Review: It's a Book by Lane Smith

I don't often read children's easies, that is large books with lots of pictures and very little words. This one was recommended to my be our Children's Librarian and after reading it I can see why.

Recommended for: Any current lover of technology or books, funny enough to be appealing to all ages.

Everyone in my workplace knows I'm a computer geek and that I hardly devote myself to the reading of books nowdays. "It's a Book" by Lane Smith explores this, with the two characters bantering about what a book can and can't do. Each question asking about the books capabilities is met with the simple phrase "It's a Book". At one point the technologically minded Jackass the donkey offers to shorten part of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island".

LJS: rrr! K? lol!
JIM: :( ! :)

This really made me giggle and at the same time wonder how long it will take before our beloved wireless reading format becomes obsolete.

© Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade

Then again, think of all the trees we'd be saving.

Craig Anderson "Where is the Library" Talk

10/8 08:45:42.245 Xanthippe has come online.
10/8 08:46:02.821 Franticread: and our speaker is now online which is great
10/8 08:46:12.821 Xanthippe: Gah! I'm here! Me voici!
10/8 08:46:30.335 Xanthippe: Sorry I'm so late, and ... in Stormwind. :(
10/8 08:46:31.120 Franticread: Hello Xanthippe
10/8 08:46:42.540 Villapapyri says: Quick test!
10/8 08:46:42.928 Miryl: lol, hiya
10/8 08:46:46.641 Villapapyri has gone offline.
10/8 08:46:47.469 Franticread: NP - you are not late still 15 minutes to go
10/8 08:47:04.112 Masquirade: 50DKP-
10/8 08:47:29.171 Xanthippe: I still don't know what a DKP is. Direct Kill Points??
10/8 08:47:46.484 Villapapyri: OK, it's working.
10/8 08:47:50.329 Villapapyri: We're all set.
10/8 08:47:58.596 Masquirade: tbh neither do I, i just know if you help kill more bosses you get more DKP
10/8 08:48:31.646 Franticread: we are all just early - about 10 more minutes
10/8 08:49:48.011 Franticread: Stefwyn sends her apologies - someone had to cover the phones at work :{
10/8 08:50:21.120 Xanthippe: just missed the tram....
10/8 08:50:47.631 Villapapyri: Alas!
10/8 08:50:59.049 Villapapyri: To both Stefwyn AND Xanthippe!
10/8 08:51:20.820 Villapapyri: I'm the same guy who plays Nairarbil, if anyone is wondering why there's a massive draenei man in the guild now.
10/8 08:51:41.266 Franticread: and not sure if Heimal can make it either - s/he was really going to try
10/8 08:51:58.256 Villapapyri: Man! That's going to be weird without Hiemal online.
10/8 08:52:03.133 Villapapyri: Hiemal's always here.
10/8 08:52:07.772 Masquirade: Hehe
10/8 08:52:54.973 Franticread: a big cheer for Merrily - it is 6.00am for her
10/8 08:53:04.087 Masquirade: today's log is going to take longer in the editing, at least until I can get open office installed
10/8 08:53:45.213 Franticread: last time the editing was amazingly fast - so a bit longer is not going to be a problem - it is great having two transcript done
10/8 08:53:45.609 Villapapyri: Yay! It's a Merrily!
10/8 08:54:00.844 Merrily: Thank you and goood morn zzzzzzzzzz ......
10/8 08:54:33.710 Masquirade: Know exactly how you feel *yawns*
10/8 08:55:13.240 Villapapyri offers Merrily coffee.
10/8 08:55:16.000 Xanthippe: Whew!
10/8 08:55:31.703 Villapapyri: Huh. Coffee. That's an excellent idea. I have five minutes, right?
10/8 08:55:40.843 Masquirade: Yes
10/8 08:55:42.228 Xanthippe: Do I have a few minutes?
10/8 08:55:44.367 Franticread: I think we give people 5 more minutes and then start
10/8 08:56:01.712 Franticread: so time to get a quick coffee
10/8 08:56:12.985 Merrily: Right - time for breakfast then :)
10/8 08:57:17.571 Pfeffa waves at Franticread.
10/8 08:57:24.935 Franticread says: Pfeffa - are you here for the talk?
10/8 08:57:42.041 Pfeffa says: yup!
10/8 08:57:48.934 Pfeffa has joined the guild.
10/8 08:58:08.083 Pfeffa: thanks!
10/8 08:58:15.179 %s has earned the achievement Represent!
10/8 08:58:15.179 %s has earned the achievement Represent!
10/8 08:58:23.224 Franticread: gratz
10/8 08:59:41.440 Miryl dances with Historian Karnik.
10/8 08:59:43.358 Pfeffa pets Mr. Chilly.
10/8 08:59:47.550 Franticread: is everyone back with their toons now?
10/8 09:00:07.320 Xanthippe: not me yet. [blush]
10/8 09:00:39.263 Masquirade: I'm still here
10/8 09:00:44.135 Xanthippe: Sorry I'm so late. I'm scarfing down dinner.
10/8 09:01:10.117 Franticread: Xan - no need to apologies - and we don't want the speaker choking - or anyone else
10/8 09:01:23.236 Franticread: Hello and welcome to this talk. My name is Ellen Forsyth and I work at the State Library of New South Wales…
10/8 09:01:33.099 Franticread: I would like to acknowledge all the traditional owners of the land.
10/8 09:01:58.194 Franticread: It is great to see all of you here today. - and it is amazing the lengths people have gone to - like logging on at 6.00am
10/8 09:02:05.570 Villapapyri applauds at Merrily. Bravo!
10/8 09:02:08.961 Franticread: Today is the second in the occasional talks series, lots of people have been looking at the transcript of the talk Shawn McCann gave a few weeks ago. Big thanks to Jackslack and Variel for this great resource.
10/8 09:02:22.736 Villapapyri blushes at Franticread.
10/8 09:02:26.496 Franticread: Craig Anderson is very active with virtual reference, libraries in Second Life and games. He has been leading the way for his university on I have been enjoying reading Craig’s blog, articles and tweets.
10/8 09:02:43.982 Franticread: In one of his blog posts he wrote “Getting a bunch of people to do something silly and immature in the name of gaming is kind of my forte. Making it LIBRARY-based only sweetens the deal. “ and make sure you read his recent post called “
10/8 09:02:51.000 Franticread: acting normal
10/8 09:03:13.408 Franticread: I am really looking forward to what he has to discuss with us today. - over to Criag - umm Xanthippe
10/8 09:03:21.896 Villapapyri cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 09:03:41.036 Miryl claps excitedly for Historian Karnik.
10/8 09:03:42.246 Pfeffa claps excitedly for Xanthippe.
10/8 09:03:43.504 Franticread claps excitedly for Xanthippe.
10/8 09:03:43.924 Villapapyri says: (It's a spotlight!)
10/8 09:03:48.308 Xanthippe: Okay, I'm back!!
10/8 09:04:17.216 Xanthippe: So sorry! wifey got home late, we had to eat a wonderful dinner in under 10 minutes. :D
10/8 09:04:26.823 Franticread: Great - we are ready to go - I think you might have missed my intro - sorry - I said nice things about you ;D
10/8 09:04:44.048 Xanthippe: Aww ... that's so sweet!
10/8 09:06:17.582 Xanthippe: Okay, so ... Hi! My name is Craig Anderson, and i'm one of the many helpful and enthusiastic librarians at Kean University in lovely lovely Union, NJ
10/8 09:06:38.455 Villapapyri listens intently to Xanthippe.
10/8 09:06:51.707 Xanthippe: (I'm working from a script, but I might go improv at any moment. :)
10/8 09:07:06.480 Pfeffa gasps at Xanthippe.
10/8 09:07:33.284 Xanthippe: This is my "toon", Xanthippe, and she is just one of the many ways I choose to represent myself in WoW
10/8 09:07:47.204 Pfeffa tells Mr. Chilly to be quiet. Shhh!
10/8 09:07:55.389 Villapapyri gently pats Mr. Chilly.
10/8 09:07:56.676 Maizon has joined the guild.
10/8 09:08:42.944 Xanthippe: I know that there are a lot of males in the online gaming community who insist that: "If I'm going to be looking at someone's backside all night, it'd better be a CUTE backside". But I have no such excuse.
10/8 09:09:06.079 Xanthippe: I'm just comfortable enough in my masculinity to admit that sometimes I like playing a girl.
10/8 09:09:38.631 Miryl flirts with Xanthippe.
10/8 09:09:55.488 Villapapyri raises his hand at Xanthippe
10/8 09:10:21.222 Xanthippe: So ... I'm going to speak to you all tonight about Gaming and Education. I have to admit, that I work in an Academic Libraryand we do not yet have any kind of "World of Warcraft program at my library.
10/8 09:10:49.227 Villapapyri withdraws his hand, please continue.
10/8 09:11:08.588 Xanthippe: We have been moderately involved in Second Life, but lately we've been getting out of that. I'll tell you all why later.
10/8 09:11:19.163 Xanthippe: [oops]
10/8 09:11:31.154 Xanthippe: But first, a little background ....
10/8 09:11:51.774 Xanthippe: Oooh, I'm sorry, Villa, was there a question?
10/8 09:12:03.448 Villapapyri: No no, please continue.
10/8 09:12:13.343 Xanthippe: I thought that was a fist pump or something. :)
10/8 09:12:30.926 Villapapyri fist pumps!
10/8 09:12:34.510 Villapapyri bursts into dance.
10/8 09:12:57.799 Xanthippe: Anyway, I got into gaming when I was 12 years old. This was before fully-fledged massively multiplayer online role-playing games, of course.
10/8 09:13:36.971 Xanthippe: For me, "gaming" consisted of getting together and playing Dungeons & Dragons on Saturday nights with my friends.
10/8 09:13:56.740 Xanthippe: Many of you here probably have similar stories.
10/8 09:14:21.285 Xanthippe: This tradition continued into my college years and beyond.
10/8 09:14:46.436 Xanthippe: These Saturday night gaming sessions, let's be honest, were pretty geeky.
10/8 09:14:56.020 Merrily nods at Xanthippe.
10/8 09:15:07.928 Villapapyri cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 09:15:17.393 Xanthippe: Most of my friends were not popular at school, we didn't quite fit in, and we were all just a little weird.
10/8 09:15:58.099 Xanthippe: Roleplaying was an escape for us, and it gave us a chance to fight dragons when we couldn't fight for ourselves.
10/8 09:16:16.390 Xanthippe: But there was something else that happened during our games ...
10/8 09:16:22.329 Xanthippe: We got SMART.
10/8 09:17:01.307 Xanthippe: Not that we were dumb going into D&D, but roleplaying games taught us many things that we never would have learned in school.
10/8 09:17:46.684 Xanthippe: At what age do most children learn the word "dexterity", and how to use it in a sentence? Age 15? 16?
10/8 09:17:54.494 Xanthippe: I learned it when I was 12.
10/8 09:19:05.731 Xanthippe: How many people know what a "trebuchet" is, and how it affected medieval combat? Well, I knew that it did a whole handful of dice more than an onager, or regular catapult, so i could have extrapolated from that.
10/8 09:19:30.409 Xanthippe: As geeks, we learned so many things before our peers.
10/8 09:20:36.363 Xanthippe: Battle of Agincourt? Check? The difference between a glaive-guisarme and a partisan? Check. What year did Richard the Lionheart embark on the 3rd crusade? Please, give me TOUGH one ... ;)
10/8 09:20:49.164 Villapapyri says: What year was it?
10/8 09:21:02.414 Xanthippe: So all of this learning I accumulated happened quite without my knowledge
10/8 09:21:11.199 Xanthippe: [1187]
10/8 09:22:05.882 Xanthippe: I wasn't TRYING to learn, I actually didn't even LIKE school. But damn it, I needed to understand Medieval architecture for my Greyhawk campaign!
10/8 09:23:23.457 Xanthippe: That is the way that gaming affects young minds. All of us geeks liked to think ourselves as SO superior to the "dumb jocks" in our school, but have you ever heard a group of jocks discuss the NCAA draft picks?
