To use Simon Parkin’s own words from the article, as they are much more eloquent than mine:

The marketing of imitation adult products to children in the hope they will blossom into customers of the genuine article is widespread. The video game presents further opportunities for manufacturers to target young people. Toyota and Nissan work with racing game developers to show off their vehicles as pristinely desirable. Nike and Adidas position their logo on virtual boots. Gibson licenses plastic versions of its guitars in the hope players will progress from the coloured buttons of the peripheral to the nickel-wound strings of a Les Paul.

And Barrett, creator of the M82, a shoulder-mounted, .50-caliber semi-automatic sniper rifle, hopes that the appearance of its weapon in a video game will, in time, turn young players into gun owners.

This scares the shit out of me. Not because we are teaching our children to buy guns, or be violent because of video games (that has not yet been proven. In my mind, most of the evidence shows that it’s not true.) What scares me and makes me angry is that my enjoyment of entertainment (through the video game industry) has been used to increase violence throughout the world, and that has nothing to do with children and violent video games. (also, I just really dislike in your face marketing. I’m a big kid, I can make good decisions without this type of marketing, but I’m not in the demographic of a lot of marketing material)

Because of the licensing fees that video game companies pay to have likenesses of real guns in games, those companies are able to put more guns on the market, increase their brand, and have more influence on this world. While I respect this right, and I respect the 2nd amendment, my issue has to do with the funding of war, and possibly terror, through the games that I play.

To put it succinctly: (my emphasis)

But today we know that a portion of every dollar spent on triple-A military-themed video games flows into the pockets of small arms manufacturers, either directly through licence payments, or indirectly through advertising. These beneficiaries include Barrett in the US and FN in France. They may include other controversial arms dealers, such as Israel Weapon Industries, creator of the TAR-21, which appears in Call of Duty. Such deals politicise video games in tangible yet hidden ways. Consumers have, for the past few years, unwittingly funded arms companies that often have their own military agendas.

It’s kind of like how Tony Stark, in the first Iron Man movie, found out his company was supplying weapons to “the enemy.” I with this post was as cool of a rebuttal as becoming Iron Man.

At different times in my life, I have been an apologist for violent video games, expressing my belief that they were causing no harm to the people, especially to the youth, that played them. I still maintain that the violence in games is a different reality than our own, and people understand that. What I will not apologize for anymore are games that depict modern realism in games, especially ones that have licensing agreements with, and/or fund arms manufacturers. There is harm being caused, but it is indirect, and not in the way that “violent video games cause violence.” It it causing harm in an economic sense, by funding initiatives that I do not personally believe in. I will no longer be a defender of realistic war games.

Video games, and their creators/manufacturers/producers/developers are not to blame here. They are pursing their business goals. What they should be doing is being more open with consumers about these dealings so that consumers can make more informed decisions. If consumers are angered by the idea of funding arms dealers by buying video games, then stop buying those games. There are plenty of other games that exist that can be played guilt free. If we, as consumers, want to see these types of actions stop, then we need to financially show video game companies that truth. They will not listen otherwise. Bad publicity and financial downturn are the two ears of business.

At the end of the day, things have not changed much for me. I do not play games like Modern Warfare and Call of Duty because I felt that it was disrespectful in many ways, especially to other cultures, and to soldiers and historical memories of different battles or wars that were fought. It felt like the games were trivializing war. Now, I feel that I do not want to purchase any game that is under the same umbrella as the makers of these games.

That being said, I will still play games that are the same, but slightly different. Halo is an example of a game I would play, because it has the same elements (in many ways) to CoD or MW, but it does not have the modern day or historical realism. Same with Left 4 Dead. The fantasy elements change the game from a marketing scheme/historical problem for me, to just a game. The game mechanics and play are the same, the change in setting and tone make all the difference.

tl-dr

Did you know that gun manufacturers are making money off of you playing video games?

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training.

Been a while right?  Like a month?  We took a bit of a break.

First thing’s first though, happy 2013!

So yeah, the break thing.  About roughly exactly 24 days ago, I sent out a tweet from our tl-dr account saying we were breaking up our Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule.  Basically, coming up with creative content on a constant deadline only stays fun for so long, and Diane and Jacob especially needed a little burnout recovery (I’m just here writing every month or so).

