Games in Libraries

Video games can cause debate not only in the effects of violence, but also in whether or not they should be used in schools and libraries. With some people’s negative views of video games it can be hard to defend using library funds and space for games. There is quite a bit of research that defends the value of video games, and could be used to back up a decision to incorporate video games into a school or public library. Gaming promotes literacy, by needing problem solving skills, making hypotheses, etc., as well as often requiring quite a bit of reading to play the game. For example, Pokemon games can have lots of text that must be read carefully. MMPOGs (massive multiplayer online games) promote literacy as well. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied the learning that takes place: “‘[MMPOG] play is a thoroughly literate activity involving manipulation meaning and achieving particular ends.’ Some of the literate activities taking place in MMPOGs are ‘researching equipment, making maps, managing resources, investing currencies, building models, designing strategies, debating facts and theories, and writing.’”(Quoted by Faris in Children & Libraries, UIUC Ebscohost article here).

On The Shifted Librarian Blog, Jenny Levine has posted quite a bit lately about whether gaming promotes Reading, How Gaming Promotes Reading and Library Usage, and How School Libraries Can Use Board Games. These give anecdotal evidence and quantitative examples of how libraries can use games to bridge to literacy and publicize the library for teens. School Library Journal's Digital Reshift blog also recently posted obvious reasons why your library needs a Wii, and 10 Reasons Why Your Library Needs a Wii (Part 2).

By introducing games in libraries, the libraries attract a part of the population that otherwise would not be served, increase the library’s role in teens’ lives and serve as more of a community hub. Video games may draw teens into the library, and then librarians can work to connect with them in other ways, too. There are Last year, at the Chadron Public Library in Nebraska, teens “borrowed 20 to 30 books a month. Now it's well over 300 each month. The reason: video games.” (Libraries Lure with Video Games) Teens coming into the library to play video games may also realize that the stereotypes they have about libraries are not true; it isn’t just stuffy quietness and books.

I think another important aspect of reaching underserved youth is for potential service later. Teens might not be interested in or not have time for recreational reading, which is what many library users think is a very important service of the library. Teens might not choose to read at that point in their life, but if they have a good relationship with the library they might use it for other things later on.

A few weeks ago in class, Carol mentioned the historical core foundations for libraries’ existence: collection/preservation, organization, and access. These reasons for libraries also relate to a young adult librarian and his or her role, and gaming can easily fit into and reinforce each of these roles.

The young adult librarian should build a collection of material that includes vibrant quality material that is relevant to teens. This includes not just books but music, audio books, magazines, and movies. Incorporating games into the library’s collection includes gaming magazines (like PlayStation: The Official Magazine), manga series that have crossovers (like .Hack), and other books that relate to video games.

Of course, the youth librarian should organize the collection so youth can easily find material without frustration. However, just organizing or decorating a cool teen space is a good start but not enough. They need to relate to young people and welcome them to the library. This includes respecting young people and providing services for them: helping them with information needs, research, and recreational needs. Traditionally recreational needs meant helping young people find books, but this idea can include a lot more. Just like a knitting program or craft program can bring a group of people together using the library as a social space, a library game event provides a safe, fun environment for kids.

The idea of access also can be related to using games in the library. Teen librarians can set out the gaming magazines and related books in an easily seen location, like right by the computers if a lot of teens come to use them. Posters and fliers about gaming events could be placed there. It also should include other interactions with young people to help get to know them more. Related to this, the young adult librarian should create and facilitate programming for teens that is also relevant to young people, which will encourage them to come to the library.

I think different libraries are at vastly different ends of the spectrum in their views and knowledge of using gaming. I don’t have any experience using it and am not working in a library now, but would be excited by the potential of incorporating it into a youth services program. What kinds of experience have you had?