10/8 09:23:49.950 Miryl raises his hand in the air.
10/8 09:24:16.220 Xanthippe: They might not know who wrote the Canterbury tales, but you can bet that they know how many yards rushing Ahmad Bradshaw has had this year.
10/8 09:24:50.143 Xanthippe: They perform complex statistical analysis in their heads, and it's all because football is "gaming" to them.
10/8 09:25:13.083 Pfeffa agrees with Xanthippe.
10/8 09:25:18.596 Villapapyri nods at Xanthippe.
10/8 09:25:23.864 Xanthippe: This isn't their math homework, it's what they need to keep up in the Monday morning locker room conversation.
10/8 09:25:56.831 Xanthippe: Okay ... so ... how does this relate to online gaming?
10/8 09:26:26.670 Xanthippe: Well, the vocabulary words are all here, Dexterity, ...etc .
10/8 09:26:58.770 Xanthippe: But young gamers can learn simply by virtue of their immersion in the virtual world.
10/8 09:28:25.107 Xanthippe: Recent studies by Apperley (2010), Beavis and OMara (2010) suggest that a young person's interaction with a virtual environment stimulates their comprehension of intertextual and encoded information.
10/8 09:28:39.630 Xanthippe: Oh, and side note, are any of those people here tonight?
10/8 09:29:21.380 Xanthippe: These studies were posted in an Australian journal (citation will appear in the show notes) so I thought they might be. :D
10/8 09:29:22.984 Franticread: but I can try and invite them for another time :)
10/8 09:29:35.335 Xanthippe: That would be awesome. :)
10/8 09:30:43.346 Xanthippe: Gah!
10/8 09:30:49.366 Xanthippe: I got disconnected. :(
10/8 09:31:02.249 Xanthippe: [shakes fist]
10/8 09:31:17.083 You soothe Xanthippe. There, there...things will be ok.
10/8 09:31:17.877 Villapapyri: Curse you, DNS!
10/8 09:31:44.870 Xanthippe: Seriously.
10/8 09:31:59.983 Xanthippe: Where was I ....
10/8 09:32:18.354 You are no longer Away.
10/8 09:32:18.951 Masquirade: Inviting Beavis and Omara over.
10/8 09:32:56.186 Xanthippe: Right. Sorry.
10/8 09:34:41.197 Xanthippe: Gah!
10/8 09:34:52.325 Xanthippe: Is it because I'm not moving?
10/8 09:35:05.068 Franticread: well - if you want to dance as you talk...
10/8 09:35:13.367 Xanthippe: So .... Apperley!
10/8 09:35:22.658 Xanthippe bursts into dance.
10/8 09:35:36.966 You cheer at Xanthippe.
10/8 09:36:05.884 Miryl dances with Xanthippe.
10/8 09:36:27.782 Xanthippe: Apperley suggests that this type of learning also enhances the students' ability to think critically, and to analyze the context of a game for a more in-depth understanding of the narrative.
10/8 09:37:19.256 Xanthippe: But mmorpgs such as WoW can also lead to a deeper comprehension of of the player and his or her environment
10/8 09:38:24.442 Xanthippe: In a personal analysis of WoW immersion, Clare Bradford noticed that most players tend to conflate their characters with their own idenity
10/8 09:38:50.240 Xanthippe: they'll refer to their online toon as "I", or "me".
10/8 09:39:31.097 Xanthippe: Roleplaying games in particular allow a player to experience a narrative in the "second person".
10/8 09:39:42.715 Villapapyri puts his hand up for a question on that.
10/8 09:39:57.919 Xanthippe: The learning becomes more personal when the storytelling is adressed to "you".
10/8 09:40:03.432 Xanthippe: Yes, Villa! :D
10/8 09:40:26.695 Xanthippe points at Villapapyri.
10/8 09:40:28.268 Villapapyri: Did the study examine RP servers? It's been my experience that there, the more common tendency is to depersonalise from the character.
10/8 09:40:42.812 Xanthippe: Really?
10/8 09:40:44.298 Villapapyri: That is, 'Villapapyri hit 80!', not 'I hit 80!'
10/8 09:40:49.209 Villapapyri: That's been my experience, yeah.
10/8 09:40:50.075 Xanthippe: I don't think it did.
10/8 09:41:02.413 Xanthippe: That is interesting, and it makes a lot of sense.
10/8 09:41:59.502 Villapapyri: You're acting more than experiencing.
10/8 09:42:02.457 Xanthippe: The article is from the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(1) and is titled: "Looking for my Corpse".
10/8 09:42:22.389 Xanthippe: I'm going to go look that up as soon as I'm done here. :D
10/8 09:42:50.075 Pfeffa: hmm..that seems like the opposite of RPing. well, unless your char talks about themself in the 3td person. :)
10/8 09:42:53.457 Xanthippe: I never thought about that.
10/8 09:43:37.044 Xanthippe: Yeah, I could see a character referring to themselves in the 3rd person when describing actions, though.
10/8 09:43:44.392 Masquirade: I would also imagine it depends on the number of characters someone has.
10/8 09:43:58.013 Xanthippe ponders this idea.
10/8 09:44:00.926 Xanthippe: See?
10/8 09:44:41.762 Xanthippe: So we can see how online gaming leads to critical thinking and literacy. But what about social skills?
10/8 09:45:11.415 Masquirade snorts. "Gamers don't have social skills, I'm proof of that!"
10/8 09:45:18.744 Xanthippe: The sterotype is that the average game is a social misfit who lives in his parents basement and shuns human contact
10/8 09:45:29.696 Xanthippe laughs at you.
10/8 09:45:36.704 Merrily: gamers have to have social skills to get along in guilds/groups etc
10/8 09:45:45.847 Masquirade: *eyes off the checklist* Mm yes, check, check check.
10/8 09:45:58.917 Xanthippe: Exactly, Merrly.
10/8 09:46:18.996 Xanthippe: Especially in a guild, or running with a group.
10/8 09:46:25.676 Masquirade: From what I"ve seen most of them just pick the "misfits" most like them, and form a clique.
10/8 09:47:36.036 Miryl: like us?
10/8 09:47:49.655 Masquirade: Exactly.
10/8 09:47:50.056 Merrily: depends on where you are I suppose. My 60+ year old mum plays Warcraft and often enters ad hoc groups for quests etc.
10/8 09:48:12.158 Xanthippe: Eric Lessner, of the IBM Institute of Business Values, commented that [in games] "Leaders develop and operate in environments that are highly distributed, global, hypercompetitive, and virtual. Not unlike today's business world". (2008)
10/8 09:48:28.333 Xanthippe: That's true also.
10/8 09:48:54.560 Xanthippe: And believe me, I'm not denying that there are are a lot of miscreants out there.
10/8 09:49:44.223 Xanthippe: But playing nice with others online is what helps people communicate in the business world.
10/8 09:50:58.328 Xanthippe: I've always said, that you can be lazy at work, you can be lackadaisical at school, but if you ever DARE to slack off when your tank needs a heal or your DPS needs a rez, you're in REAL trouble.
10/8 09:51:33.954 Villapapyri says: (Damn DPS can wait for a rez. If they die it's their own fault.)
10/8 09:51:38.020 Villapapyri coughs politely.
10/8 09:51:49.142 You agree with Villapapyri.
10/8 09:51:50.827 Xanthippe: If you're the head of a guild, or even a raid group, you practically need the resource managment skills of a CEO.
10/8 09:52:25.796 Xanthippe: How do I do a "sticks his tongue out at Villapapyri" emote?
10/8 09:52:30.000 Masquirade: And goddess help you if you're an officer! Diplomatic and counsellor combined.
10/8 09:52:52.374 Xanthippe: Oh totally! Avoiding guild drama is a full time position.
10/8 09:53:10.011 Villapapyri agrees with you.
10/8 09:53:22.031 Xanthippe agrees with you.
10/8 09:53:50.469 Pfeffa makes a rude gesture at Mr. Chilly.
10/8 09:54:28.444 Xanthippe: There's one more name I want to drop, and that's Mark Chen (2009) who wrote a very interesting article about cooperation in WoW, where he suggests that even shared failures can bring a group closer together.
10/8 09:54:55.513 Xanthippe: Now, obstacles for educators who want to get involved in WoW
10/8 09:55:06.624 Miryl: with all these studies, has anyone seen any study where the type of toon or role you play in game says something about the person in real life?
10/8 09:55:37.494 Xanthippe: Yes and no. Nick Yee seems to be on the leading edge of that.
10/8 09:55:48.497 Masquirade: Sort of, there is a general consensus in the RP community that the first character you RP on will resemble you and your likes IRL.
10/8 09:56:12.660 Masquirade: Eg, my first is a mage, who is a historian, so family library.
10/8 09:56:15.511 Xanthippe: I'd have to go through some of his articles, but he's probably the go to guy on that kind of info.
10/8 09:56:35.779 Miryl: cheers
10/8 09:56:51.304 Villapapyri says: ... my first was a crazy undead baron with a penchant for mad bombing runs. What does that say, Masq?
10/8 09:57:07.766 Masquirade says: You like to blow things up/
10/8 09:57:19.419 Masquirade says: And honestly, who doesn't?
10/8 09:57:24.644 Xanthippe: I'll agree with that.
10/8 09:57:25.532 Villapapyri says: I do like blowing things up. Sorry, please continue, Xanthippe.
10/8 09:57:37.573 Xanthippe: No that's okay.
10/8 09:57:39.859 Xanthippe: :)
10/8 09:57:53.592 Xanthippe: I needed to collect my thoughts. :)
10/8 09:58:20.370 Xanthippe: So ... the problem is, that many people still see gaming as frivolous.
10/8 09:58:32.115 Xanthippe: It's still regarded as "kids stuff".
10/8 09:59:30.348 Xanthippe: Even though the average gamer is 25-30, and the number of subscribers to WoW just recently outnumbered the population of Greece.
10/8 09:59:48.528 Xanthippe: So ... there are more WoW players than ... Greeks.
10/8 09:59:53.181 Xanthippe waves at Aszhure.
10/8 10:00:30.299 Xanthippe: So how do we change this opinion? How do we get some respect for "gaming"?
10/8 10:00:57.740 Xanthippe: Any ideas?
10/8 10:01:16.321 Villapapyri: OK, I know this is weird but... first off, acknowledge their point.
10/8 10:01:32.142 Xanthippe: That's an excellent start.
10/8 10:01:32.941 Villapapyri: It _is_ frivolous to some degree. I mean, gaming is first and foremost, fun.
10/8 10:01:42.349 Xanthippe: Very true.
10/8 10:01:57.870 Merrily: so is strytime to those in pulic libraries who perform it :)
10/8 10:01:59.899 Pfeffa: yup. just like doing the sunday crossword, playing scrabble, fantasy football leagues.
10/8 10:02:06.804 Franticread: well, it may need generaltional change - and people talking about it
10/8 10:02:12.662 Villapapyri: But the best strategy beyond that? Prove it IS fun. More people playing: More social acceptability.
10/8 10:02:35.702 Xanthippe: I would personally love to have intermural gaming teams for WoW.
10/8 10:02:57.590 Franticread: but also that it does equate with things like reading etc - reading is always seen as good
10/8 10:02:58.917 Xanthippe: Have WoW events in the arenas between college teams.
10/8 10:02:59.289 Villapapyri: In the medium term, try to create more socially aware programs tied to gaming. Child's Play is an excellent start, and we need more of that.
10/8 10:02:59.917 Miryl: Maybe need to talk the corporate language to get the powers on side?
10/8 10:03:24.369 Xanthippe: These are all excellent ideas.
10/8 10:03:30.615 Villapapyri: (Child's Play is a charity associated with Gaming Webcomics giants Penny Arcade. It provides toys, games and money to children's hospitals at Christmas.)
10/8 10:04:18.941 Villapapyri: And my favorite suggestion, short term to medium term: STOP ACCEPTING JERKS.
10/8 10:04:43.659 Xanthippe: I was going to talk a little about Second Life as well, but I think I'm starting to run out of steam. But I would like to continue the discussion.