James over at Men With Pens does a good job wrapping up exactly why the schedule thing probably isn’t the greatest idea anyway, and our reasoning was more or less the same as his: our readers come when we have interesting things to say, and interesting things require inspiration.  Otherwise, maybe we start to scrape the barrel a bit, and that’s bad.  Bad for you, bad for us.  An all around big barrel of no bueno.

SO there’s that.  From now on, we write whenever we damn well feel like it!!  Quality > Quantity, only the best for you Khaleesi.

It was an excuse to use a game of thrones meme.

NOW ONTO SERIOUS-ER BUSINESS.

In about under a month, I’ll be heading to North Carolina for the annual ScienceOnline unconference.  I’ve talked about this place before, it’s epic, people are friendly, you never know who you might end up listening to weird biological sex jokes with, and cool things happen.

This year I’m co-presenting a session on Games and Science, and how they can totally get along really well together (The session is 8D, Saturday 10:30-11:30 am, Room 7a!).  My partner is Cameron Pittman who does some crazy stuff teaching high school students physics using the game Portal 2.  = winning.  I sincerely recommend checking out some of his videos on his site HERE.

What’s more, my friend Melanie Stegman will debut her 4-year in the making science game: Immune Defense.  Here’s the link for the Blitz Talk she’ll be doing!  I got to demo the game early at a small play-testing event earlier this year at the Federation of American Scientists headquarters. It’s really spectacular to see a new game come through like this designed to be just as fun as it is educational, you know, as good serious games are supposed to be.

For those of you who will be at ScienceOnline, and plan on coming to the games session, this wiki page will have plenty of background info for you to browse through so you too can jump into the discussion!  And, if you need further reading past that, there is plenty here on tl-dr to explore as well.  Alternatively, if you just want direct info, tweet me @EriKlaes #scio13.

See some of you soon!

tl-dr

Our last order of business is to say thanks for being supportive through the first year of this blog. Here’s to another great year of gaming tom-foolery and info-science awesomeness

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

Welcome to the inaugural post for tl;dr, a blog dedicated to bringing together games, gamers, librarians, information scientists, and information about games.

In keeping with the tongue in cheek title of this blog, let’s get right to it shall we?

Child’s Play

To give a brief summary from the Child’s Play Wikipedia entry:

Child’s Play is a charitable organization founded by the authors of the popular computer and video games-based webcomic Penny Arcade that organizes worldwide toy drives to children’s hospitals. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins founded Child’s Play in 2003 to improve the lives of sick children by donating toys and games to hospitals worldwide. The charity is also seen as a way to refute mainstream media’s perception of gamers as violent and antisocial.^[1] Through Child’s Play, donors have sent over ten million dollars in toys, games and books to children’s hospitals all over the world.

Short and sweet: gamers are people too, and they care. This is coming to be a more mainstream idea because of advocacy from gamers, and studies that have been done, but I think Child’s Play is a hallmark example of how gamers are good people.

Statistics:

Annual totals

• 2003: $250,000
• 2004: $310,000
• 2005: $605,000
• 2006: $1,024,000
• 2007: $1,300,000
• 2008: $1,434,377
• 2009: $1,780,870
• 2010: $2,294,317
• 2011: $3,512,345
• Running Total: $12,510,909

The best part about gamers and the Child’s Play charity, is by their very nature of playing competitive games, gamers are competing against themselves for a new high score every year (read: beating last year’s donation numbers). To add to the sense of contributing and the feeling of being a fellow gamer, check out the xp bar they have on the Child’s Play Homepage.

Why should gamers care about Child’s Play?

Because this is how you (we) are portrayed to the media and the world. Would you rather have them think of gamers as a group of thugs from GTA? or like this?

Why should librarians and information scientists care about Child’s Play?

Did you read my last link? It’s ok, I’ll post it again. That person writing in to Penny Arcade is a Health Sciences librarian. Libraries and librarians are helping the world, but they were also helped by gamers. The new world of the internet and cyberspace is not limited to a web browser; the cutting edge is games.

tl;dr

If you have the spare change, donate it to Child’s Play, it will be doing something great.

