Games as Art, Games as Education

Gaming is much on my mind, with gaming programming at the recent LITA Forum, American Libraries' December issue having a gaming theme, and the ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium beginning on Sunday. (I’ll be attending, so check here for daily reports.) The idea of gaming in libraries gets a lot of pushback. (All together now: “It’s a library, not an arcade!”) All of this righteous anger, however, ignores an important fact: Gaming exists, and complaining about it won’t eliminate it. So it seems more constructive to me to attempt to use it in a positive way. I do game, though primarily on casual online games rather than the consoles (Wii/Xbox/PlayStation) that are getting a good share of library attention right now.  These games generally don’t have the community-building attributes that console games often do. But there are a fair number that support library missions in other ways: namely, as education, and as works of art. Games with an educational bent are certainly the more familiar—Word Munchers, Number Munchers, and Oregon Trail (version 1, where hunting involved shooting a deer bounding across the top of the screen—none of that 8-direction stuff!) are fond memories from my elementary school library computer lab. (The librarian, Mrs. Sorvik, had the vision to be an early adopter of computer technology; the upshot was that we had an Apple lab sufficient for a full class by 1982.) The availability of Flash or other tools that make creating games relatively easy, and the rise of the internet as a distribution medium, means that educational games today can easily reflect current events and aren’t limited by salability. "These games can be very successful, too, since interactive multimedia can engage its audience in ways passive media could never do," said Jay Bibby, creator of the JayIsGames blog. Examples include: (Some are my recommendations, some are Bibby's, but all I found mine through his blog.) The Redistricting Game, which teaches about (and advocates against) gerrymandering. Gene Sequencer, which puts DNA into an arcade setting. FreeRice, which started as a vocabulary game but has branched out into math, chemistry, and other topics, and which has sponsors that donate rice through the UN World Food Programme for every correct answer. Stop Disasters, a building simulation in which players must use sound building practices to prepare a town for a tsunami, wildfire, flood, or other natural disasters. ElectroCity, another building sim where players must balance power needs with tourism, industry, and the environment. Art games may well be even more intriguing, as they provide an immersive artistic experience that really can’t be replicated in other ways. Examples include: Grow Island, a wacky but loving ode to human development. Karma, a game-based take on the eponymous concept, where the player must attempt to wash his or her sins away. Passage, which condenses a lifetime into five minutes of play and can be viewed as a rumination on exploration, on the phases of life, on marriage, on grief, and no doubt many others. Samorost, a surreal point-and-click immersive experience. Treasure Box, the equally surreal point-and-click Rube Goldberg Machine. La Pate a Son, an interactive sound toy. The Machine, a puzzle game about a computer interface gone awry. (Originally posted 10/31. Edited 11/2 to incorporate e-mail interview with Jay Bibby.)