10/8 10:04:44.425 Villapapyri: Seriously. Nothing does more to damage the reputation of games than the way it shelters the immature and poorly socialised. OK, end rant. Sorry, that one gets to me.
10/8 10:05:04.441 Xanthippe: Me too!
10/8 10:05:22.732 Xanthippe: Is anyone here still involved with Second Life?
10/8 10:05:25.819 Franticread: some of the corporate language ideas being raise by the authors of Total engagement
10/8 10:05:42.043 Franticread: I have been to a couple of ALA talks in SL
10/8 10:05:45.098 Xanthippe: We used to be, but I have to admit, SL is losing it for me
10/8 10:05:56.105 Xanthippe: Me too.
10/8 10:06:09.381 Pfeffa: we have a building on Info Island, but we've lost interest I think.
10/8 10:06:23.363 Pfeffa: also, with prices for land doubling, i think we're done.
10/8 10:06:33.758 Xanthippe: I used to have a building on Cybrary. I haven't checked to see if it's still there
10/8 10:06:45.077 Xanthippe: And then there's that.
10/8 10:07:00.354 Xanthippe: I think SL just tried to be too many things to too many people. :(
10/8 10:07:32.566 Villapapyri: I also think simpler browser games moved into SL's space.
10/8 10:07:42.842 Xanthippe: Farmville, etc?
10/8 10:08:01.820 Xanthippe: Or even just Facebook in general?
10/8 10:08:10.984 Villapapyri: As well as Whirled, and such. Social experiences based around 3D virtual spaces. That's exactly what SL is.
10/8 10:08:22.257 Villapapyri: But they're way easier to set up.
10/8 10:08:24.930 Xanthippe: Are those still used?
10/8 10:08:36.437 Villapapyri: I have no idea. :)
10/8 10:08:38.723 Miryl: yes by sad people
10/8 10:08:40.283 Xanthippe: (I'm actually not familiar with Whirled)
10/8 10:09:20.539 Villapapyri: (Whirled is a browser MMO made by the same guys who made Puzzle Pirates.)
10/8 10:09:26.627 Pfeffa: some people may be moving from Sl to OpenSim, i've heard.
10/8 10:09:28.981 Villapapyri: (Puzzle Pirates is still doing very well, BTW.)
10/8 10:09:40.811 Masquirade: Ooh Puzzle Pirates :D
10/8 10:09:41.210 Xanthippe: And the last question I have is ... What's next? Does anyone see a "WoW-Killer" on the horizon?
10/8 10:09:57.262 Xanthippe: (also never played puzzle pirates)
10/8 10:10:22.115 Masquirade: No, everyone who says "insert name of MMO here" is going to kill WoW has been wrong.
10/8 10:10:28.291 Miryl: depends on how cataclysm is recieved, i think alot of people were dissapponted with WOTLK
10/8 10:10:40.227 Masquirade: My theory, the only thing that's going to kill WoW, IS WoW.
10/8 10:10:46.509 Villapapyri: Wow raised its number of players to 12 million during WotLK. Just sayin'.
10/8 10:10:57.659 Xanthippe: I like the sound of Cataaclysm. I like how it changes early-game content
10/8 10:11:15.113 Xanthippe: Yup. More than Greece. ;)
10/8 10:11:18.746 Masquirade: It's a nice change.
10/8 10:11:31.853 Masquirade: Plus you know, Werewolves, er I mean Worgen.
10/8 10:11:34.254 Pfeffa: i'm going to miss it tho. :( i'm too sentimental.
10/8 10:11:41.486 Masquirade: Cashing in on Twilight maybe?
10/8 10:12:00.705 Miryl: may have got more as a new release but i think lots of peopple lost interest once they got further in, a bit samesy really cataclysm looks better for the wider changes
10/8 10:12:13.024 Xanthippe: Well, that's all I have for you guys tonight. How long was I supposed to keep going? Did I use enough time?
10/8 10:12:28.621 Franticread: okay - any more questions for Xanthippe?
10/8 10:12:28.986 Masquirade: I think so.
10/8 10:12:36.918 Villapapyri: I do, I do!
10/8 10:12:38.750 Franticread: This was great - good amount of time
10/8 10:12:43.104 Xanthippe points at Villapapyri.
10/8 10:12:43.709 Villapapyri: A crucially important question, in fact.
10/8 10:12:55.010 Xanthippe: No, I'm not a hot chick in RL
10/8 10:13:10.249 Merrily laughs at Xanthippe.
10/8 10:13:11.379 Villapapyri: You say you played D&D as a 12 year old. So... Is it pronounced THAY-co, or THACK-co?
10/8 10:13:26.530 Villapapyri looks suspiciously at Xanthippe.
10/8 10:13:30.373 Miryl: How are we to apply these games practically?
10/8 10:13:46.436 Xanthippe: I always said "Thack-o". I never even knew it was a controversy until much later.
10/8 10:14:05.869 Villapapyri: You have a strong opinion either way. You're a true D&Der! :D
10/8 10:14:14.343 Villapapyri cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 10:14:15.653 Merrily: depends on age - us oldies say thack-o :)
10/8 10:14:23.533 Villapapyri: OK, I'll stop being silly now. :)
10/8 10:14:26.411 Masquirade: Sounds a bit like the trekkie/treker debate, only meaningful to fans.
10/8 10:14:30.845 Villapapyri: (And THAY-co for me.)
10/8 10:14:41.099 Xanthippe: I'd even be willing to say "Thu-HACK-Oh" just be obstinate
10/8 10:14:47.842 Franticread: so if that is it for questions...
10/8 10:14:59.929 Villapapyri: Wait up, I saw another one.
10/8 10:15:00.331 Franticread: Please join with me in thanking Craig/Xanthippe
10/8 10:15:09.997 Franticread: okay - one more question
10/8 10:15:12.377 You thank Xanthippe.
10/8 10:15:12.773 Miryl: yes i have one
10/8 10:15:13.175 Villapapyri: Miryl had a question.
10/8 10:15:34.917 Xanthippe: At this point, i keep waiting for an NPC to raise his/her hand
10/8 10:15:44.633 Xanthippe: Yes, Miryl!
10/8 10:15:48.839 Xanthippe points at Merrily.
10/8 10:15:54.195 Miryl: do you have any suggestions of how we apply these games in a practical sense
10/8 10:15:56.032 Xanthippe: oops
10/8 10:16:06.666 Xanthippe: Unfortunately no.
10/8 10:16:29.253 Xanthippe: You could always suggest to the powers that be that you run a "gaming night"
10/8 10:16:40.010 Xanthippe: But that didn't work too well for me.
10/8 10:16:52.274 Pfeffa: have you heard about the Wow in School program? for at risk kids?
10/8 10:16:57.015 Xanthippe: There is a lot of resistance to tat sort thing.
10/8 10:17:02.826 Xanthippe: Oooh, no.
10/8 10:17:08.954 Miryl: one thought i had was an intro, to wow for parents of players
10/8 10:17:09.740 Xanthippe: Pferra?
10/8 10:17:30.461 Miryl: the wow ib schools thing looked great
10/8 10:17:36.170 Pfeffa: http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/
10/8 10:17:40.680 Xanthippe: That might be good as well. Just a one-sheet with info for parents?
10/8 10:17:54.269 Xanthippe: I'll have to check that out! :)
10/8 10:18:05.502 Xanthippe: The WoWinSchools thing, I mean
10/8 10:18:05.903 Miryl: yeah, or one screen projected to show examples
10/8 10:18:14.868 Xanthippe: [nods]
10/8 10:18:22.321 Pfeffa: use the game, World of Warcraft, as a focal point for exploring Writing/Literacy, Mathematics, Digital Citizenship, Online Safety, and would have numerous projects/lessons intended to develop 21st-Century skills.
10/8 10:18:23.183 Franticread: as did the Arkansas Public lIbrary program
10/8 10:18:32.818 Xanthippe: W00!
10/8 10:18:39.144 Pfeffa: that's a quote from the page.
10/8 10:18:47.708 Xanthippe: That's awesome!
10/8 10:19:07.283 Franticread: but also be open to other games - such as LOTRO
10/8 10:19:15.106 Franticread: which is now free
10/8 10:19:16.227 Villapapyri: From an academic perspective, I'd LOVE to have a big display of student projects from a gaming development program. Set it up so that games rotate on the system (once one person finishes playing, it switches to the next game) and project it large.
10/8 10:19:22.668 Villapapyri: In a social/not too quiet area.
10/8 10:19:22.679 Xanthippe: So my homework is to check out WoWinSchools, and find out if RP servers were mentioned in that article by Bradshaw, got it!!
10/8 10:19:42.036 Xanthippe: ;D
10/8 10:19:53.274 Franticread: if you could add the information to the wiki that would be great
10/8 10:20:07.996 Pfeffa: also, Constance Steinkuehler does great research on MMos and literacy and sociology.
10/8 10:20:20.926 Xanthippe: Yes, I read some articles by her.
10/8 10:20:42.225 Xanthippe: Is there going to be a chat transcript of this available somewhere?
10/8 10:20:53.749 Franticread: yes - it will be on the games and libraries wiki
10/8 10:20:57.606 Xanthippe: I'd love to know exactly what I said. :)
10/8 10:21:02.660 Xanthippe: Awesome.
10/8 10:21:09.733 Franticread: It was a really interesting talk and discussion and I will be following up on the papers suggestedPlease join with me in thanking Craig/Xanthippe
10/8 10:21:17.153 Villapapyri cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 10:21:24.174 Xanthippe bows before Miryl.
10/8 10:21:26.412 Villapapyri applauds at Xanthippe. Bravo!
10/8 10:21:26.412 Franticread cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 10:21:26.782 You cheer at Xanthippe.
10/8 10:21:27.181 Miryl thanks Xanthippe.
10/8 10:21:30.000 Pfeffa claps excitedly for Xanthippe.
10/8 10:21:33.593 Xanthippe bows down graciously.
10/8 10:21:33.593 Pfeffa cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 10:21:35.041 Franticread: The next speaker will be Justin Hoenke who is one of the founding bloggers on 8bitlibrary.com – check the wiki for local times.
10/8 10:21:35.794 Merrily cheers at Xanthippe!
10/8 10:21:51.142 Franticread: Please join the wiki to continue the discussion.Jackslack and Variel will be making transcripts of today available – big thanks to them.See you at the next talk – and thanks so much for coming along today.
10/8 10:22:00.791 Villapapyri: OK, I'm going to hop off and get that transcript going now. Bye all!
10/8 10:22:02.744 Villapapyri has gone offline.
10/8 10:22:03.157 Xanthippe cheers!
10/8 10:22:09.916 Xanthippe: Thank you all!
10/8 10:22:11.650 Franticread: and please keep suggesting future speakers
10/8 10:22:19.676 Xanthippe: You've made me feel very welcome.
10/8 10:22:27.760 Franticread: thanks so much Xan - that was really great
10/8 10:22:48.008 Franticread: see you all at the next talk
10/8 10:22:58.255 Pfeffa thanks Franticread.
10/8 10:23:00.659 Xanthippe: Okay. I think I'm going to go before I draw spousal aggro. ;)
10/8 10:23:01.995 Masquirade: Hmm, Frantic maybe we should try to get some speakers with a gaming perspective but no library background. Other side of the fence and all that.
10/8 10:23:11.263 You wave at Xanthippe.
10/8 10:23:20.919 Xanthippe: Right! Like the articles I cited.
10/8 10:23:27.316 Miryl: try getting the wow in schools person(s)
10/8 10:23:32.948 Xanthippe waves at you.
10/8 10:23:34.326 Franticread: good idea - I will be following up from the artciles
10/8 10:23:45.243 Masquirade: We have previously I think Miryl.
10/8 10:23:52.956 Xanthippe: I'll send a list of articles to Frantic.
10/8 10:23:53.878 Franticread: actually we have already had the wow in schools person - Peggy spoke at the seminar
10/8 10:23:55.479 Miryl: lol oops
10/8 10:24:09.488 Franticread: np - there may be other speakers from that prject
10/8 10:24:21.578 Miryl: yeah i remeber now lol
10/8 10:24:26.424 Xanthippe: All right, good night, peeps!
10/8 10:24:33.895 Xanthippe waves.
10/8 10:24:36.804 Pfeffa waves at Xanthippe.
10/8 10:24:42.902 Merrily waves at Xanthippe.
10/8 10:24:44.207 Franticread: see you
10/8 10:24:48.937 Miryl: bye
10/8 10:24:51.606 Xanthippe: Bye.
10/8 10:24:54.152 Miryl waves goodbye to Xanthippe. Farewell!
10/8 10:24:54.552 Franticread has gone offline.
10/8 10:24:59.586 Xanthippe has gone offline.
10/8 10:25:06.576 Merrily: Bye all - catch you at the next talk ....
10/8 10:25:10.009 Merrily has gone offline.
10/8 10:25:14.308 Miryl: seeya

