Sutherland Shire Libraries Staff News

Hello again and welcome to part 2 of my blog that discusses the games and public libraries seminar that was held at the State Library recently. Time to talk about the last five presenters!


• What is LARP? The next presenter talked about live action role playing (LARP). Live action role playing games may not be suitable in a library environment but it was interesting to hear about a different type of game that people play. With LARP, players physically act out the role of their characters. There are two types of LARP- “Boffer” LARP (which sees players act out actual battles) and “Freeform” LARP (designed to focus on story-telling, personal interaction and politics). LARP games allow for more simultaneous players than conventional RPGs. Players like to indulge their creative side through the creation of costumes and props.

• RPGs. Minh Tran from Parramatta library next talked a bit more about role-playing games. She talked a bit about the role of the game master (the person who controls the game world and directs the story) and her history playing RPGs.

• Game design 101 by Malcolm Ryan. Malcolm said that a short seminar on game design could work as a session in the library program to encourage people to consider a career in game design & construction. Game design involves inventing a system of rules which provides a system of play. The importance of creating “fun” was discussed, and this usually involves play. The process of designing play was looked at as well, particularly through the use of “storyboards” and prototypes. For those of us who fancy that they can make a game from scratch, there are a couple of free tools on the web, one of which is “game maker” (www.yoyogames.com) .

• Serious games: games for health by Andrew Campbell (who is from Sydney University). The next speaker talked about how games can help with some specific health issues. The first thing that he mentioned was that games improve learning & memory. As far as the “evolution” of computer games is concerned, the 21st century brought with it online gaming communities, casual gaming, mobile gaming, gaming & social networking, the edu-gaming industry and the serious games industry. A “serious” game is a game based activity that helps a user obtain new knowledge on a serious topic and hopefully leads to positive changes in behaviour. A big goal of serious games is to promote reinforcement of new behaviour past the point of game play. The invention of the Wii & Kinect gaming systems has lead to the creation of the exer-gaming phenomenon and can help people become healthy by getting them to exercise more. Games have been invented that: help reduce pain in burns victims, assist people coping with depression & anxiety, and increase learning & attention (using “biofeedback”). Andrew even suggested that game concepts for libraries could be created in order to educate people about libraries. According to some experts, the serious games industry will grow in profitability by 120 billion by the year 2012.

• Literacy in the digital world & learning from games by Joanne O’Mara. Joanne spoke about how computer games have been used to engage boys in year 8 & year 9 in writing. The students in question were quite happy to write about how certain games such as “The Simpsons hit and run” are played. Some criteria for deconstructing a game were made so that students could analyse a game in more depth. Also the teacher found that the beauty of class discussions on gaming is the “enthusiasm & excitement it engenders in the class”. At other times teachers have asked students to “pitch” a game idea by writing about the plot, characters, etc. in a prospective game. Before finishing up, Joanne mentioned a couple of “boardgaming resources”. They were the “games in libraries with Scott Nicholson” podcasts (www.gamesinlibraries.org) and a new book called “Everyone plays at the library” by- yes you guessed it- Scott Nicholson.

So I guess what Joanne was alluding to in this session was that learning literacy (or anything for that matter!) does not have to be boring- if teachers disguise the learning experience as a fun activity by using games then good outcomes can be achieved.

Which presenter did you like the best? Do you think games (either the board or computer variety) could be used in our libraries to get more people through the doors? And don't forget to keep an eye on the State Library's "Games and public libraries" webpage for the latest news on games and libraries.

Happy gaming everybody! -Michael D.

Hello, people out there in blog land. For your interest, I have taken some notes from the final three presenters in the "RU Game" conference and presented them here. You may find the last two speakers particularly interesting as they talk about their experiences with consoles in their public libraries.

The third last speaker was Huon Longman, a PHD student from the school of psychology and counselling at the Queensland University of Technology. He talked about his research into the value of online relationships in WOW (World of Warcraft). Here are some of the points covered in his talk:-

• Psychological research has largely focused on the perceived negative effects of computer games
• WOW is a “massively multiplayer” game. People playing this game pay a subscription fee every month. In the game, players cooperate to complete goals. Players communicate both in the game and out of the game in forums and in person. In 2008 there were about 67 million subscribers of massively multiplayer games.
• Why do people play massively multiplayer games? For the “immersion” experience, to gain “achievements” in the game, and for the social aspect.
• Five percent of males and fifteen percent of females have dated through WOW.
• People who play the game form “guilds”- these are like sporting teams.
• Huon interviewed 22 WOW current and former players. Twelve of the people interviewed were former WOW players.
• Of the people interviewed, half had full time jobs. Most played about 20 hours per week. All of them experienced a sense of community, and it allowed them to make friends. Some of them expressed a bit of nostalgia for the “old days” when everyone playing WOW were friends.
• Some of the players are “gamers”, not just WOW players. Some people said that WOW is part of who they are and expressed pride at being in a guild.
• Players sometimes talked about serious stuff online with guild mates. They got support from each other when they were going through break-ups and having problems at work. The anonymity of the internet allowed it to be easier for players to seek emotional support.
• Huon says that his research so far illustrates the strength of massively multiplayer based social relationships.

Sue Killham from Narrandera talked about how their library use console games:-

• A “Playstation 2” (PS2) console system was bought and to make sure that too much staff time isn’t taken up, the first user of the day gets to pick the game and it isn’t changed until the next day.
• About one new game is purchased every school holidays
• Bega has a high indigenous population and it is very popular with them (they especially liked the “WWF Smackdown” game)
• There has been the occasional problem, and they wonder how people could put so much effort into stealing a single controller!
• It is good to know what is in the game just in case a “sensitive” borrower sees or hears something from the game.
• Often kids watching the game provide both solicited and unsolicited advice to the player!
• The IT department didn’t like any equipment that could affect the organisations’ firewall so it was good that the games were on a console not a computer.

Penny Amberg from Bega was the final speaker for the day and she also talked about how her library uses console games:-

• They decided to get a console because the library was losing younger members of the community.
• They decided on a Nintendo WII because all of or most of the games for it were “G” rated and the young kids love it
• Older people use it too! There is a bush walking group comprised of older people that use the sports game in it every week.
• “Guitar Hero” is one of the games, but because of complaints about the noise it is only on certain times of the day
• A youth night was held for those who wanted to play “Guitar Hero”. It proved popular.
• They are hoping to get a Macintosh but they are pretty expensive. She will try and arrange for a local business to help as they are often happy to put their name on things.
• Unfortunately, the WII was stolen but a lesson was learnt and a new one was bought and it is locked down now.
• Don’t have preconceived ideas when it comes to technology, because, Penny mentioned, one of her borrowers is an old lady who recently bought an iPad and finds it easy to use for reading!

Thanks for reading, and good gaming! -Michael