Saturday, May 19, 2007

23.19 Collaborative Gaming

With the collaborative features built into Madden NFL Live, the old school console game has, to some extent, turned into a Massively-multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, or MMORPG. MMORPG’s are clearly part of Web 2.0, and a walk past the public Internets during non-school hours will tell you, MMORPG’s are part of libraries, too. Our users are usually playing Runequest (a free, no-downloads required questing game), or Habbo Hotel (a free, no-downloads required game that is mostly about making friends and hanging out). In some ways, Runequest and Habbo are like the “junior” versions of market leaders World of Warcraft and Second Life … which can’t be played at libraries because (1) they require a software download and installation (2) they have limits on what can be done unless you’re a paying member and (3) they are, in general, not suitable for younger users.

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