Final Fantasy XIV

After a day and a half of struggling to get in to play my Collector's Edition copy of FF14 I've finally managed to get online and play. Please read the whole review it gets better at the end!

Issues with getting online:

• 14 hours to only manage half of a 400mb patch, did some reading and found that you can download patches using uTorrent. Downloaded entire 400mb patch in 40 minutes.
• Signing up for a paypal lookalike to authorise credit card payments, I understand they want some assurances for payments but this is a bit silly.
• Actually subscribing to the game and activating one character slot, this had me stumped for another 30mins or so and of course I didn't think to check the manual.

Issues once online:

• Not very intuitive for an MMO. Being an FF MMO so I should have expected some of the things that happened. Like being thrown in the deep end with a battle right at the start complete with awesome looking cutscenes.
• Finding the keyboard and mouse setup to be somewhat counter-intuitive I setup my xBox controller for Windows.
• Having no idea about crafting, ditto how the monster indicators work. System goes in terms of easiness from Blue > Green > Yellow > Orange > Red and heaven help you if you find a red that doesn't like your clothing. Being one-shot by some goober spitting faux snake lizard dragon thing does nothing for your ego.

Also don't poke the DoDos!

Overall evaluation so far:
LOVING IT! Sure it was frustrating to begin with and I spent a lot of time chasing circles around myself to work out how to get it all going. But now... oh boy, I've found a linkshell with some great people who will hopefully let me stay on a permanent basis. We've been chatting about this that and the other, and trying to work out why an armor upgrade that doubles defence manages to cover 1/3rd of the amount of skin as before. Worked on Fighting Levequests and Crafting Levequests and been having a blast doing it all.

So overall? You might have trouble to begin with, check the guides that are out there, or the manual that comes with your game, and if you are a Final Fantasy fan you should enjoy this MMO.