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

So when I was asked to read the following article for a health science reading group I’m in, I read it even though I couldn’t make it to the meeting:

Millington, B. (2011). Use it or lose it: Ageing and the politics of brain training. Leisure Studies, 31(4), 429-446.

Abstract:

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of promotional websites for three prominent ‘brain games’ – that is, consumer technologies designed to train and improve the brain through challenging cognitive exercises. The study was specifically designed to critically examine how brain training is promoted as a viable endeavour and how brain games are made to intervene in cognitive functioning. The analysis of online promotion revealed three overlapping themes: (1) the deployment of expertise in game marketing to make brain training intelligible; (2) the deployment of risk metrics in game software to ‘screen and intervene’ in cognitive health; and (3) the deployment of ‘third party’ sources to corroborate brain training’s value, especially for older adults. These findings are used as a basis to contend that brain training technologies are simultaneously enabling and constraining. Against the historical practice of seeing ageing and cognitive ‘decline’ as biopolitical threats, brain games imagine seniors as empowered and capable of sustaining their identity work into retirement. At the same time, these products invoke common anxieties surrounding later life and, in keeping with the politics of neoliberalism, exacerbate the pressure on older persons to demonstrate an obvious ‘will to health’ through ongoing consumerism.

If you can’t read that Academicese, don’t worry about it. I’m fluent in it, and although I don’t want to use that language in this post, the study made me think about a lot of things that exist outside the university. The message I took from this article is as follows: getting old can be awesome, but maybe only if you buy these games. A phrase at the end of the article summarized it well:

[W]hen it comes to questions of cognitive health, growing older is a matter of personal risks, to be addressed via choices made in the marketplace.

(subliminal message: buy these specific games.)

And no other games will help you, apparently. That’s the ridiculous part of it. The websites of the “brain games” the author studied – Nintendo’s Brain Age, Vivity Lab’s Fit Brains, and HAPPYneuron – all suggest that their products will help you train your brain to work better, remember more, and avoid the cognitive decline that we all could be at risk for. As watching the effects of my brilliant dad’s disease taught me, cognitive decline associated with the dementias is perhaps one of the most tragic ways to die. But is it really necessary to buy one of these games to fight it?

Research does support the argument for the health benefits of older people playing games. I’ve heard about the Wii being used for bowling in nursing homes. I read a study in which the researchers designed a “music creation” tool using a touch screen for people with dementia, and dementia patients benefited from using it. So I’m not completely dismissing or trashing the makers of these “brain games” at all, I’m just saying that there are a lot of games people could play to help their brain health. Honestly, I believe playing ANY game can benefit our cognitive functioning at any age, from Brain Age to Guild Wars 2 to playing keep-away with a dog.

Millington noted that the marketing of these brain games “exacerbate the pressures on older persons to demonstrate an obvious ‘will to health’ through ongoing consumerism.” Marketing by fear. Also, the ongoing message that “health is work” is wearing me out already, and I’m not a senior yet. It is strange how our society has taken to heart the message that you have to put in a lot of good ol’ fashioned hard work if you want to stay healthy. We could also blame the marketers for this. After all, they sell the idea that indulging in junk food, alcohol, cigarettes, and whatever else is somehow “rewarding yourself” when in fact it’s damaging you. (That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the occasional glass of wine or ice cream – but I’ll be ok since all the games I play will keep me healthy.) But seriously, given all the pressures and constraints on our lives, is it realistic to believe we can *make* ourselves healthy, and that our brains can only remain healthy into old age by buying these games?

It’s unfortunate that we’re not always able to enjoy a healthy lifestyle that will lead us into a fun and relaxing retirement. Too frequently, our lifestyle choices (and, sometimes, genetic predispositions) cause our lives to be filled with chronic disease and too many colds each winter and the need for too many pill bottles when we get old. I live with a chronic illness caused by an autoimmune issue, but I’m taking every step I can to avoid living as a sick person; this means I’m subjected to the “work” of staying healthy. But I wonder if John Lennon could have imagined a society in which we all enjoyed taking care of ourselves – and we all played games, whatever games were fun to us, without worry about how much time they take out of our schedules or whether this is only something boys living in their parents’ basements should do or whether we’d chosen the “right” game to keep our brain active. Enjoyment and happiness are keys to a healthy life. So make sure you enjoy the games you play… every day.

tl-dr

I don’t feel well. I’m gonna go level something. And I’m gonna enjoy myself, dammit!!!

