Cliff Urr writes “From what I have read about games in libraries, games are usually used for doing training, teaching people how to use library resources. In this article, games seems to have a very different use: as a means for collecting and disseminating information. Perhaps library and KM geeks can get some ideas from this to gather/share info around other topics important to the user populations they serve.
Here’s what, according to the article, this particular game is about: “The alternate reality game presents a “reality dashboard” that updates daily with gas prices, fuel shortages, and measures of chaos, suffering and economic impact for different parts of the country. Players are invited to document their own lives in this new reality, through blog posts, videos, photos, web comics, geocaches, audio messages, and any other means necessary! The goal of the project is to harness the collective intelligence of bloggers and gamers to create a bottom-up map of what it would mean to live through a massive oil shortage in the U.S. The project’s mantra: Play it, before you live it. The game launched on Monday, and already there are hundreds of player created documents to browse — not to mention the official ‘backstory” created by the game’s puppet masters.”
For more, go here: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/03/play_jane_mcg onigals.html“
A New One for Bartlett’s is Born
“Play it before you live it.” – I like it. It’s a a great classic-quality quote expressing something of the zeitgeist of the early 21rst century. Tell Bartlett’s.
librarians without oil
There are at least two librarians playing worldwithoutoil: myself and lirath.
At the moment, the game is more like a group writing assignment. There was a great moment in collaborative research when the players tried to translate this video. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any opportunities for collaborative puzzle solving since the game begun. Other than how to imagine a world without oil, that is.