Tapping into "Borecraft" - What Libraries can Learn

Last week the Slate.com article "World of Borecraft" made some ripples within the educational video game community. The article raises a very legitimate point about the danger of educational games failing to engage students. I first read about it on Ian Bogost's "Water Cooler Games" site. Bogost responded to the Slate article in his post defending serious game that can teach. The Slate article is too dismissive about the potential of games. Bogost defense is supported by others around the Internet.

Discussion was picked up by John Rice at his blog "Educational Games Blog" and at Virtual Learning Worlds.com.
Gameology posted a lengthly reflection on this issue Sunday which analyzes the issue well.

Chad over at Library Voice also linked to this discussion in his post

I do not have a lot more to add to the issue that the others above haven't covered. My question is what does this mean for libraries seeking to use games? The concerns and fears brought up by Slate are ones that we need to be aware of, just as it is important to understand educational games from the viewpoint of those developing them.

If libraries try to use video games that simply are electronic versions of traditional library skills (call numbers, finding books) how engaging will those be for students? Libraries are using games in a variety of ways and it important for those considering it to ask this question.
There is the potential to use video games to teach information literacy outside what we would normally do.

What would make our students engage in a library video game?

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