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

Let’s take exhibit A from Penny Arcade. Quoth the Tycho:

You almost certainly know about Draw Something already – like Words With Friends or Hanging With Friends or Inadvertent Castration With Friends, it is an asymmetrical nod to some absolutely commonplace entertainment which modern life has made difficult.

“Photoshop Hero” may not exist as such, but the prevalence of touch displays means that more games may leverage its noble spirit.  Gabriel’s ChatRoulette mod “The Game” provided hours of entertainment, for example.  Draw Something Else, his newest release, may reach a wider audience.

And here are the mentioned/accompanied comics from Gabe.

Funny? Hilarious? Over the top? Too much? You tell me.

Sure is a surprise for people I bet.

I know what you may be thinking: This isn’t that big of a problem. It’s an isolated incident and doesn’t happen very often.

Oh, how I wish that were true.

Miiverse actually had to hold a contest to find the best “penis detection” software it could, so that people wouldn’t be drawing them all over the place. It’s endemic.

Side note: this quote from the above article is pretty funny.

Kurisu-san suggested we study different types of penises in order to create figure out the relative shape and size people would draw. We spent a week doing that before we realized that we should have been looking at drawings of penises rather than real-life pictures. (laughs) We were very embarrassed about that.

Personally, when done in a mature setting, with the right people, and in the right context, drawing wangs can be hilarious.

Hell, even just talking about drawing wangs is pretty funny.

 Also, why penises and not a vagina?

tl-dr

Gamers (and probably others as well) love drawing penises. Good/bad?

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training.

P.S.

You really don’t want to see the meta tags I put on this post. Seriously. I feel kind of dirty now.

I’ve never worked in the video games industry, but I have worked in IT, both in corporate and in academic settings. So I can say based on firsthand experiences that for women, it’s not a picnic. I could share stories about what I experienced in those past lives, but I don’t even need to go back that far. Even now, I teach technology courses to library and information science students. Most of them are women, and most of them don’t feel comfortable with technology. But when I share teaching stories with my male colleagues who teach the same classes, I learn that they don’t have the same challenges I’ve had with students challenging grades and so on. I’ve known for years that as a young (or at least a young-looking) female teaching classes that are typically taught by a member of the boys’ club, I’m at a disadvantage. I know I have to work twice as hard to hold my ground with the students so they will give me half as much respect as they give the men. Why is this the case?

This overcompensation phenomenon is not just based on my past as an IT professional or as an IT instructor. It happens in the gaming realm too; unfortunately, it seems to come off as militant feminism. Due to my time issues, I can’t find links to them, but I’ve seen so many things online where women are working so hard to hold their place in the gaming world as players. But generally, the message is driven into viewers’ heads: we’re here to play, not to fuck you. (I’ve said this before: what if men worked hard to communicate this same message? Everyone would think they were crazy!) I think girl gamers take overcompensation to an extreme, but maybe not. Take a look at Fat, Ugly or Slutty or my recent post about when I was “raped” in World of Warcraft and make your own call on this.

Some men have been pretty shitty to me over the years. I’ve been raped. I’ve been in abusive situations. I’ve been treated by male IT colleagues like I don’t even know how to turn on a computer. While this doesn’t make it hurt any less, I know that these awful behaviors are based on their own insecurities and weaknesses. But why should us women have to work so damn hard to prove ourselves to be above their weaknesses and their lack of e-peen?

That is my point today. Women shouldn’t HAVE TO do any of this: the tweets about why women feel uncomfortable in the games industry, the working twice as hard for half the credit, the pleading with assholes to not “rape” their battleground team members (read the post). My political leanings aside, I’ve always had an issue with affirmative action because I believe that people should be given opportunities and rewards based on what they do, not based on their gender or race. I don’t want special treatment just because I’m a woman, only the same treatment.

