Schwules Museum’s Rainbow Arcade is Now Open

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The Schwules Museum in Berlin has opened their Rainbow Arcade, an exhibit which will explore the “queer history of video games”:

For the first time in the world, the queer history of video games will be explored in a major exhibition: RAINBOW ARCADE at Schwules Museum features a wide variety of exhibits spanning over 30 years of media history, including 12 playable titles, concept drawings, modifications written by fans themselves and documentations of online communities. RAINBOW ARCADE will be taking stock of contemporary pop cultural questions of representation, stereotypical and discriminatory narratives in entertainment media, and our cultural memory. For the first time, research by the LGBTQ Game Archive will be presented in a museum.

Visitors to the museum will be able to play several examples of gaming’s queer history, including GameGrumps’s Dream Daddy, Midboss’s 2064: Read Only Memories, Anna Anthropy’s Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars, and more.

The Rainbow Arcade exhibit is curated by Sarah Rudolph (herzteile.org), Jan Schnorrenberg (Schwules Museum), and Dr. Adrienne Shaw (Temple University, LGBTQ Video Game Archive), and it’ll be open to the public through May 13, 2019.

Games and Gaming Roundtable is Looking for Presentation Proposals for ALA Annual 2019 @ Games In Libraries

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Do you have an interesting presentation idea about gaming in libraries for next year’s America Library Association Annual Conference? Then the Games and Gaming Roundtable wants to hear it!

The group is currently seeking proposals through the Games In Libraries blog for a presentation slot on June 22, 2019 at 2:00 PM:

The Games and Gaming Roundtable is accepting conference presentation proposals on games and gaming in libraries for the American Library Association Annual Conference, June 20-25, 2019 in Washington, D.C. This presentation will take place on Saturday, June 22nd from 2-3pm. Presenters will be required to provide either a twenty-minute presentation with Q & A or an hour-long hands on workshop.

The deadline to submit proposals is next Wednesday, November 28.

International Games Week 2018 Social Media Kit @ Games In Libraries

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International Games Week 2018 is coming up next week and the ALA’s Games In Libraries blog wants to help your library prepare. They’ve put together a snazzy printable poster, as well as a bunch of ready-made social media posts:

International Games Week (IGW) is an annual celebration of games, play, libraries, and learning that any library in the world can join, and costs absolutely nothing to register for!

Use this social media kit to create posts to promote International Games Week at your library!

This year’s International Games Week will kick off on Monday, November 4, and go through Saturday, November 10.

Library of Congress Has Ruled Libraries and Museums Can Break DRM to Preserve Older Games

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The US Copyright Office and the Library of Congress have ruled that museums and libraries may now disable digital rights management (DRM) software when attempting to preserve video games available for defunct platforms.

The rule is officially known as the “Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies,” and a very quick summary is available at Polygon:

This week the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office revised its list of specific exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, also known as the DMCA. Their guidance reaffirms the rights of software preservationists to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) software, in some cases expanding their ability to revive older games. It also opens the door, legally speaking, to do-it-yourselfers and electronics repair outlets to break DRM in pursuit of fixing hardware.

A more thorough analysis of the ruling, specifically detailing how it’ll effect preservationists looking to bring back early versions of MMOs like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, is available at Motherboard:

Today’s news should be good for archivists and museums, who’ve long struggled with the best way to preserve video games such as Everquest or World of Warcraft. Multiplayer games like these require both software that players run on their computers locally, and software running on a company’s server—software that is much harder for historians to get their hands on and run. And when they do manage to get an independent server running, big game companies like Blizzard have taken legal action against people running unauthorized servers.

This is a great day for anyone interested in the history of games, and for all the historians and librarians working to preserve the classics for the next generation.

Nintendo Will Provide Nintendo Labo Kits for Schools in US

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Nintendo has announced a new partnership with the Institute of Play to make their cardboard-powered Nintendo Labo kits available in schools across the United States:

Nintendo and the Institute of Play have teamed up to bring Nintendo Labo kits into elementary classrooms nationwide, combining the innovative play of Nintendo Labo with the basic principles of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) to inspire kids and help make learning fun. Nintendo will provide Nintendo Labo: Variety Kits and Nintendo Switch systems to participating classrooms to reinforce skills such as communication, creativity and critical thinking. The program aims to reach approximately 2,000 students ages 8 to 11 during the 2018-2019 school year.

Nintendo Labo kits provide the tools to make DIY creations called Toy-Con, including a Fishing Rod, Piano and RC Car, among others; play games with these Toy-Con creations through a mix of physical and digital experiences; and discover how Nintendo Switch technology brings it all to life. Ever since the first two Nintendo Labo kits debuted in April, people of all ages have become amateur inventors using a mode included in the software called Toy-Con Garage. Toy-Con Garage introduces basic principles of programming, allowing anyone to use the tools and technology within each kit to develop their own imaginative creations, from fully-realized musical instruments to analog clocks and much more.

Nintendo and the Institute of Play are currently developing a Nintendo Labo Teacher Guide that will “allow other educators to implement Nintendo Labo in the classroom to promote the development of skills such as creative problem solving and collaboration.” Teachers or librarians from schools that wish to participate in the program can sign up at the Institute of Play’s website.

Games in Libraries Conference at UW-Eau Claire is Now Accepting Proposals and Will Be Held On May 31, 2019

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The organizers of the Games in Libraries Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire have announced that the conference will be held on May 31, 2019. They’re also seeking speakers for the event, and you can propose a presentation through this online form.

The conference will focus on all types of gaming (board, card, video, etc.) within all types of libraries (public, academic, or special libraries), so they’re should be something for everyone.

Whether your library uses games currently or not, the Games in Libraries Conference is for you! Here are the top five reasons to attend the conference.

1. No registration fee
2. Practical information
3. Learn best practices
4. Create connections to others with an interest in games in libraries
5. Games = Fun!

Additional information about the Games in Libraries Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire can be found on the conference’s official website.

ALA’s Games In Libraries Blog is Looking for Contributors

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Are you interested in sharing a story about your experiences with gaming in libraries? If so, then you should head over to the ALA’s Games In Libraries blog, because they’re on the lookout for new contributors:

Do you want to write about games in libraries? Help make the ALA GameRT blog awesome with a post or a series of posts!

These posts can be about board games, card games, video games, or any kind of game. It could also be something entirely different – like an escape room!

The Games In Libraries blog is managed by volunteers from the ALA’s Games & Gaming Round Table, and they added that any help would be appreciated.

DIY Games @ School Library Journal

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Making your own games can often be as much fun as playing the latest blockbusters from Nintendo or Microsoft. But how can you bring this creative spirit to the library? Thankfully, Karen Jensen has written a thorough exploration of “DIY Games” for School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox:

Our teens have asked for board games to play while waiting, but a large number of the games they have requested are expensive and they often don’t accommodate a lot of players, which would mean we would be spending a couple hundred dollars on board games. I know that lots of public libraries have board games and use them in their programming, but this hasn’t been something that our administration has wanted to invest in because of the cost and issues of lost pieces, etc. Plus, we are currently investing a lot of money into our Teen MakerSpace.

But we have an excellent Teen MakerSpace so I thought, let’s address this teen request and get teens involved in making. My grand idea: we could combine the two and help teens create their own games to play. Thus, we started working with teens on DIY Games.

Jensen’s post is perfect if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about basic coding with Scratch and Bloxels, as well as a few how-to ideas for making your own tabletop games.