[Publib] RE: Gamers and libraries

[Melissa Willer]

Betsy,

I think you making the mistake of assuming that there is no educational,
social, or cultural value in video games.  As a long time player (Pong
anyone?) I would, respectfully, disagree.  

Videogames foster independent decision making - every action a player takes
must be considered in light of short and long term goals.  A wrong decision
mean that a.) you miss out on important information or events, or b.) you
"lose."

Videogames are also a great way for children and teens to internalize that
old adage "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." In many games
you are returned to a save point if you fail at the task you are attempting
to accomplish.  Or, you can always start over.  The benefit to this is that
"losing" is an anticipated part of the game, and there is no stigma to not
being able to complete a level on the first (or second, or third...) go. 

Most of the current crop of video games are highly interactive, and include
built in social networking, whether via text or voice chat.  Many games,
such as the popular MMORGs or current crop of Star Wars games absolutely
require you and your friends to work together as a team to complete all of
the missions.  There are also social implications beyond that of ingame
communication as well;  many teens and young adults play games, and regard
game playing as critical to their social interaction - its what they do when
they get together - the same as how earlier cohorts would hang out at the
movie theater, the soda shop, or quilting bees.  (All of which, parents
complained bitterly about at the time, although I'm not sure about the
quilting bees, but my feeling is that anything teens like to do their elders
find suspicious!) 

If you read up a little on the subject you will also find that video games
are being widely used in several physical motion areas: studies have shown
that surgeons who play video games have finer small motor skills; physical
therapists are using them for patients who have had surgery affecting fine
motor skills such as hand surgery.  My grandmother and her friends have
recently begun playing some games at the recommendation of one of their
doctor's to help combat the stiffening from arthritis.

Like movies, many videogames are also based on books (Lord of the Rings,
Harry Potter, and even Stuart Little) or true life events. Unlike the movies
videogames may actually have a leg up in this area as players are
interacting with the events and characters in the stories rather than merely
watching events as they unfold.

As with any media; video, musical - or even books - there are different
levels of value - depending on how you define that elusive quality.  Just as
you might not expect the same level of educational value from a Dean Koontz
novel as that of, say, Jane Austen, (while you may well enjoy Koontz a lot
more) you do not expect the same level of educational value between two
video games.  

As for your comment about the sedentary nature of gaming in light of current
obesity rates I would respectfully point out that you were watching that
ballet, not performing it.  So, the only real difference is your perceived
value of the media event you were participating in. 

As to your first point, your argument against video games, is more of less
the same argument that the library field had against videos in the library
twenty-thirty years ago.  One of the realities of life in this time is that
visual media, whether it be movies or videogames is increasingly important
to our population. Videogames and the like are no longer a fringe activity,
practiced by pimply, anti-social teenaged boys in their dark basements, but
a mainstream activity engaged in by a large portion of the populace.
Libraries can, and in my opinion, should leverage that interest, and attempt
to engage players and render the library valuable to them as well.  

My library currently offers a Dueler's Guild for players of Collectible Card
Games, and a Dance Dance Revolution Game event every month.  These are
historically well attended and the majority of the attendees are not regular
users.  We find that while the attendees may not utilize the library at the
time they are attending, we have increased our visibility in this particular
cohort, and made the library less "institutional." Hopefully this will
encourage them to use the many other services that are our primary focus.
As a side note to this: I have noticed that there is consistently at least
one attendee who spends part of the event reading a book they brought in
with them each time we hold an event.  

Really, in the end it is all about the value you perceive in the thing.  I
personally, enjoy playing DDR with my 18 month old daughter - she is in
charge of the right step button, and has been since she was old enough to
figure out that pressing the button made the TV do things.  We have a great
time - laughing and working together to defeat the level. 

This of course is on the days she prefers to play rather than being carried
as mommy dances. Baby=wheeee! Mommy=Uff!


Melissa Willer
Circulation & Technical Services Department Head
Bloomingdale Public Library 
Bloomingdale, IL 60108

---- "B. Gorbe" <rgorbe at nc.rr.com> wrote: 

=============
This is my first submission to PubLib, so please forgive any formatting
errors.

I am surprised there is so much discussion about children and YA and videos.
I think a topic of more concern would be children and YA and video games.  I
believe even the most clueless caretaker would notice if a child watched the
same video over and over for days on end, but video games with the most
horrible themes seemingly pass unnoticed.

I do not think the library should encourage video game playing, no matter
the the theme.  With children's obesity rate climbing (and children not), I
believe, for the most part, the only sedentary activity we should actively
encourage for children by purchasing and providing the materials is reading,
because it is mind-expanding.  My exceptions would be videos linked to
high-quality children's books, e.g. Stuart Little.

On the other hand, my daughter, who was not even in the third grade at the
time, and I watched every opera or ballet video available from the High
Point Library in NC.  I am not sure she understood them;  I am not even sure
I understood them.  I am sure there was some violence, but we enjoyed the
music and our time together.

Betsy Gorbe
Recent graduate of SILS at UNC-CH


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