Digital Games in Libraries: Discover the Story That’s Dying to Be Told

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Originally published at: Digital Games in Libraries: Discover the Story That’s Dying to Be Told - Choice of Games LLC

Libraries are not just books, and they haven’t been for some time now.

Libraries have evolved, adapted, and reconfigured their collections and services to meet the needs of their users better, whether that’s students and educators in an academic library or families and older adults in a public library.

Digital Games in Libraries is a project focused on ensuring that digital-only video games remain accessible for future generations. As games increasingly shift away from physical media, libraries and archives face significant challenges in securing access. This is especially important for educators, scholars, and students studying games and game development, as access to historic and contemporary games is essential.

Not that long ago, it seemed ridiculous for libraries to offer ebooks or streaming services. Today, it’s commonplace. Our goal is for librarians, game developers, and library users to similarly take for granted that digital games belong in libraries.

DGIL in Libraries is hosting a free Digital Forum on October 29-30 to discuss the exciting yet daunting task of initiating this journey. DGIL is bringing together librarians, game developers, game lovers, and law and policy advocates to inspire the conversations and collaborations digital games deserve.

We’re pleased to say that Choice of Games’ very own Rebecca Slitt will be presenting “Collect Us, Please!” A Publisher’s Perspective on Digital Games in Libraries.

Other presenters include game-making legends Andrew Plotkin, Grim Baccaris, and Devinne Moses. They will cover everything from the importance of communities like COG in this endeavor to how developers can work with libraries and librarians, and how this relationship can be mutually beneficial.

You can see a full list of presenters here.

DGIL would like to thank Choice of Games for letting us promote our event on their blog. These communities are exactly the voices we want to hear from to help propel DGIL into action.

Can’t make it on October 29 or 30? No problem! The presentations will be recorded.

Want to stay updated with DGIL news? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Find out more at: https://soe.uncg.edu/rdi/dgil/

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This is such a cool and worthy-sounding project, hope the event goes great! Will there be transcripts for the recorded events?

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Speaking as a librarian who also writes digital games… I love it! Super excited to take a look and learn more. :smiley:

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Love this – I personally would also strongly encourage advocation for text based video games being available to find and review on websites and apps such as Good Reads, to gain exposure and treat these as the worthwhile literature so many are. No idea how to get that facilitated, but I think that would be a strong step towards getting these wonderful stories the recognition they deserve. I also feel time capsule sites such as The Way Back Machine are helpful, but given the digital architecture of these story books, not sure how to assure they are always available – regardless, may better minds than mine prevail – I’d love it if this succeeds!

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There actually are at least some ChoiceScript games listed as books on Goodreads.

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That’s a good question! I’m asking the organizers, and I’ll let you know when I have an answer.

Thanks so much to everyone for your positive response so far!

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Update: there will be transcripts of the presentations in addition to the video recordings.

I’ve heard that several Forumites have already signed up for the event, which is wonderful! I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

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I don’t see how this is possible though. Ebooks are easy. The platforms are available to allow access for a certain amount of time, everything runs on a single chosen format (like pdf, epub etc). CSGs require a passworded account or downloading onto a device due to tracking of stats and requirement to allow online updates, ad support etc, and there is no global way for any library to easily work around that that I know of. Added to that that each other type of IF media would need it’s own system as there’s no global accessible format. (Unless you include the CYOA books on amazon that have been tediously put together with hyperlinks and no stats.) The libraries over here at least, don’t even rent out other big name or educational software unless it can be run on a CD/DVD, I mean great in theory if it could work, and I hope it is, but I don’t see how? Guess have to wait on the transcripts from the speakers to see what is planned.

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I assumed that was part of the purpose of this symposium - to discuss what would need to be done to make it possible. The platforms that allow limited-time access to ebooks didn’t exist either until someone wanted to make it possible for libraries to offer ebooks. I can imagine a library having a portal on their website that has a limited-time login to something in their digital game collection, using library software that’s compatible with all the most common game creation tools

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Alright I guess we’ll see. Issue I see is that you’d need one for every different system out there for starters. (With ebooks it a straight- if its in epub format it’s fine kind of thing). You can have timed access that expires.

The larger issue I see is that with a portal- you run into save issues. Most people don’t read a game in one session. So either you need to download the game (in which case you’d somehow need to implement time sensitive access codes which would put the burden back on COG and open source codes like twine/ink/ren’py etc are unlikely to go for it because individuals are making money from them, not the code creator.)

Or

You have a login that needs to be reset for each game somehow on each borrowing session to play it online only. But then you run into issues with large numbers of random people’s saves being put on that account as it accumulates over time unless you want to wipe them at the end of each borrowing period (which again puts it back on COG to find a way to implement that.)

I guess an additional option would be to completely disable saves for library users on the online portal somehow (not ideal for the long games but is what it is), and then have an account for each game, with a password that has to be updated somehow with every borrowing session. Possibly do-able but would need infrastructure and would only be a solution for COG itself and not transferrable to games hosted in other locations (steam, itch, app stores) and by other companies.

Like theoretically it’s do-able, but unlike normal books IF is incredibly niche, and so many systems would need individually tailored access that I can’t see the income being worth it to the companies to try and set a system like that up for their paricular games. (But as I said, happy to see what everyone has to say. Someone may know of something I am unaware of.)

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Definitely! This is exactly the point of this project (hi, I’m the lead on this!). I’ve been doing research in this area for several years now, and it’s kept coming up from both librarians and game developers that they want a way to get digital-only games in libraries but lack the platforms, technologies, and workflows. This forum is a chance to have a bigger conversation on what needs to be done to make this happen!

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I’m so excited for the virtual forum! I got my notebook ready and everything. SOON! :star_struck:

Welcome @ccpost to Choice of Games!

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Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the forum! If you missed it, you can catch up on the live recordings on the American Library Association’s Games and Gaming Round Table’s YouTube channel. We’ll also have a forum proceedings with presentation materials, transcripts, and high level takeaways from the forum to share in a few weeks. We’ll make sure that gets circulated with the Choice of Games community, too!

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It was an interesting time! Lots of discussion that was pretty cool to take part in, as well as the presentations. :slight_smile:

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I was able to attend both days’ morning sessions. How invigorating! I took lots of notes. I think my main takeaways are:

  • Video games are a relatively new art medium. Archivists, gamers, lawyers, librarians, and academics all bump up against a bias against seeing video games as creators, perpetrators, and creations of culture. They’re worth preservation and study.
  • Developers, archivists, and librarians want games collected and preserved. Developers also want to be compensated and recognized for their work. Lawyers want video games to be valued and hate Section 1201 & Computer Software Copyright Act of 1980 with the passion of fiery sun.
  • RIP Bioware
  • Digital privacy and ownership rights are more important than ever.
  • We’re all in this together, and together we can work to build a reality that values games, the people who play them, and the people who make them.

On a personal level, Becky’s talk was a highlight! I added The Middle Ages in Computer Games and Popularizing the Middle Ages in Modern Fantasy to my To Read list. :smiling_face: :books: I was also not expecting the Julian of Norwich and Christine de Pizan shout outs in Dr. Colin Post’s introduction. We love medieval mystics and proto-feminists in this house! :raising_hands: :partying_face:

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Oh, wow, thank you so much! I’m really glad that you found my presentation interesting and helpful. Those books are great! If you don’t have access to an academic library, stay tuned for Boydell and Brewster sales - they periodically run large discounts on their e-books.

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