Feminism, to me, means that women should have the same chances and opportunities that men have to do what they want to do. For some women, that might mean having kids and staying home. For me, it means pursuing a career in information science and playing video games. Both sets of goals are fabulous, and neither one is less valuable. But don’t trash me because I’m in what’s generally considered a boys’ domain, just like I don’t trash women who have no interest in this stuff. The more “traditional” women do work that is less valued in the world, but the work I do is also maybe not something women are supposed to do. So if poppin’ out kids and raising them isn’t valued, and women are undervalued if we go out in the larger world, what are we to do?

Dr. Marcia J. Bates received the Award of Merit from the American Society for Information Science and Technology (my primary professional organization) in 2005. This is the highest honor that you can receive from the Society. Her acceptance speech made me cry when I heard her deliver it, and I still get chills about it when I read it. You can read it yourself, but I want to highlight the end of her speech:

Finally, when it comes down to it, there’s a big difference between going through life with the wind at your back, and going through life leaning into the wind. I retired at 61 not because I really wanted to, but because I was worn out.

Fair treatment of women can happen only when we ALL self-consciously ask ourselves what we are doing every time we apportion work and rewards to men and women. Fair treatment does not happen without a self-conscious effort to change.

That’s why THIS recognition, the Award of Merit, is so very important to me, and I value it so highly. After all, I’m only the 8th woman to have received this honor, in the 40-plus years it has been awarded. Thank you.

I have felt for many years that I’ve been living my life “leaning into the wind,” but only when I have to deal with people who don’t understand. When I started playing video games at age 6, I didn’t know that it was supposed to be wrong. I played with my dad, and with a male friend who lived in my neighborhood. I had no female friends. I didn’t know this was supposed to be a problem until I was a teenager – when I started to see boys as more than people to hang out with – and even then it wasn’t a problem because boys actually liked the fact that I could talk about things they enjoyed as well: games, computers, whatever. This holds true today; just ask Fox the gamer. Even when I found my love of information science and started building my career, I didn’t think about the fact that information science is considered to be “library science for boys.” But I could never see myself reading story time to a bunch of kids in the children’s section. That’s a wonderful thing to do, it’s just not me.

We all should have the chance to be who we are. Unfortunately, people who don’t know this get in the way. Prejudices against people who don’t fit whatever mold is floating around in their heads is due to their own closed mind. But those of us who are just out there enjoying what we love shouldn’t have to be the ones doing the work needed to open their minds. It rarely seems to work, anyway.

Until we figure out how to open minds, see you in the battlegrounds, I guess. But beware. My DK is OP.

tl-dr

We are all created equal… until somebody tells us we’re unequal. Don’t let anyone do that to you.

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

It’s no secret that “flow” in games is essential.  The idea that the experience and mechanics must carry the player as much as the player carries forward the game.  A game without flow is like… Like this gif. (note: this totally looks like my sister, lol)

runrunrunNOPE, no flow for you

My favorite example of a game that uses flow, like, perfectly, is Mirror’s Edge.  If you haven’t played it, do so, it’s the shit. (also, go for the PC version, as the Xbox version is much less flow-y, what with finicky joysticks and such… which could lead into its whole own post on platforms for experiences… herpderp not now).

Mirror’s Edge is a game about a dystopian future in a pristine city-state world.  You are a “runner” who delivers illegal, physical messages around the city, as the regime in charge brutally monitors all communications, media, everything.  Blah blah blah backstory (also +1 for a emotionally complex and strong female protagonist). At its core, the game is about pursuing freedom when the world around you is supposed to restrict freedom.  That is the game’s core concept, and both the mechanics of the game and the story give that concept beautiful, nearly perfect fulfillment IMO (‘in my opinion’ for those of you still catching on).  This is not an RPG, this is not a ‘figure it out slowly’ type game (often the case with portal); choice is limited, there is usually a single solution, you are frequently corned, gunned down, or killed by your own missteps. And yet, the game conveys the pursuit of freedom gloriously.  With flow.

Watch this: Mirror’s Edge, all in-game footage trailer.

Every jump feels dangerous and elating, every footstep and breath resonates, the colors used in the environment are both beautifully calming, and also quietly, almost jarringly reminding you that this city you’re fleeing through is a sham; a painted cage.  Running in Mirror’s Edge truly gives the feeling of freedom feels free, it’s one of the best implemented motion mechanics I’ve seen, yet the world around you does everything in its power to set up a juxtaposition to that freedom.

