[Libs-Or] Gaming Advice Compilation

Thu Feb 25 14:05:55 PST 2010

Hello all! Thank you for your responses to my request for advice about gaming tournaments in libraries. For all interested, I've compiled the advice below. It's long, but there's lots of fabulous bits of wisdom:

>From Susan Minobe of UCLA:

Hopefully there's someone from AADL on this list who can answer, but if not, I'd highly recommend talking to folks there.
They did a presentation at ALA 2007 in DC about their gaming tournaments & it was amazing!!
http://www.aadl.org/aadlgt

>From Shelly Peresie of Washington-Centerville PL

What supplies and equipment have you found essential (portable projectors and screens, storage carts, memory cards, etc.)?
Definitely portable projectors. Usually we have two projectors and two gaming systems. We have large blank walls in our program room, so we just project onto those, but screens are necessary if you don't have blank wall space. We set the project/gaming system on a small table or portable rolling cart. A memory card may be necessary for a PS 2 or 3, depending on what game you're playing. We have one for the PS 2, but once we figured out the cheat codes for games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, we no longer needed the memory card. We also us a Wii; we don't have a memory card for it yet, but may get one in order to download and save games from their online store.

What games are the most popular and work the best for large-scale programs?
DDR, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, and Rock Band are our staples for large programs. We also held a tournament using Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which was really simple as it has a tournament feature built into the game.

How have you promoted your gaming events?
I work with teens, so most of the promotion is peer-to-peer word of mouth. But we also post flyers throughout the library, advertise in our Calendar of events, on our website, on our Facebook page, and on our teen blog.

Have you taken any equipment into schools and community centers for outreach?
Last year I worked with the library's Outreach Coordinator to bring the Wii into several assisted living facilities. We set it up, demonstrated how to play, and then the seniors played (mostly Wii bowling). They really seemed to enjoy it.

What non-violent, or at least relatively gore-free games have been popular and successful for programs?
See games listed above. We've also played American Idol Karaoke, SingStar, and Wii Sports.

>From David Baker of U of O:

I'm a classroom technologist by trade, and our target audience consists of college students and faculty, so the advice I have may or may not be applicable to your specific goals.

With that said, here are a few things I keep in mind whenever we coordinate a game-related event at UO:

 *   Some essential supplies: Portable projectors, screens, speaker systems.  My best advice here is to make sure you know your equipment.  Get very familiar with it well in advance of the event setup phase.  This will help you identify which (if any) extra cables/adapters/extensions you need to make everything connect to everything else.  If you do thorough testing ahead of time you'll also be familiar with the throw distance of your projectors, which can help you eyeball the physical layout of a complete setup.
 *   More essential supplies: Batteries.  Lots of batteries, just in case.
 *   Still more essential supplies: Some backup cables.  For instance, if I'm working a setup in which I know I'll need three cat 5 network cables, I bring at least four.
 *   Related to essential supplies: save games with unlocks.  Lots of games hide a good amount of content behind unlockables.  For instance, Super Smash Brothers Brawl has 35 playable characters.  Almost half of them are initially unavailable for play, and are only made available when the player has met certain conditions and goals.  Most of those conditions and goals aren't the kind of thing that can be done in a single play session, and besides, you don't want to waste event time unlocking playable characters.  So my advice here is: be aware of whether or not the games you're using have unlockable content that you'd like to access.  If they do, make sure the console on which it will be played has the necessary save game.
 *   Make sure your wireless controllers are synced with the appropriate console before your event starts.  This is a great way to make sure you know how each console syncs with its controllers.  The larger the event, the more likely you'll have to troubleshoot controller syncing on the fly, so it's good knowledge to have.
 *   Along those lines: we've had some issues with running multiple consoles of the same type in close proximity to each other.  The controllers synced to one machine physically migrate to another station, and before you know it one person trying to play on Console #1 is royally (and unknowingly) interfering with the game being played on Console #2.  Since it's all wireless, it can be pretty unclear what the heck is going on.  Clear labeling can help alleviate this.
And finally, a few thoughts on games.  Of course, this will vary depending on the participants:

 *   I always try to have Rock Band 2 or Beatles Rock Band in the mix.  A fine way to run an ad hoc competition is to just have people form bands and take turns playing single songs for a set amount of time.  You keep track of the scores for the duration and in the end, the highest single-song score wins.  You can even let people be in multiple bands, just like in real life!  ;)
 *   Super Smash Brothers Brawl is full of cartoon violence.  If you can get past that, it's a great game in that it supports up to four players and has very flexible rule sets.  Short matches, single elimination, etc., it's all up to you.

Lisa N Elliott
Young Adult Librarian
Tigard Public Library<http://www.tigard-or.gov/library>
lisae at tigard-or.gov<mailto:lisae at tigard-or.gov>
503-718-2654

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's
too dark to read."
--Groucho Marx

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