Will Games ever be in Library’s?
The public library is a bastion of all societies in the West, East, Middle East and so on. It is where we house and cherish our most beloved cultural influencers, informations and breakthroughs. Books are the traditional method of transmitting this kind of data to people, so naturally books are the most common item found in a local library. More recently, though, the humble public librarian has checked out audio-books, music cd’s, and even interactive disks for the computer. All with the same end goal – to entertain and inform the public, free of charge. All paid for by our wonderfully developed tax system.
It took many years of printing and publishing books for libraries to come to existence, since most documents and literature dealing with the world are needed to be accessed by the public. The library is a good means to give out this information. In more modern times, music (mainly classical) has come to fruition in the library, allowing the public to consume a vast array of brilliant musical works alongside brilliant (and not so brilliant, it has to be said) books.
So we come to the point. If the public library system is keen on pushing out new forms of technological entertainment and information, why can’t games be part of this party? Of course, the primary focus of games is to entertain, but a lot of books are only written to do this, also. It’s an injustice to think that all books are informative or useful, or that all forms of music are so beautiful that everyone must be able to consume it, via tax payers money.
It would be foolish to think games could be built to ‘inform’ people. Sure, some do a good job of informing people of real world knowledge. More often then not, games challenge us. Think of the uproar Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 caused last year with that one level where you play a terrorist, mowing down civilians in an airport. In days bygone a book would have caused that kind of uproar. And that book would be booked out for months in a library.
So we know some games can inform (few, mind you), some can relax a person like a book. Look at Flower, for example. As a piece of interactive relaxation, it’s just as relevant an item to have in a library as a relaxation CD by a hippy guru with a nice voice. A lot of games challenge you. Echochrome is a prime example of elementary challenges that made their name in books. Others, like Brain Training could sit proudly in the same space as Sudoku or math books. The entertainment section could be filled with the same benevolent archetypal comedy books that currently adorn the library. Sit Portal next to Ben Elton books, and you’d find a whole new audience appreciating the humour while enjoying the challenge of the game.
My local library even has movies to rent, for free. Not just documentary content from the BBC, but real actual movies starring gun-happy action stars that furnish the cover of DVD boxes with more grit on their face then a rally track. It makes no sense that Bruce Willis can have a place in a library, next to a book by Primo Levi, next to a CD of Chopin, while Master Chief can’t possibly get a look-in.
Of course the counter-argument could retort with a statement about cost. Games cost a lot more then a book or CD, or even a brand new DVD. But there is nothing to stop libraries stocking games after they’ve been released a month or two, when prices drop to rock-bottom. Games also attract the wrong crowd, some defiant cries may cry. Well, what about the notion of blocking under 18s from renting them? Like they do with movies or CDs. Also, no one expects a library to stock the latest iteration of FIFA, in the same way libraries don’t stock the latest issue of ‘Hello’ Magazine.
The cultural impact of games cannot be questioned. Entire sub-industries have spawned from gaming, and an entire culture is derived from their enjoyment en masse. There is, in my view, no reason what-so-ever that gaming cannot share the same public space in a library as the humble, but persistently relevant book. CDs and DVDs have had their shot – it’s gamings’ turn.
It’s only very recently that CD’s and DVD’s began entering the local libraries that are near me, so i would think that games have a long way to go, especially when regular people’s perception of video games is still limited to that Prime Time special of Grand Theft Auto and Pokémon.
But i do agree with what you said… Games like Okami, Braid, Deus Ex and hell even games like Half-Life 2 have as much Artistic merit and social commentary than your average Mave Binchy read…. In an ideal world i guess
I like it but I agree with above, people thinking if games just think of immiturity and violence, not culture
I live in Sweden, and the municipalty of the town where I live is pushing a lot for all kinds of culture, including games. Massive Entertainment, who developed World in Conflict, is based in our city, so that might have something to do with it. Anyways, our main library in the city has games for loan. At no cost, even, while movies has a small fee. They’ve even got a pretty nice selection, not just Singstar and sports titles, but games like Psychonauts and Ico as well. They’ve got the “violent” games too, such as Call of Duty and GTA. It’s great, but not very widespread. Nobody I know outside Malmö, where I live, has a local library where they can loan games, but hopefully it’s something that others will take influence from.
My library has PS3, XBOX360 & Wii Games, it’s pretty cool, because it’s like a free rental, but I still like the library best for books. P.S. It’s in Ontario, Canada for those who are all like “What place has video games in their libraries?”
games will never get to the library in the uk, or europe. too much resistance (look at germany)
At my local library they have games, not free to take them like books but they are pretty cheap to rent. My library is in Ontario, California.
games should be preserved at least, perhaps a decent gaming museuem
Preserving games is a difficult one when you can keep the price artificially high with digital distribution…
I hate to tangle with the Dark Lord of the Sith but Vader is wrong; video game rental has been part of the UK public library scene for well over 20 years, although not a massive one and one that tends to dip in and out of fasion.
I used to borrow games on tape from my local library (Rugby, Warwickshire here in the UK) when I was 8 years old or so. Granted the selection was often on educational titles and strategy games but I managed to find some gems. Have a look at Gangsters by CCS on the ZX Spectrum it makes GTA look tame!
Fast forward 15 years when I found myself working as a librarian and we’re lending Xbox and PS2 titles. You’ll notice I wrote “rental” rather than loan right? UK public libraries have always hoped that videogames would be self funding if not income generating and sadly they often aren’t which leads to their withdrawl.
What they were brillaint though was at bringing in the “wrong crowd” or those who often don’t use the library service that their or their parent’s tax pays for. Some of them even took out a book or two.
Preservation is another matter altogether and there are individuals and organisations already doing that. Modern public libraries don’t archive novels either except under the copyright deposit scheme where publishers are required to send a free copy to the British Library, the Bodlien and Trinity libraries. Maybe videogame publishers should be required to do something similar if a suitable venue (real and virtual) could be found.
And lastly if you want videogames in your libraries make sure you ask for them via comments forms or similar.
Carl.