[Enter 'serious' games]

Herein is an essential key in making games that affect ‘the real world’.  The biggest issue often with ‘serious’ / ‘transformative’ / ‘will-we-ever-settle-on-a-name-here-people?’ games is that they lack flow.  To be fair there are many many other failing factors frequently plaguing the reality-changing-games space, and other factors too such as the idea that finicky little buttons and switches might be the bees-knees to a kinder gardener and the utter hell of gaming to me, a 19 year old (this is something Melanie over there at the Science Game Center pointed out to me; she has evidence too!).  And yet, flow does not have to be constant empowerment or player agency or total understanding, all flow needs to suck the player in is meaningful ensured progress.  I’m not talking about to dive into a lengthy look at issues with the ever-infamous ‘Fail State‘ where games might often mistreat failure at the cost of flow, just that when the player makes an educated action, even in a split second like jumping off a frickin’ roof top, they are rewarded and pulled forward to the next challenge; hell, that pulling effect is the reward.  Mirror’s Edge (the main campaign anyway) does not have points or scores, only flow to motivate the player.  I would argue that points and scores are usually less motivating to the player than effective flow as well!

^not how you want your game mechanics to feel

Behold, good reader, that the world of games-that-give-a-fuck is not totally bleak in the realm of flow.  Allow me to present my favorite example here also!  Dys4ia by Auntie Pixelante.  It’s free.  Go play it.  I will wait.

…

Done?  Awesome.  Let’s chat.  (if you don’t have a chance right now, play it when you grab some free time. It only takes like 10 minutes! It’s worth it).

Dys4ia, quite obviously, is about Auntie Pixelante’s experience of going through hormonal therapy as a trans person.  There’s a lot to talk about here, but I want to focus on the game’s use of flow.  Each little puzzle, each scene and situation used to represent Auntie’s emotions and experiences, consistently pulls the player forward without sacrificing the message of the game.  The point isn’t points or winning, the point is progressing as Auntie did, and allowing the player to experience her feelings through the game’s mechanics.  It is easy to jump in, it is consistently rewarding to stay in; the reward is the new experience; the emotional connection.  Not points.  Not checkmarks.  Not gold.  Not leet gear.  The experience is its own reward in a well-made, core concept-oriented game.

There are a few other examples out there, and I could keep going on and on and on here because there is A LOT to explore in experiencing flow-y gameplay.  If you’re hungry for more along this train of thought and don’t want to wait for another post… actually, regardless of your academic game hunger, go watch this Extra Credits episode on “Mechanics as Metaphor”; it’s related, I promise.

tl-dr

Games that use flow to motivate the player are more rewarding, and more effective at communicating their core idea.  Play them, love them, let’s make more of them.

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

I bring this all up because today I want to try and tie them all together somewhat. I want to bring all of those topics under the same roof and show that they all matter to every population of gamers, librarians, gamificationers (It’s a word… I swear!), and even a little to the nudists…ok maybe not, that’s more Erik’s thing.

The Hardcore Gamers and the Librarians

A bit of a cheesy example, but the Library of Congress is actively collecting video games (as well as the Smithsonian), but the interesting thing to note about that is they are trying to  preserve these games for posterity. They have a pretty rigid collection policy, but the preservation of games is a pretty big deal.

I’m an Archivist by trade (among other things), and collecting old media is pretty difficult. Just think of this example:

Do you want to play those old Atari games that were awesome? Others probably do too!

…too bad almost no one has an Atari anymore.

Emulators you say? Not quite the same experience as using the original Atari controller, if you ask me.

So, the hardware preservation is just as important as the software. Check out Extra Credits, they had a good episode about this.

Short but sweet: librarians are trying to preserve the history of gamers, so there are more links than you think!

Games, Gamification, and Librarians

Google just came out with a wonderful new game (maybe not so new? New to me), and I think it’ll be pretty popular because everyone loves trivia. The different with this trivia is that you’re allowed to use Google. And compete against your friends.

Here’s where the librarian part comes in: Librarians love to search for stuff, and they love trivia. A generalization, I know, but a pretty true one. Why you ask?