Shawn McCann "Where is the Library" Seminar

9/10 08:55:51.917 Franticread: Hi Masquirade
9/10 08:55:52.356 Hiemal: Hello Masq
9/10 08:55:59.816 Masquirade: Greetings!
9/10 08:56:32.188 Franticread: Sounds good Heimal
9/10 08:56:32.390 Stefwynn: is it rude to ask why Sockmongers minion seems to be on fire?
9/10 08:56:45.796 Hiemal: felfire... comes with the costume, eh?
9/10 08:56:49.853 Masquirade: Probably annoyed him on a bad day.
9/10 08:57:00.121 Sockmonger: :)
9/10 08:57:10.316 Sockmonger scolds Volfip.
9/10 08:57:26.785 Franticread: well handy when you want toast - not that there seems to be much call for toast of mashmallows in WoW
9/10 08:57:27.886 Masquirade: I come with all sorts of chat recording tools
9/10 08:57:46.381 Franticread: great - thanks -
9/10 08:58:05.588 Stefwynn: That's good - I come with a page to tell me how to move my toon - still getting the hang of WoW!
9/10 08:58:36.573 Franticread: I am still learning lots too -
9/10 08:58:45.305 Franticread: Hellow Catalogue - great to see you
9/10 08:58:47.859 Catalogue: good morning
9/10 08:58:49.011 Masquirade: *laughs* When in doubt ask, we have a couple of veteran players here.
9/10 08:58:50.630 Stefwynn: Hi Catalogue
9/10 08:58:53.835 Hiemal: imo the game demands you keep learning, no matter how long you play
9/10 08:59:03.502 Hiemal: hi there Catalogue
9/10 08:59:14.004 Masquirade: *groans* But I don't want to learn how to tank the floor better.
9/10 08:59:14.588 Franticread: okay - how about we start
9/10 08:59:16.042 Sockmonger: how many people are long time players? I've been playing since Nov. 2004
9/10 08:59:26.077 Franticread: Welcome. My name is Ellen Forsyth, I work at the State Library of NSW. ...
9/10 08:59:27.645 Catalogue: sorry i was late ...just finishing dailies
9/10 08:59:29.749 Masquirade: 1st week jan 05
9/10 08:59:32.703 Hiemal: Sept 2005
9/10 08:59:37.113 Warriorwolf: I only started for the last chat. I now know why they call it crack online i now play everyday
9/10 08:59:47.646 Hiemal: roflmao!
9/10 08:59:51.813 Nairarbil has come online.
9/10 08:59:54.757 Sockmonger: lol
9/10 08:59:56.628 Librarylady: playing since 2006
9/10 08:59:59.750 Nairarbil: Hallo.
9/10 09:00:02.706 Franticread: lol Wolf
9/10 09:00:05.394 Masquirade: *grins* yes indeed!
9/10 09:00:09.166 Franticread: Hello Nair
9/10 09:00:09.451 Hiemal: hi there Naira
9/10 09:00:12.090 Franticread: In June some of the people here today were part of a seminar on games and libraries which was held in World of Warcraft.
9/10 09:00:20.470 Warriorwolf: i now many different toons
9/10 09:00:20.670 Catalogue: oct 2005
9/10 09:00:26.082 Franticread: Feedback from the session was that people wanted more information in this format. The talk today is the first in an occasional series to do this.
9/10 09:00:42.167 Nairarbil: I first read that sentence from Franticread as about gnomes and libraries, a statement which would have been far more awesome.
9/10 09:00:44.418 Franticread: Hmm - some really hard core players here - great to see
9/10 09:01:00.055 Franticread: it would have been Nai
9/10 09:01:08.136 Masquirade: Long time players, hard core? Maybe not so much.
9/10 09:01:09.257 Franticread: Feedback from the session was that people wanted more information in this format. The talk today is the first in an occasional series to do this.
9/10 09:01:17.163 Stefwynn: Gnomes and libraries sounds like a good title for an article about this though?
9/10 09:01:19.041 Franticread: When you have questions, please whisper to me, and I will queue the questions, this is an experiment to make the question process easier for the speaker
9/10 09:01:37.722 Hiemal: long time yes... only been raiding endgame a year and a half, since Wrath
9/10 09:01:42.588 Nairarbil has come online.
9/10 09:01:46.506 Franticread: Shawn McCann or Sockmonger, Digital Projects Librarian at Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan, will talk about his experiences in using games in university libraries.
9/10 09:02:00.897 Franticread: I first heard about Shaen’s work in 2007 when Shawn McCann he joined McMaster University Libraries as the immersive learning (gaming) librarian.
9/10 09:02:12.751 Franticread: This position received a lot of coverage as is was one of the roles introduced by Jeffrey G Trzeciak, the University Library at McMaster University in Canada.
9/10 09:02:24.803 Franticread: I am really looking forward to hearing from Shawn today.
9/10 09:02:28.970 You are listening!
9/10 09:02:42.453 Franticread: The talk will last for about 30 minutes, with time for questions and discussion at the end. Now it is time to hand over the Shawn…..please make him welcome.
9/10 09:02:51.539 Hiemal cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:02:52.740 Franticread cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:02:53.931 Stefwynn is listening!
9/10 09:02:54.590 Catalogue cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:02:56.641 Sockmonger: Hello everyone
9/10 09:02:58.198 Catalogue claps excitedly for Sockmonger.
9/10 09:03:01.626 Stefwynn claps excitedly.
9/10 09:03:02.560 Sockmonger welcomes everyone.
9/10 09:03:02.791 Hiemal listens intently to Sockmonger.
9/10 09:03:08.093 Catalogue greets Sockmonger with a hearty hello!
9/10 09:03:19.023 Sockmonger: so, until july of this year I was the gaming librarian at mcmaster
9/10 09:03:41.416 Sockmonger: but, I got engaged and my fiance lived in Detroit, so I decided to move back to the US
9/10 09:03:57.235 Sockmonger: I'm now the digital projects librarian at wayne state
9/10 09:04:22.193 Sockmonger: Anyway, ast the gaming librarian I was charged with investigating how engaging technologies like video games, simulations, and virtual worlds are being used in higher education (in addition to duties like reference, collection development, liaison)
9/10 09:04:43.375 Sockmonger: When I started at McMaster the library was already involved in Second Life. We used Second Life to pilot some library services in virtual worlds with our focus being on reference. We did this pilot from a building we had on some space on Info Island.
9/10 09:05:17.192 Sockmonger: I'm just cutting and pasting, so let me know if I go too fast ;)
9/10 09:05:28.934 Sockmonger: We held regular reference hours in Second Life for about 1 year. The project was somewhat successful in that we did answer around 200 questions during the pilot.
9/10 09:05:49.320 Catalogue: cool
9/10 09:06:05.393 Stefwynn: is it still active?
9/10 09:06:34.303 Sockmonger: no, we stopped the pilot after a year
9/10 09:06:46.791 Sockmonger: Most questions were related to second life though and not really the type of reference questions we would get at a physical desk.
9/10 09:07:05.126 Sockmonger: In addition, we didn't survey our patrons to see if they were actually McMaster students or faculty and my belief is that most of our traffic was from people with no affiliation to the university.
9/10 09:07:38.214 Sockmonger: Despite this, the reference pilot did give us some experience in second life and we wanted to explore it further. We purchased our own island, "Steel City Island", and worked to create our own presence in Second Life.
9/10 09:08:38.710 Stefwynn: Did you have info lit type lessons on Second Life for students and faculty?
9/10 09:09:20.675 Sockmonger: The questions in SL tended to be SL related. A lot of directional type questions. I found it hard to answer more detailed reference type questions in SL without suggesting a web site to go to
9/10 09:09:44.260 Sockmonger: we didn't do instruction in SL, I'll touch on that in a moment
9/10 09:09:58.926 Sockmonger: We worked with a grad student and he built all the structures on our island. We created space to do reference, to house exhibits of our digital collections, to do presentations, to meet in small or large groups.
9/10 09:10:23.613 Sockmonger: Having this space in SL led to some colaboration with faculty in the multimedia department. I worked with one professor to develop an SL related assignment for his course in digital games.
9/10 09:10:46.081 Sockmonger: The assignment conisted of the students choosing a video game character and writing a biography for that character. The students then went into SL and created a 3D model of that character.
9/10 09:11:10.582 Sockmonger: I took all of their models and arranged them in some exhibit space on our island. We refered to the space as a "Sculpture Garden".
9/10 09:11:18.961 Hiemal: that is very cool
9/10 09:11:50.896 Sockmonger: it really was. the students did a great job. Since they were multimedia students they all had 3D design experience
9/10 09:12:04.481 Sockmonger: and their models looked great
9/10 09:12:48.615 Sockmonger: some of them got really creative. One person created a portal from the game "Portal" and when you interacted with it, it teleported you to a room where the "companion cube" was waiting
