to create and run a league through their Yahoo Fantasy Sports section. They do all the work and the cost is next to nothing.

For a librarian on a tight programming budget, the fact that running a league through Yahoo Fantasy Football is free is the best part. The only costs might be a few prizes for the top players or the pizza and wings that would be a necessity at any “Draft Day” event.

Yahoo allows for the creation of Custom Leagues where nearly every setting is editable. Leagues can be created in the two most popular fantasy sports styles: “Head-To-Head” or “Points.” Definitions of nearly every term used in fantasy football (and details on how Yahoo’s system in particular works) can be found on Yahoo’s Help Pages.

The Fantasy Draft itself can be turned into a huge event with a few pizzas and wings and soda. To get the rest of the community involved, it would be easy to take a whiteboard and post the league standings somewhere in the library. Weekly league meetings could even be held (on Sunday afternoons of course and with a little football on a TV) to encourage people to stick with the league.

While a season-long fantasy football league is not a “traditional” library program (or even technically a “video game”), it definitely fits in with the idea that many librarians share that libraries should be community meeting places.

Chicago Tribune Asks “Should Libraries Stock Video Games?”

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on July 28, 2008.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune published a story (“Quiet in the library? Shhh!”) that asked the question, “Should libraries stock video games – or ban them?” The author of the article was shocked… SHOCKED… that libraries would dare do such a thing:

The library, we thought, was a place for study and contemplation, not a hangout for gamers. Yes, we know modern libraries often have more DVDs than Blockbuster, more computers than the local community college and better coffee than Starbucks.

They would go to compare stocking games for checkout to building a miniature golf course in the middle of the stacks. Thankfully, the rest of the article was more levelheaded, and the author pointed out that the American Library Association whole-heartedly supports gaming in the library. The relationship between teens and games was also compared to how senior citizens favor large print books for an example of “special populations” in collection development.

Sadly, the author also seems to be under the impression that video games are only for kids and teens. This impression was hopefully changed thanks to a slew of user comments on the original article and two letters to the editor (“Community Center” and “Video Games Are Vital Part of Any Educational Environment“) that pointed out how well video games fit in a library and how video games are no longer just for kids or teens (as if they ever were).

Gaming + Learning + Society 2008 Presentations Online

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on July 23, 2008.

The presentations from the 2008 Gaming + Learning + Society Conference are now online for your viewing pleasure. The conference was held on July 10th and the 11th and if you work with games in a school or educational setting, the following topics of discussion might be right up your alley:

  • Leadership and Games and Games for School Leadership
  • Real-Time Research: (Concluding) A GLS Experiment in the Design of Scholarship
  • Two Approaches to Language-Learning Games
  • Talks: Games & Incivility
  • Talks: Games in History Classrooms
  • The Virtual World Exploratorium Project: Initial Findings and Future Directions
  • Talks: The Future of Mobile Gaming
  • Talks: Thinking Through Game Design
  • Values at Play: Tools for Activist Game Design
  • GameQuest: Designing Higher Education Games and Simulations
  • Games and Funding
  • Talks: Games & Civic Engagement
  • Design Practices, In and Around Games
  • Talks: Game Mechanics & Learning
  • A Walk Through Portal: An Act of Videogame Analysis
  • Hybrid Stories, Hybrid Identities: Conceptualizing Performance Texts
  • Talks: Games for Science Learning
  • Taking Youth Production Seriously: Analyzing Multimodal Data to Understand Identity in Action
  • Talks: Games & Assessment
  • Real-Time Research: (Starting) A GLS Experiment in the Design of Scholarship
  • Talks: Beyond Games
  • Talks: Youth Programs for Games & Digital Media Literacy
  • Opening Plenary Panel and Breakfast

Gaming in the Library: 100 Tips and Resources @ OEDB

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on July 23, 2008.

Jessica Merritt has recently published an article at the Online Education Database entitled “Bringing Gaming (and Gamers) to Your Library: 100 Tips and Resources.” The list of tips is a fantastic resource for any librarian looking to add games or gaming programs to their library (and not just because links to The Video Game Librarian are paired with five of the tips).

Here’s a small taste of the tips and resources available, and be sure to read the whole article, I highly recommend it.

When libraries offer gaming programs, there’s often a very favorable response, but how do you go about getting started? You’ll need to know which games are the best, how to attract gamers, and so much more. There are many tips, resources, and tools that will help you figure out everything you need to know, and we’ve profiled them here.

16. Don’t forget adults: Library games and gaming events are often directed at teens, but keep in mind that many adults love to game, too.

29. Let your staff play: Break down resistance to gaming by getting your staff involved and having fun with gaming.

31. Be prepared for opposition: Not everyone understands the appeal of gaming, particularly video games, in the library, so you will find that you’ll need to defend your actions with academic discussions and statistics.

Del Ray Will Publish a Trilogy of Gears of War Novels

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This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on July 21, 2008.

After the success of the Halo series of novels, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft’s Gears of War series got the same treatment. And get it, it will. The first novel in a planned Gears of War trilogy will be released on October 28 (just ahead of Gears of War 2‘s November 7 release date). It will be a prequel to the game series titled Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields and will be written by Karen Traviss (who previously brought the Star Wars: Republic Commando world to life in a series of novels).

Here’s what Del Ray had to say about The Battle of Aspho Fields:

In Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, as ghosts come back to haunt Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. For Marcus — decorated war hero, convicted traitor — the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he’s sworn to keep. As the beleaguered soldiers of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save humankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be relived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them — but will their friendship survive the truth about Dom’s brother Carlos?