New Game

I've started a new game to educate students on the differences between doing research with library materials vs. the Internet. For now, it's just called Library vs. Internet, though I need to come up with a better name. It's based on a western theme, with the Internet being represented as a buxom cowgirl. It's not much yet, but I hope it will be impressive when it's done... whenever that happens. As I am about to go on maternity leave any day now, this won't be done any time soon.

The content will be based on a handout I created a few years ago using the same characters.

The General Store currently contains the beginnings of an activity to review what the Internet is particularly good for. On Friday, I just completed the background for the Saloon, where I plan to create a simple shooter game to represent the consistency and dependability of sites found on the Internet.

So this will be more than just multiple choice stuff, and some of the demonstrations will be representations rather than 100% educational, but I think that's okay as long as my instructions are clear. Any feedback and ideas on where to go next are extremely welcome.

Games & Learning at CUNY

CUNY faculty and librarians are getting together to talk about gaming in the classroom, how cool is that? They have a blog called Games and Learning at CUNY. I found this from a listserv post about a librarian using a game to teach Web evaluation. I'm still not sure where the line is between an "activity" and a "game" is. I may contact Maura Smale and ask her for more information on how students are scored. This sounds similar to what I already do, but I don't tend to hand out prizes for the highest-scoring team... this could be fun!

Pirates beginning to click

I think my pirate game is finally beginning to click. The game will start when all players will get a card that describes their character's background. Some will be Navy, some former Navy or former privateers, some will be abused merchant sailors, some will be non-abused merchant sailors, some will be slaves. A few will be merchant captains as well. So approximately half will be legitamate sailors, and half will lean towards piracy.

Pirates- form their own "ships" and hunt loot from other pirates or legitamate ships
Legitamate sailors- must transport goods from one location to another and capture pirates

When a pirate and a legitamate group meet each other (or two pirate groups), they can challange each other through some kind of moderated activity.

One example: Kaboom

If the pirates win, they get the loot the team is carrying. If the sailors win, pirates get turned into the authorities (???)

Winner: whichever pirate team has the most loot divided by the number of team members, or whichever legitimate team successfully transfers the most loot.

This could work, now I need to find some more good challenges between two teams. I'm looking at Double Dare challenges, and need to scope out the Come Out & Play site...

New game idea

I had my four-year evaluation meeting with the Provost yesterday and he suggested a good topic for a new game is Internet vs. library. I have a fun handout on the subject, but I think it would be a good topic for a game and one that students in all disciplines could benefit from. I'm excited, I haven't had any good ideas for games in a long time but want to keep making them. So now I have another project for the fall...

Come Out and Play Festival

The Come Out & Play Festival is in NYC this weekend. One day I will make it, though I'm feeling like I might have to get a smart phone before that happens. Last year, I just didn't have the money for a weekend in NYC, nor could I find anyone who wanted to go with me. This year I am 35 weeks pregnant, so traveling and running around hot city streets is out of the question. But I'm really happy they post brief descriptions on their Web site. It helped with designing the orientation game (which we submitted to ACRL as a presentation proposal for the annual conference), and I hope it will help design a pirate game I've been asked to consider for our college's scholars program. I was busy reading the book, but now need to start thinking about the game!