#38 Console games

I went to the retro arcade game website and am ashamed to say that I had to ask a co-worker how to play Pacman. I did mess with it and Baby Pacman, and it was okay, just rather confusing. My family were all into console games, still are. In fact my grandson plays Sonic the Hedgehog on his mothers' old Nintendo system and loves it. My kids have expensive systems that play games, dvds, music, and are a constant source of entertainment and relaxation in their daily round of activities. Whether videogames have added skills or knowledge to their lives, I have no idea.

I really can't make any kind of educated statement about what type of videogames might be good for the library, having never played them. Since I don't play them, I can not avow any skills learned, however, I may have saved what is left of my eye sight, and kept from getting "videogame thumb." Videogames have their place, and certainly, they are amazingly sophisticated compared to the original "Pong" game.
I think they can be a draw to get teens into the libraries, but they are no substitute for actual information or knowledge. Have I become a fan of gaming? No, not really. There are so many other things to do.

#37 Gaming in the library

Does gaming belong in the library environment? I think it has its place, but I don't think it replaces books, or the knowledge that one can attain from them. I also think gaming swallows up time, and keeps kids from getting out in the fresh air or doing other things. In a controlled environment, as the libraries in the articles mentioned, or for a few hours a week, I think it can bring teens into the libraries and give them a safe place to be. Teens notoriously avoid the library experience, unless, and only under duress, they need information for a school report. At least, if gaming is encouraged, teens may find that libraries are not such a bad place to be.

I did try the games that were created by the Carnagie Mellon Institute, I never did figure out the reference game, but did reasonably well on the shelving, after several tries. I also found the comments most interesting on the article from The Shifted Librarian concerning gaming in the library, and the comment about gaming causing a "disconnection" between parents and kids, and kids should be playing and learning in the "real world" and not the virtual one. As stated, anything done to excess, whether its online games or eating too many Cheetos, is not good for anyone. Gaming has a place in libraries, as long as its not all consuming.

#36 Runescape

Egad! I am still not quite half way through the tutorial! I did create a character named Cheshire, red hair in Princess Leia buns and a green outfit. So far, she has spoken to strangers, baked bread, burnt shrimp, chopped trees and killed a large rat. We were asked to do fifteen minutes of the tutorial, and all that took me two and one half hours. I can see how a person can fall, like Alice, down the rabbit hole of time and just disappear for hours into these fantasy worlds. If nothing else, the game teaches you to follow instructions, or you get nothing done! I enjoyed it all in all, although I often got confused.

These games have their place in the world, role playing being a good use of the imagination, and quests and adventures teach a person to think and plan out, maybe even learn some lessons. As a side bar, my daughter met her future husband on just such a game, she was sitting in a pub feeling blue, he was passing through. They got to talking, and two years later, they married. Imagine had he not stopped by that pub, even though it doesnt really exist?

As pertaining to use in the library, these mega games can be a problem, especially with young people. Time and computer availabity can become a serious issue. However, if it can get young people into the library, maybe they will check out a book, while they are waiting for their computer slot to open so they can slay a dragon.

iHCPL #35 Games and gaming

I am not a gamer, they truly hold no interest for me. My family bought a Pong game, that great inovation, when they came out. I was bored with that and have never really been interested since. However, I did very much enjoy playing on Free Rice, not only testing my own knowledge and learning something new, but feeding the world at the same time. I also played in the kids game, writing nonsensical stories of purple spagetti and smelled like feet. I do think online games have their place in the learning environment, kids attention spans are so short these days, thanks to fast moving everything, a game that can make them stop and think is good. I also discovered that online games, even the simple ones that I played in, take a tremendous amount of time, and one can get lost in the action or ones own head. All in all, I enjoyed the experience and hope to continue to feed the world.

#26 iHcpl- Everybody sing!

Our assignment, should we have chosen to accept it, was to look at social networking sites for music. Mostly this exercise just made me feel old, because I still haven't heard of half the artists listed. I looked around Projectplaylist.com, checked out the playlists of others, and was relieved to know that they at least had Sting on their website. I also looked for Queen, and for some reason the song Killer Queen kept coming up over and over again. Music has always been important, especially to young people, I shared 45's and record albums with my friends as a young person, now kids share music on the internet. Its a good thing. Also played around with Jamstudio.com, and discovered that I will never be a music composer. The site was a bit limited unless you paid to join, and it needed more instructions, but it was kind of fun. I won't be sharing my efforts with anyone though.

#25 iHcpl- Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirates life....

Now had I taken that song from an album and put it on another CD, that would be piracy, especially if I was selling it for profit. I did burn the two songs I bought from Amazon onto a CD, along with some other music I had, and it too is a fairly easy process once you get the hang of it. I suppose it is stealing, to copy an artist's work, and they get cut out of the financial profit as well as most of the engineers or writers, musicians, or anyone else who had a hand in the production of a music CD. But, CD's are very expensive, and while I do not condone people copying others efforts for enjoyment, I can see why they do it. If some kind of compromise could be made within the music industry, perhaps there would not be so much piracy. I wonder if the 10% copyright rule works the same way with music as it does with the written word?

#24 iHcpl- The hills are alive...

I downloaded a couple of songs off the internet, from Amazon actually, and routed them through my computer and onto my MP3 player. It was a fairly easy process, did not have to download any software, although it was offered and recommended. I looked at Napster, ITunes and one called Musicdownload.com which had almost no artists that I had ever heard of, and the couple that I did know, the songs chosen for free download where lousy. I can see where this could get to be a very expensive proposition and hobby if one chose to do it. I can also see why its so popular, because you can get the songs you want without paying the outrageous prices for an artist's whole album. No doubt, when there are songs that I want, I will continue the practice.