Gaming Technology
In 1989 I played a lot of Tetris. I mean, a LOT.
We had the original Nintendo NES, and we had probably five games: Mario, Duck Hunt, Tetris, NBA Jams, and Contra. It was such a revelation to play these games on our TELEVISION in the basement. That's not to say that Pong and Frogger on the old Atari computer my dad brought home for "work" weren't stimulating, but the advent of the Nintendo really raised the bar.
I don't think there was a name for kids who played video games back then, and I'm pretty sure that I did't fit the "gamer" profile anyway since I spent quite a bit of time at dance class. But I did fit the nerdy reader profile and every once in a while I frequented my local public library. I guarantee that that library didn't have a single video game to check out nor did they comprehend the idea of "gaming" as a library activity. It just wasn't a thing yet.
By 1990, having beaten Tetris and Contra a few times and finally Mario, I moved on to bigger things in life, namely high school. Looking back, I can appreciate that all kinds of people can get into gaming. The technology has improved significantly, to a degree that my 13 year old self could not have fathomed, and the development of MUVE and MUGE technologies have impacted the next generation of gaming in a different way than the NES did in the late 1980s.
While I have not engaged with MUVE/MUGE technology personally, I'm well acquainted with people who have. Mostly these people are my children and their cousins and friends. While I am busy doing the things that keep the people fed and clothed (ie. working) they have time to engage in games like Second Life, Minecraft, and (more recently) Fortnite. They have grown up with these technologies, using them at home and school for recreation and education. My teenage son describes his experience playing Fortnite: "I like the challenge of playing against real people to see if I can beat my placement from the last game." He also likes that he can play the game virtually with real people even if his neighborhood friend cannot come play that afternoon.
MUVE technology is being used in instructional roles at different levels of education, and school librarians must be knowledgeable about the uses and implications for the patrons of their libraries. Many public libraries, including the one I worked for from 2005 to 2015, have hosted Minecraft programs for tweens and teens over the past several years. Providing patrons with a place to gather, share, and play games like these can be a highlight of youth outreach programming for most public libraries.
It's not an "if we do gaming programming" question anymore, it's a "what kind of gaming programming should we do" question. Thankfully, the ALA has been on the scene of how gaming influences library work for some time now. They formed the Games and Gaming Round Table in 2011 and can provide librarians with a wealth of knowledge about how to implement gaming programs for different patron populations.
References
Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT). (2017, November 22). Retrieved March 10, 2018, from http://www.ala.org/rt/gamert
I don't think there was a name for kids who played video games back then, and I'm pretty sure that I did't fit the "gamer" profile anyway since I spent quite a bit of time at dance class. But I did fit the nerdy reader profile and every once in a while I frequented my local public library. I guarantee that that library didn't have a single video game to check out nor did they comprehend the idea of "gaming" as a library activity. It just wasn't a thing yet.
By 1990, having beaten Tetris and Contra a few times and finally Mario, I moved on to bigger things in life, namely high school. Looking back, I can appreciate that all kinds of people can get into gaming. The technology has improved significantly, to a degree that my 13 year old self could not have fathomed, and the development of MUVE and MUGE technologies have impacted the next generation of gaming in a different way than the NES did in the late 1980s.
While I have not engaged with MUVE/MUGE technology personally, I'm well acquainted with people who have. Mostly these people are my children and their cousins and friends. While I am busy doing the things that keep the people fed and clothed (ie. working) they have time to engage in games like Second Life, Minecraft, and (more recently) Fortnite. They have grown up with these technologies, using them at home and school for recreation and education. My teenage son describes his experience playing Fortnite: "I like the challenge of playing against real people to see if I can beat my placement from the last game." He also likes that he can play the game virtually with real people even if his neighborhood friend cannot come play that afternoon.
MUVE technology is being used in instructional roles at different levels of education, and school librarians must be knowledgeable about the uses and implications for the patrons of their libraries. Many public libraries, including the one I worked for from 2005 to 2015, have hosted Minecraft programs for tweens and teens over the past several years. Providing patrons with a place to gather, share, and play games like these can be a highlight of youth outreach programming for most public libraries.
It's not an "if we do gaming programming" question anymore, it's a "what kind of gaming programming should we do" question. Thankfully, the ALA has been on the scene of how gaming influences library work for some time now. They formed the Games and Gaming Round Table in 2011 and can provide librarians with a wealth of knowledge about how to implement gaming programs for different patron populations.
References
Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT). (2017, November 22). Retrieved March 10, 2018, from http://www.ala.org/rt/gamert
Comments
Post a Comment