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.

23.20 Say it, don’t prepare it. And say it as a cartoon

Many Library 2.0 ponderers wax eloquent about getting their presence in MMORPG’s, and if this guy can do his talk show in the MMORPG of Halo2, why not? But I’m not entirely sold on the idea that the social MMORPG’s are really the “next Internet.” They are proprietary, hard to search, and seem a poor substitute for a walk along the C&O Towpath when the Virginia Bluebells are in bloom.

A couple of things libraries might take from MMORPG’s: (1) Spontaneous communication can be compelling: MMORPG users go on the web (their game) and every word and action they experience is new, in real time. (2) Avatars are good. In an MMORPG, your character is an avatar. Even the help can come from an avatar. People don’t seem to object to interacting and learning from avatars. Perhaps Dewey the Fox and Zoedoodle have bright futures in our 2.0 world.