Liz Lawley’s closing keynote for the conference

wanted to rename her presentation “Girls Just Want to Have Fun!”
then tried “All Work and No Play….”
ended up with “All the world’s a game… and all the men and women merely players”

has seen a lot at this conference about games, gaming, and fun
almost titled it “all the library’s a game” but doesn’t think we’re there yet

her hosting provider deleted the last week of her posts, but she was able to get them back from Bloglines

started four blogs (mamamusings, many 2 many, misbehaving.net, and terra nova)
could talk about her professional life, social software, or gender inequality in the technology world, but wants to focus on gaming (terra nova)
finds herself talking about gaming the way she used to talk about blogging – it’s important, pay attention

showed Jeff Trzeciak’s post wanting a gaming librarian

showed Galataea (Liz) in World of Warcraft (was mentioned in Newsweek article recently)

got pulled into WoW by the person who first commented on her blog

found herself playing WoW with colleagues she knew in the real world

plays with her 12–year old son
in the game, everyone looks like an adult
she started getting IMs from a venture capitalist in Japan telling her that her son was ninja-ing loot in a game

was invited to start playing with a group of researchers

showed Michael Stephens’ avatar
“one of the topics in the closing keynote was his tight jeans”

Jane McGonigal and Cory Ondrejka playing “oof!” at O’Reilly’s Foo Camp
a reverse scavenger hunt
your team is told to go gather 10 items in 10 minutes
then you get the list of the things you’re supposed to find
each time has to justify how each thing they got matches the list

of all the things she did at Foo Camp, the game was the most engaging and is what she remembers the most

games are a very powerful way to build an emotional connection between the people that play them and the place where they play them
this is relevant to libraries

showed the game Werewolf
each person around the table is given a card telling them if they are a werewolf, a villager, or a seer (there are 2 werewolfs and 1 seer)
everybody closes their eyes and goes to sleep
werewolves open their eyes and make visual contact with each other
then they pick somebody to kill (can’t make noise doing this)
closes their eyes and seer opens her eyes
guesses who are the werewolves and gamemaster answers yes or no
villagers than guess who the werewolves are

it’s such an engaging game that alpha geeks don’t pine for their computers

games: rules, structure, attempt to pursue a goal

showed Helene Blowers “Learning 2.0” initiative and asked how is this not a game?
rules, structure, pursuing a goal
gave staff motivation

it’s extraordinary what people will do for a free piece of Tupperware
motivation – think about this in the context of a library
what are the incentives for people?
what can you do to make it fun? to pull them in?

mentioned “I Love Bees” game (ubiquitous game – also known as an alternate reality game - for Halo)
how to reclaim public spaces that have fallen into disuse (libraries?!)

Jane McGonigal’s “Cruel 2 B Kind” game?
each person is given a weapon of kindness (“a game of benevolent assassination”)
each also has a weakness – one particular nice act will knock you out of the game
to kill someone with your serenade, you have to serenade everyone
in the process of killing people off, you’re doing nice things for everyone around you
what’s not nice about this?
how could we use something like this in libraries? how can we help people and make it a game?

Jane’s game “Tombstone Hold ‘Em Poker” about cemeteries
tombstones have four different kinds of tops (pointed, rounded, diamonds, decoration) plus a numbering system
all of a sudden, every tombstone is a unique card
have to be touching a tombstone at the same time in order for two to have the same card
people go to cemeteries to play this

Liz talked to Jane about how they could reclaim public schools (via gaming)
summer reading program is really a game for kids (rules, guidelines, goal, prize) and it’s a game that really works
it works for more than just kids

showed Stephen Abram – “context is king, not content,” “”it’s about unfettered experience,” “what’s the immersive experience we’re creating in public libraries”

remarkably similar to Jane McGonigal’s game development theory – http://www.42entertainment.com/see.html
this is a convergence

same URL – three types of gamers
– casual (they seek a guide to help them through an experience)
– active
– enthusiastic

librarians are guides!

http://www.macfound.org/education – Macarthur Foundation on Digital Media, Learning, & Education
expanded it by $50 million to focus on informal learning in games

big gaming in education community, but less so in libraries
huge opportunity for librarians to think about how games play a role in informal learning

the interesting and innovative stuff happening in libraries right now is in gaming
the more she poked around, the more heartened she became
wants to encourage everyone, including those that think they aren’t gamers or who think that gamers aren’t part of their audience
seven and a half million people play WoW – that’s a really big number

this is really, really big
this is going to change the way people use your tools and think about what they want in an information environment

audience question: comments about Second Life Library?
Liz: doesn’t believe that Second Life is a game but with that caveat, thinks Second Life is a really interesting starting point; absolutely applauds what they’re doing with the Library there, but it’s not the end point; has some big flaws (kids can’t get in), classes in SL that excludes 17–year old freshmen troubles her, requires a credit card even if they don’t charge you, which troubles her; thinks SL gets a pass on this stuff because they’re the only game in town; thinks SL is like AOL ten years ago, but won’t end up there; will be more distributed; she doesn’t find it particularly compelling, but her son loves the teen grid; feels like she spends too much time trying to figure out what’s going on, as opposed to WoW sandbox levels (the first five-minute experience); it’s a great experience for the first-time user in WoW, and too often we forget how hard/overwhelming it is to be a new user (used the example of University of Michigan Library as an example of being lost; eventually she was hired there, which gave her motivation and a prize – a paycheck – which changed her perspective)

audience question: familiar with Project Croquet?
Liz: not familiar with it

audience question: is there a researchers guild in Guild Wars?
Liz: doesn’t know, but is about to start a wiki about this

il2006