Gaming Night at Computers in Libraries 2008 Conference

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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 April 4, 2008.

If you’re heading out early to the Computers in Libraries 2008 conference next week in Arlington, VA you might want to check out “Gaming (& Gadgets!) Night” this weekend.

“Gaming (and Gadgets!) Night” will be hosted by Jenny Levine (from The Shifted Librarian) and Aaron Schmidt (from Walking Paper). It will be a gaming free-for-all with playable copies of Wii Sports, Dance Dance Revolution, Hotel Dusk, Guitar Hero III, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and Rock Band. So if you’ve never had a chance to play around with any of these games before, now’s your chance.

But if you’re a more serious gamer (or just a newbie who hopes for some begginer’s luck), there will also be a tournament involving one of the “big three” games (Guitar Hero III, DDR, or Rock Band). To place your vote on which game should get the tournament treatment, you should check out Aaron’s blog post on the subject at Walking Paper.

Here’s the full details on the event:

What: Gaming (& Gadgets!) Night
Where: CIL 2008, Jefferson Room
When: Sunday April 6th, 5:30 – 8:00 PM
How Much: FREE
Who: You and other people interested in gaming

Consoles Are Not Dying Out… Don’t Panic!

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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 April 1, 2008.

Last Friday, Sandy Duncan, the former head of Xbox Europe was interviewed by That VideoGame Blog. During the conversation, Duncan was quoted as saying that game consoles will disappear in 5-10 years and that everything will be piped into your TV as “web services.” Here’s the full quote:

“I think dedicated games devices i.e. consoles (and handhelds) will die [out] in the next 5 to 10 years. The business model is very risky and the costs associated with creating new hardware are incredibly high. There is a definite “convergence” of other devices such as set top boxes. There’s hardly any technology difference between some hard disc video recorders and a an Xbox 360 for example. In fact in 5 to 10 years I don’t think you’ll have any box at all under your TV, most of this stuff will be “virtualized” as web services by your content provider.”

But don’t worry, the idea is absurd on its face, and I’ll tell you why. Consoles aren’t going anywhere, and you’d think a former Microsoft bigwig would know that. But then, you’d think the current bigwig of Sony would know that too… Continue reading →

Apply for a 2008 Presidential Citation in Gaming from the ALA

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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 April 1, 2008.

The American Library Association has announced they are offering citation certificates to any library that uses games and gaming as “tools for learning, literacy development and community development.”

Each applicant much include a description (under 100 words) that details “how games and gaming of all kinds has had an impact on learning and literacy at [their] library. Be sure to highlight the library, organizer, the program, the participants, the staff, and the learning outcomes.” Applications are available online here.

The application deadline is Monday, April 21, 2008. The full rules can be found right here:

Just choose a category – recreation, education, or innovation – describe the program, initiative, or collaboration, and tell us why your nominee deserves to receive an ALA Presidential Citation.

  • Nominations will be accepted from Monday, January 14, 2008 through Monday, April 21, 2008.
  • Nominations will be reviewed by a panel of experts from the library field, the gaming industry, academia, and philanthropy.
  • The winners will be announced at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.
  • Dr. Loriene Roy, ALA’s 2007-2008 president, will present the citations during ALA’s first open gaming night at the 2008 Annual Conference.

Winners of the 2008 Presidential Citation will receive a certificate and be featured on ALA’s gaming website. Self nominations are strongly encouraged.

Good luck to all who apply.

VGL Classic: Choosing a Next-Generation Format

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This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on December 21, 2007.

The PlayStation 2, the current platform of choice for any library that focuses their game collection on a single console, will turn eight years old in 2008 and is likely at the end of its useful life. Sure, it’ll get a few more years of annual EA Sports updates, various bits of bargain software and games based on Saturday morning cartoons, but the days of games like God of War II coming to the PS2 are over.

So what’s a librarian to do if they want to keep their collection current? Why, move up to the next-generation of course. As a Media Librarian myself, this can be a tough choice, but with this guide we hope we can help any librarians out there make the right choice. The three consoles have been organized from best to worst, with the pros and cons listed for each so that the console that best fills your library’s personal needs can be chosen. Continue reading →

VGL Classic: 2006 Year in Review

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This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on January 29, 2007.

2006 has come to a close and with it, year two of having PlayStation 2 games available is in the books. After twenty-four months and 170 games (the collection was able to more than double in 2006), video games have become business as usual with the staff and the patrons.

