Thing #15

Thing #15 was about online gaming and libraries. I've used several online games during my long love affair with the internet. I've played on Mu*s, then moved to yahoo games like Bejeweled, and finally ending up at mmorpg's like City of Heroes and World of Warcraft.

This part of the 23 Things focused primarily on Second Life and Puzzle Pirates. As SL is very graphics intensive, I chose to do the Puzzle Pirates part of the thing. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of interaction with the other users of the site other than a couple random people hitting me up for money. The best luck that I've had with social interaction on the internet was at the very low tech Mu* sites. The text based gaming really encourages people to use easy to read English, full sentences and to form friendships, because there isn't any game play except for what you make up in your head. There are no missions that you can do solo, like in COH or WOW. It is an entirely interactive environment dependent on everyone else who logs in and plays.

I'm not sure how these games will translate to libraries. I suppose you could have LAN parties or game nights at the library, but I'm not sure how that will translate into people checking out more items or using the library for research.