Posts tagged with cvga

The CVGA will be moving to the Shapiro library over this summer. Our last date of operation in the Duderstadt will be this coming Friday (May 27), after which we will close to begin the process of moving to our new location on the 4th floor of Shapiro.

We have a few exciting things to announce. Firstly: Starting on Monday November 8th, we'll be expanding our hours to Monday-Friday 1-7pm. Secondly: We'll now be open for same-day online reservations and walk-in reservations. Thirdly: The CVGA is open despite most of the Duderstadt Center basement being closed. Lastly: We have new games! So come visit us.

We are excited to announce that we're hiring again for the CVGA! We're looking for 1-2 student workers to start within the next month. Here's the job description: Work at the Computer & Video Game Archive (CVGA) desk to circulate games, answer questions, and enforce archive policies. Test donated games and equipment, help install software/hardware, help restore older game systems and equipment, etc. Assist in running class sessions in the CVGA. Contribute to the archive blog.

Welcome back! We are very excited to announce the reopening of the Computer & Video Game Archive (CVGA) this Fall, starting on Tuesday, August 31st. We are reopening with a new service model—outlined below—which will help us provide you with a space that is safer to visit as we adjust our services around COVID-19. While hours will be limited at first, we plan to expand our hours later in the semester once we have settled into the new service model and increased our staffing capacity.

The Computer & Video Game Archive (CVGA) has a dual mission of providing users access to our game collection, and the preservation of games for future research and scholarship. Since the CVGA has been temporarily closed to the public due to the pandemic, we have used this time to shift our focus from user access to the preservation portion of our mission, and have been discussing how to digitally image and archive our game collection.

Still looking for a video game-related class to take in the Fall? This blog post lists the classes that still have open spots. We also share details about what our services will look like (as far as we know) during the Fall term.

Are you wishing you could be playing board games in person with your friends? You're not the only one. Being able to sit around a table with friends is a great way to socialize with fellow gamers, and would normally be a popular activity in the CVGA. Playing board games in person is definitely preferred, but circumstances like quarantine, geography or other factors can make this difficult. And thanks to technology, it's not the only way to enjoy them. The Online Games page on our research guide lists several online platforms that can be used to play board games online with friends. Today, we're going to review one of those platforms, Boardgame Arena.

The Computer & Video Game Archive physical collection is closed, as is the Duderstadt Center. Our staff won't be answering our phone or returning calls while the building is closed, but feel free to reach out to us via email at video.games@umich.edu with questions or requests for remote consultations related to video game studies. We're happy to help. The gamer community is a tight-knit group, and we're thinking about you during this time of social distancing. We hope you stay safe, and hope you're able to visit us once we're able to reopen. For now, we hope you'll engage with us on social media and let us know how you're doing.

The mission of the University of Michigan Library’s Computer and Video Game Archive (CVGA) is to preserve and provide access to games for current and future study and research. In a world where digital games are becoming more prevalent than physical games, preserving these digital games can be a challenge. The CVGA recently received special funding from the library to purchase a large number (approx. 180) of games from Limited Run Games, a "publisher of limited run physical games for PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch," that focuses on "bringing games that were previously only available in a digital format to a physical medium."

At the beginning of every year, we like to look back at which games were most popular over the course of the previous year. Some games, like the FIFA series and Super Smash Bros., remain relatively constant in popularity over the years, while others are surprise hits. Here are our most popular games for 2019, all of which were played at least 50 times over the course of the year.