But “busines as usual” does not mean the games have lost any of their popularity. It’s actually the opposite. They still occupy their small shelf in the video section but every game, no matter how old, still circulates constantly and even though the collection has grown considerably since the initial handful of titles, no more than five games are ever in at a time. Continue reading →

VGL Classic: John Scalzi and the Old Man’s War

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This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on May 26, 2006.

I first came across John Scalzi’s name in Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. I nearly did a spit take when I was thumbing through the Spin section of the magazine and saw what I initially thought was my own name listed as the author of the DVD and music reviews. I did a little digging (who was this man who almost had my name after all?) and found his Whatever weblog and became a fan.

Fast forward a few years and I see Old Man’s War sitting on the shelf at the library. It has been in my pile of books to read almost since it was released. But when my fiancee showed me that the sequel (The Ghost Brigades) had just come out, I figured it was time to get cracking on the original.

While I’ll be the first to admit that the name thing was part of the reason why I first picked up Old Man’s War, I also thought the premise of the book was different. You see in the future, humanity has colonized the stars. But colonies will always need soldiers to protect them from native people who may not want to be colonized and from other worlds that might want to challenge your claim to a specific piece of land. That’s where the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) comes in. The CDF knows the value of an experienced soldier. So if you so choose, on your 75th birthday you can join up and the CDF will give you a new body and send you to the stars to fight for the colonies.

What follows is a fast paced and humorous sci-fi yarn through old age, new life, action, adventure, boot camp, bug hunting and just plain fun. But I don’t want to oversell it. What I want to do is mention that in addition to thinking it’s an amazing book, I also noticed that Old Man’s War has the potential to be a huge video game. Now if you had plans to read the book, I suggest you hit the Back button on your browser right now because I’m going to be diving pretty deep into the plot here. Continue reading →

VGL Classic: Breaking the M-Rated Barrier

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This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on April 13, 2006.

Grand Theft Auto… The Suffering… Manhunt… State of Emergency… Postal… Mortal Kombat…

The number of games that are considered “unacceptable” due to their content grows all the time. Every day some misinformed politician will trot out the latest “murder simulator” and cry out “Won’t someone please think of the children.”

Meanwhile we gamers sit back and shake our heads at people who get all worked up over games that are not designed for children. They are not meant for children, they are not advertised to children and they are not purchased for children by anyone with half a brain.

But sadly, video gaming is still seen as a children’s toy by many. Its this reasoning that has caused the ban of Mature rated games at my library and many other libraries across the country. But eventually, there will come a time when you want to cross that line. When the people in charge realize that their friends and neighbors are playing these M-rated games because they’re adults and because they think the premise is exciting.

So with the recent release of 24: The Game, I started thinking about what games would be best to make the break from the limits of E, E10+ and T. Obviously, Jack Bauer’s digital adventures is near the top, but as I combed through the list of PS2 games, many more popped up as well. Through their connections to other bits of pop culture (and in one case, a piece of Literature with a capital L), these games would be seen as more acceptable than most. And maybe that’s all we can ask for as a first step. Continue reading →

VGL Classic: It’s The End of the Year As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

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This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on January 25, 2006.

It has been one year since the “Great Video Game Experiment” was started at the public library where I work. And in those twelve months I’d have to say it has gone as good as anyone could have hoped. In the end, the numbers don’t lie, and a success is all this experiment can be called.

Seventy-seven PlayStation 2 titles have been added to the collection so far with at least a dozen still awaiting processing. Sadly, Culdcept, one of the games purchased in the initial batch of games at the end of 2004, is still on that list. It’s a little short of the 100 game target I had thought was reasonable back when I started, but 77 seems like a pretty respectable number.

Jak II was the first game to come back broken at the end of July. We had a pretty good run before that. Seven months and not a single problem to be investigated. And then Jak II comes back with a complaint that it won’t start after 8 circs. I pop it in my PS2 at home (because we can’t afford a test unit to sit in the library at all times) and sure enough, the game wouldn’t advance past the Dolby Surround logo. It looks much less scratched up than some of the titles, but it just won’t play.

This has seemed to be a trend as the year moved on. Many younger kids brought back certain titles and say “they’re too scratched to play”. But when I test them on my regularly cleaned PS2 at home they work fine. So back on the shelf they go. But it wouldn’t be unexpected if they didn’t work. Library materials get beaten up regularly. It happens. However, a theft ring is something nobody expects. Continue reading →