Before Google (and during Google, and after Google), Librarians will be the ones that can find the information for you. Sure, everyone can find stuff on Google, but a good research librarian will find it faster, and will be able to comb the deep pockets of the Internet that Google can’t touch. Try it sometime, go to a public library and test their skills.

Which brings me to gamification.

Currently in library/information school (yes, librarians have to have a Master’s Degree), the art of searching is taught by understanding the systems and resources and then practicing it a bunch. Why not add a gamification layer to that? Like…perhaps…this Google game? My reference class would have been SO MUCH BETTER if we would have used this game instead of the assignments we did. We could have all done it as a class. Oh man, it would have been AWESOME!

I highly recommend any professor or student who reads this to try using this game in a LIS class; the students will love it more than you will imagine (and you probably will too!). Competing against a professor always makes it more fun.

tl-dr

Librarians are taking care of games, because they like games too. If you don’t believe that, try playing this game against one and see how you do!

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training. Or an ass whooping at A Google A Day. 

What is it about fall that makes me want to RPG?

I’m serious! I won’t touch my system for MONTHS, but as soon as the leaves start falling, I crave it like a crackhead. Long Saturdays snuggled under the blankets with a controller in my hand.

I’ll watch leaves falling outside the window, and be reminded of that town in Fable where the leaves are falling, and I can almost hear the music. Or I’ll see the snow and remember I last left off on that frickin ice planet in Mass Effect and I want to kick it’s ass!

And yet I deprive myself!

Fall, for me, and many I’ve spoken to, comes with a great burst of energy. We know that the change is coming! Cold weather, short days, how will we get anything done?! So there is a rush to do, to gather, and to fix before you won’t be able to. Suddenly, everything around you looks wrong, feels wrong, and needs to change.

I had the impulse to paint my furniture and redecorate my bathroom.

This is why falling into gaming is so healthy. Generally, these impulses come because they have been ground into us through the centuries, but also with stories and fables as a kid. I remember one cartoon about the grasshopper that partied during the harvest and so had nothing left during the winter months and nearly died until some overachieving ants let him bunk with them. This is not the case these days. We don’t need to rush to stock up and store; most grocery stores are open 24 hours. We don’t need to tackle massive projects; there will be time for that.

I’m not saying ignore responsibility. Pay your bills and clean your room, people! But save the major projects for the months where you are pretty much stuck inside and about to go stir crazy.

There is a slowing down that occurs naturally after the holiday season. It gets dark earlier, it’s colder out, being up and active isn’t as easy as it was in the warmer months. These changes function as a built in excuse against productivity. Is this why more games tend to be released in the colder months? Smart move, Game Companies!

Til then, grab a controller and take a load off. Stock up on herbs, practice potions, and level up those combat skills! But don’t bust your chops to conquer too much in the “real world”. Otherwise you’ll wake up in a month and wonder why everything in your bathroom is purple…

tl-dr

When the leaves and snow are falling, fall into some game time. Relax and level up a few skills before the boss level of Holiday time rears it’s ugly head.

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training.

The use of the word “rape” [...] is getting used more and more and I’m sure I’ve caught myself using the word although I prefer the word “gank” and the same to have similar meanings except “gank” doesn’t have that real word connection, at least not that I’m aware of.

– Orkela, commenting on Jacob’s post about griefing and trolling and all that other shit

OK, people. Yes, we’ve had posts about corpse camping (and how to handle it) and how Riot is handling these things. But it seems like no matter how much we post about it all, we find more to say about it. Today, I need to talk about “rape.”

It feels empowering to know this will be posted publicly on the Internet: I was raped. It was a long time ago, but it changed the direction of my life in ways I can’t even begin to explain. I became a stronger person for it, but that took many years to achieve. It didn’t turn me into a militant feminist. I don’t believe all men are bad. I think candlelight vigils and marches to observe the horror of rape are kind of pointless because I don’t know that they really fix the problem. I still have occasional horrific anxiety attacks; these only started after it happened. But I’ve had no choice but to move on, and my strength impresses people who know me well.

