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Last night I was lucky enough to attend AIGA Small Talk no. 2 with Amit Pitaru.  Pitaru is “a classically trained musician who strives to create interactive animations with the same fluency as music both in his own web projects and his collaborations with James Paterson.”  

Librarians will be interested in is his work developing assisted technologies based on inclusive game design.  Many public libraries offer assisitive technologies, and Pitaru’s work may really push what libraries can offer in a new direction. His work will be published in a forthcoming MIT Press book called The Ecology of Games, and I found another little piece on the MIT Press site that is rather interesting.

“In this chapter I examine the accessibility of today’s games, or rather the lack of. Even common medical conditions such as arthritis, repetitive stress injuries, and diminished vision may prevent individuals from playing today’s top software titles, not to speak of the barriers that these titles pose to the blind, deaf, and immobile. The clearest and most disheartening manifestation can be found when examining the special-needs sector. There we find children who cannot partake in their most coveted play activities, due to inconsiderate (and therefore inflexible) game design. I chose this sector to both define the problem and explore its solutions. Written from the perspective of a designer, the chapter first describes the lack-of-play and its residual impact as perceived in a school that caters to over 200 children with special needs. In an attempt to create the “ultimate-accessible” game, I demonstrate how games can be designed to be intrinsically accessible while retaining their original playability. Lastly, I show how normalization-of-play may improve upon the social, educational, and therapeutic aspects of the children’s daily lives. Tying this fringe-case with the grander ecology of games, I discusses how better accessibility may encourage more people to enjoy games—be they gamers, students, or patients.”

Also, for fun, have a look at this amazing video from a live performance where Pitaru used dancers and animation together.  Unfortunately the youtube video isn’t great quality, but on a big screen at the lecture it was particularly incredible.

After a long and weary drive followed by perhaps too little sleep, I got up this morning for the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Registration was smooth - got to the Will Call window, signed in, and away in about 30 minutes. Spent a little longer working out precisely what I’m going to be doing when for the next few days.

This evening the Exhibit Hall opened. Went in along with all the other early entrants; picked up 24 books and comics and a large stack of literature and paraphernalia. Packed them all away; have an empty bag to fill again tomorrow.

The YALSA Gaming Expo focused mainly on computer console games. Interesting stuff, but was already familiar with a lot of it. Still, I see how it could be useful for someone with little or no prior exposure to the world of gaming.

Is the fantasy genre a mystery to you? Wondering how to keep kids, especially boys, interested in reading now that the Harry Potter series is over, with no ideas on what to recommend? Love the Hogwart’s party concept, and looking for fresh ideas? A Practical Guide to Fantasy is the webinar is for you.

The webinar’s speaker, Nina Hess, is a Senior Editor at Mirrorstone, an imprint of the very famous and popular gaming company, Wizards of the Coast (publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and much more). She edits fantasy fiction for children and teens. She is also the author of A Practical Guide to Monsters, which follows the company’s New York Times bestseller, A Practical Guide to Dragons. Needless to say, she is quite the expert.

I was invited to attend a preview of the webinar, and it’s an excellent Fantasy 101 crash course. Nina talks about:

• her experiences working at Mirrorstone (where she works in a “fantasy world”),
• why fantasy is so popular with kids, especially boys, and keeps them reading,
• the different flavors of fantasy plus a little on fantasy vs. science fiction,
• how fantasy and gaming can go hand-in-hand, and how tabletop role-play can lead to more kids in the library *and* more reading,
• program ideas that incorporate fantasy and fantasy reading

This webinar is a great place to start if you’re lost in fantasy, or just need a push in the right direction. Nina also talks about the many resources offered by her company (many of them free!) to help your library begin its journey into fantasy.

The program is coming up soon, so now is the time to register!

Event details:
A Practical Guide to Fantasy
Friday, September 28, 2007
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Eastern Time [10 a.m. CT / 9 a.m. MT / 8 a.m. PT]
To Register: Send your name and contact information to . You may either email or call in your credit card information at 914-241-2117.
Cost: $50 per person
Group discounts:
10-49: $45/person
50-99: $40/person
100+: $35/person

What you’ll need: This is a Web-based seminar. Registered participants will receive participation instructions, log-on information and a toll-free number to dial in by telephone for the audio portion of the seminar upon payment of the registration fee.

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is popular with kids. However, there are some libraries that might still have questions on what the DDR options look like, even after attending presentations at conferences and reading posts on blogs. I recently replied to a message on this topic from one of the listservs I subscribe to (a patron wanted to donate a system, and the librarian needed to tell the patron what to buy, but didn’t know where to start), and I’ve answered this question for librarians and patrons on many an occasion, and I thought the information might be worth sharing here in a really basic HowTo format.

Here’s a really basic overview:

TV Plug-n-Play Pad
Parts you need: pads, TV.
You may have seen them in the stores, usually retailing for about $15-$40, depending on the brand. These pads are designed to just plug into a television via the RCA/Composite connectors (the yellow, white, and red things). These require no console or computer to play, you just plug them in to the TV, change the channel (usually to the same channel used for playing your VCR), and use the pad to control the game. While these pads are limited in songs and features, they are very cost effective as a starter option, especially if you’re looking at a small group or if you don’t know if the game is going to take off at your library.

DDR games for consoles
Parts you need: controller pads, game console (Xbox or Playstation), TV, game CDs compatible with the consoles.
This is the most popular and scalable option. Various flavors of DDR are available for the Xbox, Xbox360, PlayStation (PS), and PlayStation 2 (PS2), which are all considered gaming consoles. These boxes hook up to a television, and work much like a CD player with external controllers.

The pads for the console games are different, you can’t connect the plug-n-play pads to a game console. For a console configuration you need the controller pads, one for each of the two players, which come in a variety of styles, the metal kind being the most expensive but most durable, and the padded kind being less expensive but not as durable. While there are wireless pads available, there can be issues of connectivity and slight delay in registering a step.

The downside to this setup is that it can be initially expensive. A PS2 alone can run about $130, the pads can run about $30 each, and the games are about $40 brand new. On the upside is that you can use the console configuration for multiple games, so you can own the latest DDR release, and offer lots of variety. You can also move on to other games as they become popular; Guitar Hero is the latest big thing with the kids I’ve talked to, so by having the console already, you just need th Guitar Hero CD and guitar controller.

DDR on a computer
Parts you need: Spare PC or Mac laptop or computer+monitor, controller pads, game CDs compatible with the computer.
This is a pretty old school setup without much variety or longevity, but it’s still an option. In this configuration, you plug the computer-compatible controller pads into the computer, and you pop a computer-compatible version of the game CD into your computer. The game then plays on the monitor, or on a TV, with the right wires.

On the big screen
At my library, we often connect our PS2 setup to a LCD projector that is hooked up to speakers. That way, you can add volume (some projectors don’t have very loud sound) and a bigger picture that is easier for everyone to see (and it just looks cooler). We don’t have Guitar Hero yet, but I’ve seen it projected on a screen with speaker sound, and it’s *awesome*.

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