Raising our Game – ideas for the next phase of Gaming @ the Georgia Tech Library

If you are a librarian with a blog then you have to mention gaming from time to time. This is my obligatory post. Here are a few upcoming projects -- a peek at what's on my drawing board.

POKER

Many librarians have expressed interest in our CeLIBration event. We're gearing up for this annual “welcome” event the weekend before the start of the Fall Semester. (Aug 18) This time around I am hosting a poker tournament (and we've still got ninja tag , speed dating , retro video games, board games, ddr , improv, and pizza.)

Poker, Round 1 begins at 8pm. 10 tables, each with up to 5 players. Participants are given 25 chips at the start. After 1 hour of play, the top chip-winners at each table will advance to the championship round starting at 10pm. Those 10 battle it out for a trophy and a fabulous prize.

I'll post a follow-up review of the event later this month, along with our advertising strategy.

HALO 3

Harry who? Halo is the gaming equivalent to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars for you old timers. People will camp out at Best Buy in order to purchase this game. Halo 2 sold over 7 million copies -- we're talking $125 million on opening day. Epic!

This is a great opportunity for all types of libraries (academic and public) to be a part of pop-culture, or at least geeky gamer culture. I am going to try and talk our admin and commons coordinator into letting me host a Halo 3 party on Tuesday , September 25 (the release day.)

We have an 80 inch screen with surround sound that would be awesome. We can dim the lights or illuminate that particular area, pull up couches and comfortable chairs and really offer a unique gaming experience. Something like this in our East Commons:

If it goes forward, I might put in some calls to Red Bull or Monster (coca cola), GameTap (Turner), and Microsoft (xbox) to see if I can get a few giveaways. Maybe start at 7pm and roll until whenever (we're 24 hours so…)

It's something you should think about too; I highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity... you could probably easily find an enthusiastic gamer (use your online social networking connections for more than chatting with other librarians) and invite them to bring their friends, xbox 360, and halo 3. You give them space and a big screen and maybe invest $100 in food or try to get it donated.

GAMING THE WALL (like gleaming the cube, dude!)

This idea developed today on the reference desk with Dottie Hunt – the last hour on the last day of the summer semester. We were talking about the “halo 3 experience” and she suggested that we project a game outside on the wall of the library. This conversation evolved to “gaming the wall” on a Saturday after a football game. We have thousands of people walk by the library in route to their cars—so why not offer a distraction? It would be cool to have an ncaa football video game projected on a huge wall, hooked up to speakers. Or maybe a battle royal type game? This could be a big payoff in terms of street cred.

We could do it Sept 29 (vs. Clemson) and develop that week into some type of gamer's heaven (remember Halo 3, Sept 25), but I like November 1 (Virginia Tech) better because it's a Thursday night game and it's Va Tech vs. Ga Tech -- outdoor gaming fits nicely into the “techie” stereotype. Plus it will be televised on ESPN. I would love to take on Herbstreit and he can even play with his gator bait team . Perhaps this is something we could tie in with Homecoming too… I'm sure we could get funding from someone somewhere? Obviously there is still a lot to be worked out, but I just like the idea of gaming on the wall.

For more info on gaming @ GT, check out Lori Critz's presentation . We don't mess around in our library:

Comments

I have found a couple of very interesting things, kudos on a great job. I just started my own and would appreciate any feedback or advice you may have. I had a pretty busy weekend so not a ton of new stuff, but still had a chance to add a couple of new cheats:

Thanks,
Sam
www.GameCheatsLive.net

Posted by: Sam | July 16, 2008 at 10:47 AM