9/10 09:12:55.810 Sockmonger: anyone here every play portal?
9/10 09:13:00.950 You giggle.
9/10 09:13:04.913 Nairarbil: I did, and it was a triumph.
9/10 09:13:08.736 Masquirade: For the people who are still alive!
9/10 09:13:09.281 Hiemal raises his hand in the air.
9/10 09:13:13.962 Sockmonger: anyway, Visitors to the space could browse through the models and even download the biographies the students had written about the various characters.
9/10 09:13:14.339 Hiemal nods.
9/10 09:13:21.007 Sockmonger: the cake is a lie
9/10 09:13:26.744 You agree with Sockmonger.
9/10 09:13:34.775 Hiemal nods.
9/10 09:13:42.702 Sockmonger: That was probably the pinnacle of our SL experiences though. We had done some other projects like modeling learning spaces on our island, but I don't think any were as successful as the sculpture garden.
9/10 09:14:38.688 Sockmonger: we even had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the garden. faculty from the humanities were invited and student took them on tours of the space
9/10 09:15:00.959 Sockmonger: I'll be honest though, I didn't enjoy working in SL. I found it to be clunky and unreliable. I was further disinterested in it when I found we really couldn't leverage it to our advantage at McMaster.
9/10 09:15:28.966 Sockmonger: I feel something like SL is a good tool for distance education, but we just weren't doing distance ed at McMaster.
9/10 09:15:53.790 Sockmonger: Ok, changing directions away from SL now.
9/10 09:16:08.147 Sockmonger: During my time as gaming librarian I even took a stab at creating a library related game. Enlisting the help of a multimedia student I wanted to make an online, flash-based game to raise awarness of issues related to scholarly publishing.
9/10 09:16:34.646 Sockmonger: The game is called "The Cost is Wrong" and it plays like the gameshow "The Price is Right". Instead of bidding on fabulous prizes though you bid on fabulous journal subscriptions!
9/10 09:16:37.496 Sockmonger cackles maniacally at the situation.
9/10 09:16:53.921 Hiemal lets out a hearty chuckle.
9/10 09:16:59.648 Franticread: laughs
9/10 09:17:02.211 Nairarbil looks at Sockmonger and covers his face with his palm.
9/10 09:17:05.288 Sockmonger: The bidding is designed to let players (target audience is students) know about the high cost of journal subscriptions for libraries.
9/10 09:17:11.504 Franticread laughs at Sockmonger.
9/10 09:17:21.480 Merrily: Did it work?
9/10 09:17:27.116 Librarylady nods at Sockmonger.
9/10 09:17:31.312 Sockmonger: Between bidding phases, players take part in mini-games that are also based on price is right games but use journal subscription costs in place of other "prices".
9/10 09:17:36.309 Catalogue nods at Sockmonger.
9/10 09:17:42.032 Hiemal listens intently to Sockmonger.
9/10 09:17:58.221 Stefwynn: Was the game popular?
9/10 09:17:59.179 Sockmonger: Well, we were going to pilot the game during open access week this year, but I'm no longer at mcmaster, so I'm not sure what they're going to do
9/10 09:18:27.313 Sockmonger: Only a few students and librarians have played it as beta testers
9/10 09:18:40.062 Hiemal: no old colleague will send you update? That's a shame
9/10 09:18:50.935 Sockmonger: The game ends with the "Bookshelf Blowout" where players have to choose a bunch of items that they think add up to the cost of a particularly expensive journal.
9/10 09:19:08.610 Sockmonger: For example the journal brain research costs around $32,000 US for a yearly subscription. Players can grab prizes like a car, a tv, a vacation, a computer, etc... that they think would have costs totaling the cost of a subscription for brain research
9/10 09:19:35.906 Sockmonger: (I hope that makes sense. It's easier to see then for me to describe)
9/10 09:19:36.105 Stefwynn: Game might be useful for library educators to use with their students?
9/10 09:19:56.389 Franticread: sounds really useful
9/10 09:20:07.054 Hiemal: sounds eye-opening
9/10 09:20:10.252 Merrily: was there any learning tool in this, or was it only used to hammer home costings?
9/10 09:20:11.729 Sockmonger: It looks nice too for a library game
9/10 09:20:19.627 Sockmonger giggles.
9/10 09:20:27.653 Nairarbil apologises to Stefwynn ; 'Excuse me, just taking a picture.'
9/10 09:20:50.051 Sockmonger: between earch bidding round there were little educational blurbs about scholarly publishing and open access
9/10 09:20:53.209 Hiemal squints suspiciously at Nairabil.
9/10 09:21:12.493 Sockmonger: kind of "DId you know..." type blurbs
9/10 09:21:28.712 Sockmonger: The last major game related project I worked on at McMaster was the development of a New Media Centre that included a gaming room referred to as the "Multimedia Theatre".
9/10 09:21:36.524 Merrily: Ah THERE'S the educational aspect I was looking for :)
9/10 09:21:48.284 Sockmonger: The gaming room has 4 sections: 1 PC gaming area with 3 PCs, 1 Larger section with comfortable seating for 4-6 people, 2 smaller areas with seating for 2-3 people.
9/10 09:22:08.553 Sockmonger: The 3 non-PC gaming areas with all have large LCD TVs with Xbox360s, Wiis, PS3s and we are hoping to add more "vintage" gaming consoles in the future.
9/10 09:22:35.848 Hiemal: no ultra-vintage tabletop?
9/10 09:22:39.827 Sockmonger: To go along with the gaming room they're building a game collection that is mostly focused on the current generation of consoles.
9/10 09:22:46.693 Sockmonger: nope, no tabletop :)
9/10 09:22:49.422 Sockmonger: :(
9/10 09:22:53.349 Hiemal: :(
9/10 09:23:00.742 Sockmonger: the space just opened this week
9/10 09:23:05.179 Hiemal: ahh
9/10 09:23:13.999 Merrily: Why no tabletop?
9/10 09:23:17.602 Sockmonger: and already they have 16 faculty members that want to teach in the space and use the tech there
9/10 09:23:27.302 Hiemal: score!
9/10 09:23:30.771 Stefwynn: cool
9/10 09:23:39.510 Franticread: so it really is meeting a need
9/10 09:23:49.366 Merrily: That's fantastic!
9/10 09:23:54.182 Sockmonger: the space was really designed around the needs of faculty in the multimedia and software eng. depts. and they don't do anything with tabletop games
9/10 09:24:09.370 Merrily: makes sense - thanks.
9/10 09:24:12.670 Hiemal: that makes a kind of sense, then
9/10 09:24:26.363 Hiemal: electronics first, games second
9/10 09:24:49.536 Sockmonger: the space isn't just for gaming. it is also to provide students with a place to work on multimedia projects like movies, or podcasts.
9/10 09:25:06.090 Catalogue is listening!
9/10 09:25:06.485 Hiemal agrees with Sockmonger.
9/10 09:25:11.041 Sockmonger: previous the space opening there wasn't a place on campus for students to do that kind of work.
9/10 09:25:23.628 Sockmonger: unless they were in the multimedia program which has its own lab
9/10 09:25:52.500 Stefwynn: Do you think public libraries should also have multi media labs for communities to use?
9/10 09:25:54.374 Hiemal: definitely 21st C skills
9/10 09:26:04.599 Sockmonger: but, they're going to use the space for programming like game nights
9/10 09:26:16.167 Sockmonger: i do think public libraries should offer that kind of space
9/10 09:26:44.551 Sockmonger: I think multimedia editing isn't as scary as it once was
9/10 09:27:04.947 Nairarbil loves iMovie.
9/10 09:27:09.026 Sockmonger: and you don't need a really robust system to work on movies/sound anymore
9/10 09:27:16.433 Sockmonger loves iMovie too
9/10 09:27:18.994 Hiemal: Phoenix Public is developing a Digital Space for that purpose, I believe
9/10 09:27:36.993 Sockmonger: heck, i just saw a web site called Jaycut that allows you to do basic movie editing online
9/10 09:28:08.948 Sockmonger: Anyway, that's a quick rundown of some of the projects I've been involved in as the gaming librarian.
9/10 09:28:23.689 Hiemal: awesome stuff
9/10 09:28:30.244 Sockmonger bursts into dance.
9/10 09:28:37.740 Hiemal cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:28:40.946 Hiemal claps excitedly for Sockmonger.
9/10 09:28:44.308 Sockmonger: questions?
9/10 09:28:46.439 Warriorwolf applauds. Bravo!
9/10 09:28:53.000 Stefwynn cheers!
9/10 09:28:55.121 Merrily cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:28:58.643 Nairarbil has a question!
9/10 09:28:59.111 Warriorwolf congratulates Sockmonger.
9/10 09:29:23.424 Nairarbil: When you created your Price is Right style game, what was your budget? What resources are available for such things?
9/10 09:29:57.076 Sockmonger: I was lucky enough to get an intern for the summer to help work on it. otherwise it was just my time.
9/10 09:29:57.078 Nairarbil points at Sockmonger.
9/10 09:30:19.728 Nairarbil: How did you source graphics and sound?
9/10 09:30:20.328 Stefwynn: Do you think someone will build a 'game engine' for libraries to make their own games (eg. info lit or local studies or library tour)?
