I watched some of the gaming videos and read some of the reports for this exercise. I also spent a little time over a couple of days playing Puzzle Pirates. I'll admit that I did like the bilging game. It was a little addictive. I'm not much into games, but the times I've played some online, I've found that I want to keep going.
I do use games sometimes in my Computer Basics class I teach. Particularly an online jigsaw puzzle and coloring, to give class participants a little experience with mouse work such as clicking and dragging.
When I went to the Internet Librarian conference last fall, I pushed myself to attend a couple of gaming sessions since I wasn't that interested in gaming. In one session, I watched a demo of Second Life. One interesting application was students meeting their college advisor within Second Life instead of meeting the advisor in the office. In the video from Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, it looked interesting to put students' art work and music projects in Second Life. I think the part of Second Life that looks interesting to me would be to design buildings and landscapes. When I was younger, I used to design cities in my head. However, the thought of avatars suddenly communicating with you in Second Life seems a little unsettling. And then there is an expense: if you want to own land, there's a cost. I don't really understand the pricing schedule--I don't get how much you really "own" or might create for the $9.95. The cost of an island is $1695! Plus a monthly maintenance fee of $295/month. Even if you have a non-profit with a 50% reduced fee, that's way too expensive.
Also at Internet Librarian, I attended a gaming presentation by Liz Lawley, who's frequently featured as a speaker at gaming symposiums. It was fun to watch her presentation, because it was Halloween and she gave her talk dressed like her World of Warcraft avatar, which was displayed in large form on the giant screen behind her. Liz demo'd World of Warcraft. It looked kind of fun, almost like being part of Lord of the Rings. I began to think about finding people to set up a "guild" for World of Warcraft, but then I found that it costs money. Plus, it takes a lot of time. She devotes one evening a week to gaming, but she said that other professors she knows spend about 24 hours a week on it. I'm too busy for that kind of commitment.
So, I can see where it might be fun to participate in some of these games, but for me:
- they must be free, or have a reasonable one-time cost (not a monthly fee)
- they can't slow down my computer
- they wouldn't require a huge time commitment
- they would have to work on a Mac
Sometimes I think we should pay the fee for some online games at the library on our public PCs. Although it might tie up bandwidth and make kids stay on the computers too much (such as when we were having the problem with Runescape), it would still be providing a positive experience at the library, for kids that don't have computers at home or can't afford to pay for some of the games.
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