Stephen King's EW column about videogames

Stephen King's column in this week's Entertainment Weekly is especially relevant to the class discussion in two weeks fears and concerns about youth and media. First, here's the column:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20188502,00.html

The column is all about legislation banning youth from purchasing certain videogames in Massachusetts. Although Stephen King explains House Bill 1423 pretty completely and rather fairly, here is a copy of the bill:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht01pdf/ht01423.pdf

I tend to agree with King's analysis of the bill. I especially agree with him when he takes exception to the portion of the bill that says certain video games and other media have no literary, artistic or social merit. So now politicians are literary scholars and art critics as well as law makers. Man, they know everything!

Also, I find it funny when King says teens can go see Hostel 2 but not play the less violent Grand Theft Auto. It seems like a more apt analogy would be a teen can go into a book store and buy a Stephen King book but can't buy the less violent GTA.

If nothing else, I think this legislation and article in Entainment Weekly demostrate that the issues we are discussing in class do have real world effects that reach across the media world, across the the political world, and into the lives of teenagers and all citizens.

Babyz and Vagina Guitars

On our class message board, we’ve been discussing Miss Bimbo. Klara Kim mentioned The Aberrant Gamer’s take on the game Miss Bimbo. Miss Bimbo seems like a pretty bad idea as something targeted at "tweens" (I agree with The Aberrant Gamer on the cringeworthiness of this word!). But as a social satire I think it's kind of fun.

In that article, The Aberrant Gamer mentions something that's been bothering me for a long time, that even when girls take interest in traditionally male hobbies, they are still being marketed to as Grrlz rather than young consumers.


Imagine™: Babyz

For instance, in The Aberrant Gamer’s previously mentioned column, she mentions a game called Imagine™: Babyz. Here's part of the description of the game from amazon.com:

"-As a babysitter, take care of up to six babies. Feed them, play with them, take them for walks in the garden, and keep them healthy.
-Spend your hard-earned money on new baby outfits, toys, or food, or on new furniture for your house.
-Customize and clean your house with fun mini-games: vacuum, paint the walls, mow the grass, and more."

At least Miss Bimbo strives to be over-the-top and satirical. I guess Imagine™ Babyz is just a new kind of more complex Betsy Wetsy for the DS generation, but it still bothers me that girls (girlz?) are so deeply encouraged at such a young age to regard reproduction (especially up to six kids!) as a fun play thing. Imagine™ also gives young girls (and let there be no mistake, they’re definitely aimed at girls. The covers of the game all have (mostly white) women on them, except for Babyz, which has three (white) babies on it) a digital look at four other careers “relevant to what girls in this age group have indicated they are most interested in”: Fashion Designer, Figure Skater, Master Chef, and Animal Doctor. I won’t even begin to comment on the limited scope of careers that Ubisoft seems to think young girls should be aspiring to or the fact that only the Veterinarian—erm, sorry, Animal Doctor path actually requires a college degree.


If Miss Bimbo is alarming because it encourages eating disorders and negative body images amongst a population already fraught with eating disorders and negative body images, isn’t Imagine™: Babyz just as guilty in a teen pregnancy sense? According to Planned Parenthood, one million teenagers (97 per 1,000 women aged 15–19) become pregnant each year. This is obviously not including women under 15 who become pregnant each year. Furthermore, “teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely than their peers who delay childbearing to live in poverty and to rely on welfare.” Lucky for them, not graduating high school only knocks out one potential Imagine™ career field.