9/10 09:30:21.646 Franticread: and how much of your time was it?
9/10 09:30:38.220 Nairarbil gently pats Snowshoe Rabbit.
9/10 09:30:40.936 Sockmonger: the student I had was from multimedia and he did the graphics and sound from scratch
9/10 09:31:10.713 Sockmonger: you could build info lit games right now, utilizing the mod tools that come with various games
9/10 09:31:23.732 Hiemal agrees with Sockmonger.
9/10 09:31:32.615 Sockmonger: I know a group at Calgary was developing an info lit game utilizing the Half Life engine
9/10 09:31:57.740 Nairarbil: Wow. I'd love to see that.
9/10 09:32:08.186 Sockmonger: As for my time spent on the game...maybe 20% of my time for the year
9/10 09:32:21.091 Hiemal: nice!
9/10 09:32:31.084 Sockmonger: They call the half life mod "Benevolent Blue" I'm not sure they released it yet
9/10 09:33:45.447 Nairarbil: Thanks for that answer.
9/10 09:33:49.213 Nairarbil thanks Sockmonger.
9/10 09:33:54.263 Sockmonger: Modding has been becoming easier an easier too, it's just a matter of time
9/10 09:34:46.084 Sockmonger: any other question?
9/10 09:34:57.499 Sockmonger tickles Core Hound Pup. Hee hee!
9/10 09:35:00.695 Stefwynn: If libraries are building their own games should they expect them to have a 'use by' date?
9/10 09:35:13.259 Nairarbil nods at Stefwynn.
9/10 09:35:14.016 Merrily: So what's your next big project?
9/10 09:35:28.843 Sockmonger: Hmm Stef, good question
9/10 09:35:40.228 Sockmonger: not sure that I have an answer.
9/10 09:36:02.729 Hiemal imagines getting married looms large on the agenda, if you moved to be with your fianceé
9/10 09:36:25.610 Sockmonger: as for my next project, well I'm not doing anything game related. The digital projects I work on at Wayne State are large image collections
9/10 09:36:26.861 Hiemal: (wrong accent *sigh*)
9/10 09:37:32.528 Franticread: large image collections have some great game potential as well
9/10 09:37:36.303 Sockmonger: yes, getting married is the next big project
9/10 09:37:46.606 Franticread: any other questions for Shawn/Sock?
9/10 09:37:58.536 Sockmonger: we're actually getting married on halloween and the two of us are dressing as zombies
9/10 09:38:03.958 Nairarbil cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:38:06.516 Stefwynn: Classic!
9/10 09:38:08.604 Merrily: What would you like to see other places doing with gaming? ie your local public library?
9/10 09:38:13.689 You congratulate Sockmonger on a new level. DING!
9/10 09:38:15.082 Librarylady: cool
9/10 09:38:15.681 Franticread: that is so cool
9/10 09:38:23.940 Hiemal cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:38:27.770 Sockmonger: I love to see libraries using gaming for outreach
9/10 09:38:28.404 Hiemal: that rocks
9/10 09:38:28.765 Nairarbil has another question after this one.
9/10 09:38:45.481 Sockmonger: game nights, circulating game collections...
9/10 09:39:01.041 Sockmonger: good way to get teens into the libraries I imagine
9/10 09:40:11.708 Sockmonger: anything else?
9/10 09:40:19.023 Nairarbil: Hypothetical: Let's say you were given an, I don't know, 10,000 dollar budget.
9/10 09:40:22.765 Catalogue looks at Nairarbil.
9/10 09:40:42.284 Nairarbil: Told to make an online gaming product for the library. What goals would you try to achieve, and loosely, what gaming elements would you try to use?
9/10 09:41:02.962 Nairarbil: 10k not including staffing, that's pure resources.
9/10 09:41:23.221 Merrily: that's not a bad project Nair!
9/10 09:41:35.695 Nairarbil: Really, I'm just saying: Imagine you could make a big budget, gaming related university library project. What would you do?
9/10 09:41:39.285 Nairarbil: That's a better formulation.
9/10 09:41:42.832 Nairarbil blathers.
9/10 09:41:53.259 Hiemal smiles at Nairarbil.
9/10 09:42:39.748 Sockmonger: I would focus on info lit, specifically evaluation of information. I would try to base a lot of it on inquiry and I think I would approach it like an old school adventure game
9/10 09:42:50.428 Stefwynn: Does 'game thinking' influence the way you approach other aspects of library work?
9/10 09:43:15.389 Nairarbil: The Monkey Island of Info Lit? Nice.
9/10 09:43:39.382 Sockmonger: I don't know if game thinking changes the way I approach things, but I definitely always think about how I can make our libary more engaging
9/10 09:43:47.212 Sockmonger: especially instruction
9/10 09:44:14.315 Sockmonger: i've gone so far as to turn my instruction session into games of Jeopardy
9/10 09:44:23.736 Stefwynn: Fun!
9/10 09:44:25.613 Sockmonger: whene the student play along with their "clickers"
9/10 09:44:29.481 Nairarbil says: I'll take boolean searching for 400, Alex.
9/10 09:44:37.431 Sockmonger: classroom response systesm
9/10 09:45:09.587 Merrily: You've talked about info lit for students. What would you change regarding info lit for the academics? If anything ... or are they too "serious" for that?
9/10 09:45:16.416 Nairarbil: (I don't think clickers have taken off in Australia yet.)
9/10 09:45:31.125 Hiemal: (even for dog-training?)
9/10 09:46:21.602 Sockmonger: RIght now I'd say our focus for Academics it to get them to buy into our institutional reposiitory system, but I haven't thought about how we could accomplish that through gaming
9/10 09:46:52.236 Franticread: ewll - there could be a ranking system - for mix of quality and quantity?
9/10 09:47:04.251 Merrily: If not gaming specifically, but just in inovative non-traditional methods ....
9/10 09:47:10.196 Sockmonger: well, they sure do like to compete....
9/10 09:47:24.844 Franticread: there is an ocr project here with newpapers where the people asked for ranking so they could see who had done the most corrections
9/10 09:47:46.243 Franticread: so if you can do it with newspapers - some academics may respond - who knows
9/10 09:48:06.027 Catalogue has worked on the newspapers
9/10 09:48:47.607 Franticread: so any more questions ?
9/10 09:49:26.476 Franticread: so...if not...
9/10 09:49:35.792 Librarylady thanks Sockmonger.
9/10 09:49:40.656 Catalogue thanks everyone.
9/10 09:49:41.317 Sockmonger thanks everyone.
9/10 09:49:42.535 Merrily thanks Sockmonger.
9/10 09:49:53.157 Sockmonger: I had a lot of fun. thanks for inviting me
9/10 09:49:54.366 Nairarbil cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:49:55.404 Franticread: Please join with me in thanking Shawn McCann - it was great ot hear about all that has been happening
9/10 09:49:57.404 Hiemal thanks Sockmonger.
9/10 09:49:58.783 Franticread cheers!
9/10 09:50:02.400 Librarylady thanks Franticread.
9/10 09:50:02.400 Merrily cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:50:02.800 Franticread claps excitedly.
9/10 09:50:02.800 Nairarbil applauds at Sockmonger. Bravo!
9/10 09:50:02.800 Hiemal cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:50:04.520 Catalogue claps excitedly for Sockmonger.
9/10 09:50:05.822 Sockmonger bows down graciously.
9/10 09:50:06.657 You clap excitedly for Sockmonger.
9/10 09:50:06.857 Librarylady claps excitedly.
9/10 09:50:09.028 Hiemal claps excitedly for Sockmonger.
9/10 09:50:09.863 Catalogue salutes Sockmonger with respect.
9/10 09:50:10.638 Stefwynn: thanks everyone, great seeing you all. Best wishes for the zombie wedding!
9/10 09:50:10.831 Warriorwolf applauds. Bravo!
9/10 09:50:17.083 Hiemal: indeed!
9/10 09:50:18.884 Sockmonger: thank you!
9/10 09:50:24.170 Warriorwolf cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:50:25.105 Stefwynn claps excitedly.
9/10 09:50:29.953 Nairarbil: You're going to look like Baron Samedi, so I say wear a top hat.
9/10 09:50:31.540 Merrily: Come back with pics from the wedding!
9/10 09:50:35.964 Franticread: before everyone logs off - there are a few annoucement - Heimal?
9/10 09:50:39.753 Sockmonger: haha
9/10 09:50:46.682 Hiemal: Hi all ...
9/10 09:50:53.238 You wave at Hiemal.
9/10 09:50:59.296 Catalogue listens intently to Hiemal.
9/10 09:50:59.500 Hiemal: This is Liz Danforth, games blogger for LJ ...
9/10 09:51:03.290 Stefwynn waves.
9/10 09:51:06.934 Hiemal: and general troublemaker
9/10 09:51:10.638 Franticread: lol
9/10 09:51:22.799 Merrily: Ooooh I did get my player/characters wrong ....
9/10 09:51:23.825 Franticread: that would be a great job title
9/10 09:51:24.488 Nairarbil: General? Highly specific yet frequent, I'd say. (I kid I kid.)
9/10 09:51:34.855 Hiemal: I wanted to let you all know that Marion Public Library (Indiana, I THINK) ...
9/10 09:51:47.771 Hiemal: is doing a library-based Scavenger Hunt in WoW
9/10 09:51:57.643 Nairarbil: Intriguing!
9/10 09:52:02.104 Catalogue: cool
9/10 09:52:05.800 Hiemal: local time for them is Saturday week, the 18th
9/10 09:52:05.800 Stefwynn: very cool
9/10 09:52:15.562 Merrily: so very cool! Which server?
9/10 09:52:23.759 Nairarbil stares at Warbot in awe.
