Library Blogs

Our fearless leader Dave was recently quoted in an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, which explored the growing prevalence of game collections within academic libraries.

The CVGA room will be closed this Friday & Saturday, April 29-30. We will re-open on Monday May 2 and begin our regular Spring/Summer hours: Mon - Fri, Noon - 7pm; closed Sat & Sun.

Do you have fond memories of working together with your friends on WoW to accomplish a great feat? Read about a notable point in the history of WoW, when people from all over worked together, amassing an enormous list of supplies and defeating terrible enemies in a massive effort to open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj.

Authored by Ben Nanamaker: A little while back, one of my favorite web sites for thoughtful articles and analysis about video games, The Escapist, posted a video on an interesting topic of debate: "True Female Characters". The video, part of a weekly series they do called Extra Credits, digs deep into the issue of gender and character in video games.

Gerald "Jerry" Lawson, who is often thought of as the inventor of the first modern gaming console, died last weekend at age 70. Jerry designed the mechanics of what eventually became known as the Channel F, a predecessor of the Atari game system, and invented the ability to have interchangeable cartridges in a console, which influenced several cartridge-based game consoles throughout the next couple of decades.

Save the date!WolverineSoft, a student group on campus that focuses on game development, is planning a Tech Day on Saturday, October 8th. The event is designed to give a broad introduction to the University of Michigan's College of Engineering by inviting high school students and college transfer students to see the Engineering campus. They will have a table to display their club and its games.

It was bound to happen: The Computer & Video Game Archive is now on Twitter. Follow us at @umcvga.

Why do we enjoy playing scary games so much? Nicholaus Noles, a developmental psychologist at the University of Michigan, gives us a psychological perspective into the science behind our attraction to games that inspire a sense of fear, horror or danger. One of the reasons he gives is that they "allow us to experience powerful and complex emotions in a safe way," and that developers use situations in which gamers have limited control over a scary situation to create an effective horror-filled experience.

Our water game carnival has concluded, and the people receiving Amazon gift cards for their efforts are listed below.

Here are our top games from last week. Our water game carnival event has also now concluded, and the winners will be announced shortly.