I belong to the generation that first stared and concentrated on the television screen, joystick in hand, and tried to hit a small white dot with an equally small vertical line so it does not fall to the edge of the screen. It had this hypnotic quality to it as you progress through the game and your skill, or better yet your eye and hand coordination improves. As years go by, I would move to arcade games shooting, racing, and more shooting games, with game titles like Galaxian and Space Invaders. The graphics have improved a lot, but the plot has remained the same. Stay alive, you get to play longer. Much more later, it would be playing games on a computer that runs DOS, like Maniac Mansion, A Nightmare on Elms Street: Dream Warriors, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. These games had a little bit more plot and a much more improved graphics and in the case of the last two, copied scenes and characters from the movies they were named after. I always get a kick when I get to destroy Freddy Kruger when he shows up. Those were good times. I graduated from playing games right about the time the original PlayStation came around still playing very basic shooting or fighting games like Tekken and Resident Evil. Nowadays, I rarely play any video games. I do not own any gaming console and I only own one video game, the PC version of the Lego Star Wars video game which after playing it for several days is now collecting dust on my book shelf.
That does not mean that I am not familiar with how much gaming has come a long way from those ancient games of yore. It is now a multi-billion industry with games that covers almost anything imaginable. Role-playing, movie adaptation, mature and violent games, strategy games, empire or business building, educational, entertaining, racing, and of course, the proverbial shoot space aliens or bad guys or enemy ships games.
Although I don’t game anymore, I am not unfamiliar with it as it has permeated popular culture and society. It is in the news, TV, the malls, in covers of magazines and cereal boxes, advertisements, and even in films. Nowadays, movies are being made out of games and not the other way around. So my experience of current gaming is from what I see and hear from popular media. And I admit that for someone like me that used to game has formed a bit of a bias towards current trends in gaming as I get bombarded with ads of video games that tended to be violent and prurient than what I used to play. I see or hear of video games wherein death and killing are depicted realistically and every sentence uttered is peppered with cuss words. That is why I was surprised with what I have learned from looking at some of the ALA resources and viewing the presentation of Beth Gallaway, Gaming by the numbers, under the SLIS Colloquium series in 2007 and Jenny Levine in, Gaming in the library, under the SirsiDynix Institute series in 2007.
I was not aware that according to 2006 figures by the Entertainment Software Association quoted by Beth Gallaway that the average age of current gamers is 33 and that it does not conform to the stereotypical anti-social teen male living in their mother’s basement that Hollywood wants us to believe. That as much as 38% of women are gamers and 28% of women over the age of 18 have played a game. That based on the same 2006 statistics only 15% of video games in the market are rated mature, which unfortunately gets most of the media attention when sees video games discussed in news or popular media. Ratings are given by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and a video game is slapped with a mature rating if it contains intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. What do these figures tell us? It belie the perception is an exclusive teen male activity and that predominated by mature content. That does not mean however that teens or even kids are gaming. Levine in her slide presentation showed pictures of who are gaming, and it shows people of all ages and walks of life. One can even say that it has even earned its place as a family activity with the recent successes of the Wii. Even preschool kids are exposed to some form of gaming with electronic teaching tools like Leapfrog. It is a fact that people from all ages and walks of life game, and they are even starting young.
So what does that have anything to do with libraries?
First, gaming is an activity that your average 21st century patron engages in and considers social and fun. If you subscribe to the idea that a library should serve as a third place then offering programming that creates that atmosphere is just logical. Second, it is not only entertaining or a social activity but it also creates learning and teaches positive values. Both Gallaway and Levine in their respective presentations outlined learning competencies derived from gaming. Gaming among teens and kids develops reading and analytical competencies, team play, strong organizational skills, positive identity, and how to handle new information. And third, it encourages creativity and supports the library’s collection development and the creation of content. Gaming encourages creativity as gamers modify or script their virtual selves or write fan fiction on their game characters. It supports collection development as librarians can tap into their patron’s know-how of gaming to deliver other forms of media that the games are based on like movies, comic book, manga, and chapter books.
Gaming in libraries is an idea whose time has come. I like how Levine quoted Eli Neilburger as how arguments against gaming in libraries as being bereft of any redeeming quality are the same ones used when some of the current collection or programs where first introduced. It was used to resist the idea of having a fiction collection, movies, music, to do storytime and the list goes on. As one children’s librarian I talked to last week said, resistance stems more from the fact that it is unfamiliar territory and lack of technical understanding of what it’s all about. It is also, as Gallaway and Levine pointed out in their respective presentations, about funding and being able to hedge what format to embrace that won’t become obsolete in a couple of years. But both of them also advised that one does not have to be overly ambitious. One can start with whatever the level of funding, space availability, and other patron’s concerns, and their comfort with the idea can afford. The important thing is that they consider it and find a way to offer it as it would be a good way to serve a part of their constituency who would not usually come to the library. If you build it they will come.