Daisy Rock Guitars

I remember talking with one of my friends back in high school about girly guitars. Our local guitar seller had a few choice items in sparkly pink and purple, much like the Daisy Rock guitars. She told me about how almost every time she went to the store whether to buy a guitar or to just pass time while waiting for her (male) friends to finish perusing the store, the store clerks would try to push her to play one of these sparkly instruments. It was more amusing than offensive at the time and we joked about it; “Look, most of the people who know me already know I have a vagina, so I don’t really need to advertise it on my instrument.”
I just discovered Daisy Rock Guitars. They have a special line for younger girls called the Debutante line:
http://debutante.daisyrock.com/
These guitars come in a wide variety of colors ranging from Bubble Gum Pink to Atomic Pink with the occasional Princess Purple or Awesome Blue (only available in daisy-shape) thrown in for good measure. There is only one guitar that isn’t blatantly girly and that’s the Ruby Red Rock Candy Electric Guitar Pack, though the Ruby Red seems a little more like hot pink to me.
The guitars come in different shapes, as well. Four years ago, my friend and I were joking about the idea of a sparkly girly guitar being a musical declaration of vagina-ownership. Now they’re actually making girly guitars in shapes of classic vagina symbols. They make heart and star shaped ones too.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of encouraging young girls to learn an instrument. I just don’t see why they can only achieve this with pink sparkles.

Superheroes teach creativity, teamwork, and proper etiquette

As I write this I can hear my brother in the next room talking to a group of his friends... the last words out of his mouth were "it's time to do some crime-fighting - if you want to hang out, we may have a very good mission coming up for you."

He meets these friends online several times a week to play a "Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game" (MMPORG) titled "City of Heroes." As I read Henry Jenkin's white paper, this game came to mind constantly when I thought about my brother's participation in this game. EmilyZ's post about avatars motivated me to revisit a project I'd abandoned, so here's a slideshow of mixed quality using screenshots my brother has taken over the last few years playing the game to illustrate a few of the concepts from Jenkin's paper:



If the video doesn't embed properly, try going to this link where you should be able to view it separately.

Here are some links directly to the character stories, I don't know that they'll show up properly in a video (they're kind of dark, don't look at them if morbid stories bother you):

Persephone Lee, Mr. Plutonium, Silent Seth (creepy), and Dreameater

Also, the bit of Pokemon-ish music that plays during one bit of the video is from this site, the song is titled "run girl run" and it's a CC licensed song I found on archive.org here.

EmilyZ talked about avatars as expressions of personality. I don't deny that's a really fun part of them, experimenting with "different selves," but some people are more likely to invest the characters with personal meaning and some people are more likely to enjoy investing in a fictional environment that they can explore through a character that doesn't really reflect their own personality. I mentioned some issues with my brothers' female characters here. I find it amusing because it contrasts with his purpose, but other people might find it more offensive or scary. How you play also affects how you react, I suppose.

Also, this game costs $15 a month and requires a computer with a fast internet hookup and pretty decent graphics card, so there are definite barriers to participation in this sort of thing for many people. I'm sure there are more accessible environments out there, but I thought it might be nice to do a more extended tour of one of the more complex ones and it was nice to have the screenshots already there. :-)

Musings on Media Representations, Avatars and Jenkins

I have been thinking about representation in media and about avatars. We held a class discussion in week 5 about representation on television in which we discussed who we had seen in the TV programs we watched – what ethnicities and socio-economic levels were represented. Among other groups that had low representation were rural and poor people. I am currently living in a rural, depressed area. I work at an elementary school with 1000 students (three quarters of the county) with a 50% free and reduced lunch rate. So I decided to ask some of my 5th grade students if they saw themselves or their lifestyles represented on TV.

Last week I video taped a discussion with a fifth grade class about rural representation on TV.( I will video one more class this next week and then create a Youtube video to post here.) The kids had many insightful opinions, but let me just tell you that these kids definitely do not see themselves represented on TV and they would like to. With fifth graders I have also been discussing stereotypes that we find in media, most specifically in children’s literature, and the importance of recognizing them for what they are. I did a portfolio in my Intellectual Freedom and Youth class last semester that defended books with misrepresentations of American Indians (Indian in the Cupboard, Sign of the Beaver, The Education of Little Tree and Little House on the Prairie). In the process I read a lot on American Indian representation in media. Carol recently posted links to Asian representation – the piece on Long Duk Dong brought back memories. Kamilla Kovacs in her post about Daniel Pink and A Whole New Mind was annoyed by the representation of Asians in that book as well as the lack of representation of the working class. Klara Kim in her video post reflection for week 6 compares the actual real teenagers producing Youth Radio versus the studio created commentators for Channel One. Everywhere we are trying to find accurate representation of people and dispel stereotypes in media.