A couple of nights ago, I was in a battleground, and it was clear we were losing. This prompted one of my team members to say “we’re getting raped” in bg chat. I had decided a while ago that anytime I saw that word used in game, I wasn’t going to let it go. Ignoring casual use of that word is almost as bad as pretending rape itself doesn’t exist, or isn’t as bad as it is. So I replied with something like this: “please don’t use that word – I was raped irl and it bothers me to see it here.” When I do this, typically they stop, or at least don’t reply to me.

But, that night, that person did reply. He said things, horrible things, in response, such as “I’m re-raping you” and “I like rape” and some other things I have blocked out of my mind. Out of shock, I called him an “asshole” and some other things I shouldn’t have said, but he continued. I started sweating, shaking, and crying. I certainly couldn’t concentrate on the bg anymore. I /ragequit.

The amazing man sitting next to me on the couch asked the troll what was wrong with him (peppered with all kinds of great language, of course!), but the room was spinning too much for me to see the response, or to see if the disgusting talk continued. I sat there, in shock and devastation and anger at the mean people we share this world with, my hands covering my eyes. I heard him typing furiously next to me. Eventually I looked up, and saw him sending a ticket to a GM about the troll. After he finished, he said he told Blizz that if they didn’t do something, we’d stop our subscriptions. Then he held me and reminded me of this very essential truth: frequently, on the Internet, people don’t remember that there are real people at the other end of the line. I knew he was right, but that didn’t stop my flashback or my disappointment about humanity’s meanness. I went to bed and slept fitfully, and in the morning wondered if I’d had a nightmare. Maybe I had a few nightmares, I’m not sure. But I remembered the incident was real, and then wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about starting the day.

By the next evening, Blizz had replied and said they’d do something about the troll, but they didn’t say what they would do. I didn’t want to play that night. I still don’t want to play. I will face it eventually and create new fun times in game, but I’m not ready right now. And that is ok. If I had truly faced my pain over the rape years ago instead of stuffing it down with too many antidepressants and food and general withdrawal from life, maybe I would have recovered sooner. It’s taken me almost 20 years to realize that if you shed a few tears on occasion about something horrible, it is healthier for you and the people who surround you.

Yes, don’t forget that entire communities (including our gaming communities) surround us rape survivors. Rape is everyone’s issue. Talk with my mother or that awesome man next to me on the couch about their thoughts on my rape if you don’t believe me. It’s also not just a woman’s issue. The questions like “What was she wearing?” and “Where was she?” that are typically asked of female rape survivors make us think we should have done something different to prevent it. But we would never ask these questions of a man who was raped, would we? Read this post from a male gamer who survived rape as a child for a powerful perspective.

But the question becomes: how do we stop it? I think a lot of these comments – not just the word “rape,” but anything nasty that any troll says – are due to ignorance. I wonder whether that person would have pushed it with me as far as he did if his mother or sister had been raped. Simple policing such as reporting the player, or self-preservation acts like putting the player on our ignore list, is sometimes all we can do, but it doesn’t solve the bigger problem: these people, and their shitty attitudes, exist. People frequently lack knowledge about other categories of things and people that they are mean about, which is odd because we’ve all got defining characteristics that set us apart from others. Perhaps the troll’s father died when he was 4 years old, or he hates his red hair, or whatever… something would set him off if I pushed enough buttons, I’m sure.

I’d like to end this post on a positive note, and say “it will all get better after librarians know how to give people all the knowledge they need for achieving personal intellectual enlightenment” or proclaim “Google will save us all” or give some other Infogameristic words of wisdom… but I don’t have any of those words right now. To fix a lack of education, or to open your mind up and sense the broader world, you have to want it intrinsically. The existence of information, professional educators, Internet content providers… none of it can force your brain into recognizing how your words and actions affect the people with whom you share the world. Including the World of Warcraft, it seems.

Thank you for sharing in my catharsis. And if you write hateful comments in response to this post, I will approve them. You know why? Your words speak for who you are. Including these people.

tl-dr

it was me and a gun
and a man on my back
and I sang “holy holy”
as he buttoned down his pants
you can laugh
it’s kind of funny
things you think
at times like these
like I haven’t seen Barbados
so I must get out of this

–Tori Amos, “Me and a Gun,” singing about her own rape

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.