Library Blogs

Welcome, new students! Now that you're getting a chance to settle in, we'd like to offer a chance for you to stop by the archive and see what we have to offer.On this note, we've decided to hold a Gaming Week during the week of September 17-22 (the third week of classes), with each day showing off a different type of game that we offer. This is also your chance to stop by and see who else on campus is interested in the same types of games that you are. So drop by anytime on the day that interests you to meet new people that share your interests, discuss potential tournament/event ideas, or just hang out.

Here is our list of most popular games played in the archive throughout the month of August. Nintendo dominates the board for the first time in a long time, probably due to the influx of younger kids that have been able to check out the CVGA over the Summer. The past month has also brought us a long list of new games to try out, so be sure to stop by when you get a chance.

Coursera, a website that teams up with professors from various universities to offer free online courses to the public, is offering an introductory course on gamification, a concept that is gaining speed quickly. The course begins this week. This is reportedly one of the first courses designed specifically for the concept of gamification, and the course itself is partly designed to explore the meaning and purpose of the concept, as well as to generate ideas on how to apply it in relevant ways. Read more about the course here.

Check out Dave Carter, our fearless leader, describing the archive in a more in-depth glance at what we have to offer via this feature on SlashDot.

One of the fun things about getting donations of really old computer equipment is that sometimes we find random bits of entertainment to go along with it. Here is a really old dictionary of computer terms that has helpful (and hilarious) pictures to describe each term.

The archive recently got its very own vertical file, which has inspired a discussion about what we want to highlight and set aside for research purposes. One thing we've decided to set aside are the game ads that come in game cases, and the product catalogs (especially the really old ones) that are donated to us over time. Having them all in one place could make it easier for someone studying game marketing over time to access what they need.

An article hit the New York Times earlier this month discussing the prevalence of sexual harassment in virtual game play. In the article, they highlight several examples online, from a Kickstarter devoted to documenting how women are portrayed in video games to a blog devoted to the unpleasant comments that women often encounter while playing online games. Quoted in the article are also several people who recognize the need to do something about it.

Here is the top 10 of our most popular games in the archive for the month of July. A combination of a lot of kids in the archive, as well as a number of individual users dedicated to playing a specific game everyday has given us a list that looks a little different from normal. Personally, it's been refreshing to see more unconventional games being played.

We've been working on sorting through some of the game ephemera that we've collected over the years and finding a good way to display it. Some of this stuff is just too good not to have out there for people to see.

People have donated so many game manuals over the years that we (sadly) end up keeping in storage because we just don't have the games themselves to go with them. It's a pity because there are quite a few in our hidden collection that have amazing game art, full of color and bringing back a sense of game nostalgia that few other sources can inspire.