I think it is interesting to then juxtapose our search for truthful representation of people with the world of gaming and avatars. In online virtual worlds and games people often (I didn’t say always) create the avatars in the image of what they desire to be, usually emphasizing such desired attributes as beauty, strength and power. One part of me thinks that it is super-cool that people get to be released from their physical restrictions and project their inner-self or inner qualities in these virtual forums. Ideally shouldn’t inner qualities be given at least equal attention to physical qualities in the real world? But I also find a certain irony in the fact that we are creating these dual realities in which our search for representation takes very different paths. In real life we want to media to reflect us as we are and in virtual media we want to be reflected as the image we desire to be.

Gee (in Jenkins) uses the term “projective identity” to describe the relationship between game players and their avatars. It’s actually pretty cool that in a way avatars and virtual reality are like actors on a large stage for our alter egos get to stretch and experiment. Ideally, according to Jenkins, in the education realm these avatars allow students to simulate real life experiences along the time continuum, past – future. This ideally increases understanding and critical thinking, problem solving – a whole slew of desired learning results; helping students prepare for the real world.

In LIS502 summer 07 Professor Estabrook used her World of WarCraft avatar experience to help demonstrate the cooperative spirit that is desirable in the dynamic relationships between organizations – such as library consortia. Players must simulate the roles, boundaries, decision making of group dynamics. I have to say that was the first time that I had a glimpse into games in this light – it kind of blew me away to see a respected, middle-aged professor get so wound-up about the game. But it is a perfect demonstration of what Jenkins is talking about. (sorry, just connecting the dots publicly – I process slowly J)

I personally find it easier to be assertive and create relationships in the real world than in a virtual one. I like to face to face contact and relationships that are based purely on the cerebral, lacking body language, eliminating the tactile and olfactory senses, void of the subtleties of expression (i.e. tone of voice) seem much more complicated for me. I also realize, however, that removing such ‘obstacles’ is a relief for some people. My appreciation of video games as a complex media with great potential is growing. Given my own nature I don’t know if I will ever be a serious or active participant in them, but then again this course isn’t called Media Literacy and ME.

The educational aspects of gaming and avatars excite me. I looked up Supercharged (Jenkins p25) because I recently completed a science unit with 4th graders on, among other topics, electromagnetism. This looks like a great resource to pass on to teachers. My own son (age 8) is excited about baseball season, practice has started and he is also playing a lot of The Bigs, a Wii baseball game. This game stimulates conversations with his dad (I’m not a big baseball fan) about how the league is structured, awareness of different cities and their locations, etc (very similar to the example give in Jenkins p22). I did have to remind him the other day when we were playing catch that he didn’t have to jump like The Bigs every time he went to catch the ball. :)

Ok, I promise I’m winding it up…As Klara pointed out in her post, in the readings for week 11 there is a focus on the interconnectedness of media, learning, experience – of everything There is also a focus on participation culture. So maybe that is how I can tie this all up… Media representation and avatars that’s where I started… we’re all searching for a way to be connected, media is a means by which we make those connections. Maybe some find a connection in popular, traditional mass media even with its restrictive participation controls and if not there is the option to participate and make connections according to our own rules in virtual media. I still, however, find a certain irony to our pursuit of accuracy and our acceptance of inaccuracies in these different mediums. And I do worry about the obsession with image, started in traditional media, that is perpetuated in the world of avatars.

Well this is my very first Blog post ever and I’m happy to have it out of the way as I have been fretting about sharing my musings and ramblings with you. Please let me know if you think I’m way off base. Many of you have much more experience with gaming and creating avatars than I do.