9/10 09:52:29.415 Hiemal: on the Aerie Peak server, which is where Michael Porter's Libraries and Librarians guild lives
9/10 09:52:35.254 Stefwynn: could you put details on the Games in Libraries wiki pls?
9/10 09:52:35.489 Hiemal: it'll be both Horde and alliance
9/10 09:52:42.144 Hiemal looks at Sockmonger.
9/10 09:52:45.505 Masquirade: *jitters excitedly*
9/10 09:52:48.310 Hiemal: I will
9/10 09:52:50.089 Nairarbil's pet begins eating a Freshly Baked Bread.
9/10 09:52:59.540 Hiemal: it is also on Facebook http://bit.ly/bi1Hgk
9/10 09:53:06.242 Librarylady claps excitedly for Warbot.
9/10 09:53:14.375 Librarylady gently pats Warbot.
9/10 09:53:23.654 Stefwynn: Will horde and alliance players work together or is that added degree of difficulty?
9/10 09:53:25.807 Catalogue: is there a toon level requirement
9/10 09:53:32.589 Hiemal: and if it goes well, it may get rolled out nationwide (US, anyway) for National Gaming Day
9/10 09:53:49.917 Hiemal: no, it's separated into 3 levels, so 1-80 can play
9/10 09:53:50.987 Franticread: that sounds great - I will be away from broadband at the time and will not be able to participate : (
9/10 09:54:02.112 Hiemal: we may do it a coupla three times
9/10 09:54:03.988 Merrily: that's fantastic!
9/10 09:54:16.933 Hiemal: if you are free this Saturday, in fact, we're doing the playtest of it
9/10 09:54:18.941 Franticread: that would be great
9/10 09:54:22.373 Hiemal: but no telling how it'll go!!
9/10 09:54:36.198 Stefwynn: Great initiative!
9/10 09:54:43.928 Franticread: what time Saturday and what level toon would be needed?
9/10 09:54:44.914 Masquirade: *ponders* I think I still have a character in that guild.
9/10 09:54:46.666 Hiemal: I was enthralled by the idea
9/10 09:55:04.848 Hiemal: 2-3pm is the official game in 10 days
9/10 09:55:11.051 Nairarbil gently pats Bjarn.
9/10 09:55:13.195 Hiemal: I think the same for the playtest
9/10 09:55:18.754 Hiemal: there you go Masq
9/10 09:55:24.867 Merrily: would they be happy if a bunch of us joined in? Or would they rather not?
9/10 09:55:27.670 Hiemal: I'll be there on Alliance as Recalled
9/10 09:55:37.021 Hiemal: yes I think they would like to have people on for it!
9/10 09:55:41.678 Warriorwolf: Can we wisper for an invite
9/10 09:55:42.545 Hiemal: the more the merrirer
9/10 09:56:02.865 Hiemal: I doubt Recalled has invite privileges, but I'll know who does
9/10 09:56:10.043 Hiemal: I don't play nearly often enough
9/10 09:56:12.181 Warriorwolf: k
9/10 09:56:13.666 Hiemal: over ther
9/10 09:56:16.070 Hiemal: there
9/10 09:56:53.670 Franticread: it sounds an exciting project and hopefulyl some of us will be able to get there to try it out as well
9/10 09:57:08.245 Hiemal: I hope it comes off...
9/10 09:57:11.267 Franticread: I just have a bit of information about the next talk
9/10 09:57:18.624 Nairarbil encourages Hiemal.
9/10 09:57:20.733 Hiemal: everyone has been a bit erratic setting it up
9/10 09:57:32.791 Hiemal smiles at Nairarbil.
9/10 09:57:35.136 Franticread: The next talk coming up will be Craig Anderson 8 October, who will talk about World of Warcraft and Second Life in educational contexts. Craig is well known for his work in this area. He Anderson blogs at Librarian in real life, and you can follow him
9/10 09:57:46.423 Franticread: and you can follow him on twitter – he tweets as @libraryguy
9/10 09:57:55.964 Franticread: On the wiki you can see future talks planned on games and libraries, please suggest others speakers you would like to hear from as well. Future events will be posted on the events page on the games and libraries wiki.
9/10 09:58:06.246 Stefwynn: Thanks Franticread for coordinating today's session - I am learning heaps!
9/10 09:58:12.951 Catalogue thanks Franticread.
9/10 09:58:14.454 Hiemal thanks Franticread.
9/10 09:58:19.774 Nairarbil cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:23.180 Sockmonger tickles Franticread. Hee hee!
9/10 09:58:25.288 Warriorwolf applauds at Franticread. Bravo!
9/10 09:58:25.789 Hiemal: three cheers for Franticread!
9/10 09:58:28.369 Hiemal cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:33.592 Hiemal cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:33.594 Catalogue cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:33.594 Merrily cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:34.220 Hiemal cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:34.616 Catalogue cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:34.813 Sockmonger salutes Franticread with respect.
9/10 09:58:36.306 Stefwynn cheers!
9/10 09:58:37.228 Catalogue cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:37.728 Franticread: It really great to vbe able to thank Shawn/Sock for his talk today - it was exciting to hear what some university libraries are doing
9/10 09:58:38.616 Nairarbil: Twenty-one gun salute!
9/10 09:58:39.596 Warriorwolf cheers at Franticread!
9/10 09:58:42.546 Franticread: thanks again Shawn
9/10 09:58:47.030 Franticread claps excitedly.
9/10 09:58:47.300 Hiemal: thank you Shawn
9/10 09:58:49.924 Librarylady thanks Sockmonger.
9/10 09:58:52.905 Sockmonger: any time
9/10 09:58:53.623 Merrily cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:58:58.113 Librarylady salutes Sockmonger with respect.
9/10 09:58:59.040 Sockmonger: it was a lot of fun
9/10 09:59:00.499 Warriorwolf cheers at Sockmonger!
9/10 09:59:07.736 Nairarbil: And get your pictures up on the attendees page, guys. I and Liz feel lonely up there. ;)
9/10 09:59:14.796 Hiemal: lol
9/10 09:59:15.541 Librarylady loves Warbot.
9/10 09:59:20.223 Nairarbil: (Unless you don't want to, of course.)
9/10 09:59:20.622 Masquirade: Huh?
9/10 09:59:24.029 Franticread: okay Nair
9/10 09:59:31.304 Merrily: IS there anyone here today that wasn't at the last talk?
9/10 09:59:38.704 Librarylady: me
9/10 09:59:39.156 Stefwynn: So you can recognise us IRL?
9/10 09:59:55.002 Nairarbil: On the wiki for RU Game is an attendees page (which will be updated with newcomers, I have pics) saying who came, with a toon picture.
9/10 09:59:56.129 Masquirade looks shocked at such a suggestion.
9/10 10:00:08.440 Merrily: Oh well I don't need to put my pic up then - Nair can recognise me IRL :) :)
9/10 10:00:10.553 Hiemal looks around trying to see behind himself at the woman lurking over his shoulder
9/10 10:00:15.753 Nairarbil: And I admit, I just find it fun to know the faces behind the toons. If you don't wish to, you don't need to. :)
9/10 10:00:26.137 Nairarbil: (But if you go there, you will see me with two cute plush dolls.)
9/10 10:00:35.230 Hiemal applauds at Nairarbil. Bravo!
9/10 10:00:44.720 Stefwynn: At a library conf last week everyone wrote their Twitter handles on their name tags - in future WoW toon names as well???
9/10 10:00:52.032 Masquirade: Don't tempt me, I'll put my Illidan figurine up.
9/10 10:00:53.028 Catalogue reminds heimal it is a short fat dwarf
9/10 10:00:54.219 Hiemal: heh
9/10 10:01:07.458 Hiemal: Ohh, you do NOT want me to get out my Frostmourne replica, guys
9/10 10:01:11.485 Franticread: sounds an idea (but the list could be very long for some)
9/10 10:01:20.498 Sockmonger: i have a Illidan in my office
9/10 10:01:22.518 Masquirade: not unless you'll let me steal it *grins*
9/10 10:01:27.660 Hiemal: actually!!
9/10 10:01:35.975 Nairarbil: Sam Fisher guards my desk. Not WoW but...
9/10 10:01:36.543 Merrily: How about guild names - then we could ask for relevant toon names?
9/10 10:01:42.521 Hiemal: our library system is doing "Costume Yourself' for National Library Card month....
9/10 10:01:50.867 Hiemal: and ... um, yeah
9/10 10:01:51.635 Masquirade: Yes very long *eyes off her list of about 50 characters*
9/10 10:01:55.959 Hiemal: I AM that much of a geek
9/10 10:02:08.081 Hiemal: Masq, you can only HAVE 50 unless you have two accounts!
9/10 10:02:16.539 Catalogue agrees with you.
9/10 10:02:25.177 Nairarbil: You're going as Hiemal? How much do fake beards cost these days? ;)
9/10 10:02:28.465 Masquirade: *shakes head* The limit per account is 50
9/10 10:02:28.666 Hiemal: I have at least 30 scattered around the multiverse
9/10 10:02:29.049 Catalogue: um i have 4 accounts
9/10 10:02:39.813 Nairarbil salutes Catalogue with respect.
9/10 10:02:39.813 Hiemal: no, hold on... I'll get the link for ya...
9/10 10:02:42.840 Masquirade: I usually have to delete something to make something.
9/10 10:02:49.134 Franticread: lol
9/10 10:03:02.903 Merrily laughs at Catalogue.
9/10 10:03:13.337 Catalogue is not addicted ... really
9/10 10:03:24.607 Masquirade loses her jaw on the floor at Catalogue's announcement.
9/10 10:03:35.415 Merrily: Can quit any any time ... just. one. more. quest.
9/10 10:03:36.744 Catalogue laughs.
9/10 10:03:43.673 Stefwynn laughs.
9/10 10:03:43.879 Masquirade: Just one more 80...
9/10 10:03:44.881 Warriorwolf: lol
9/10 10:03:47.490 Hiemal: remember: I was a pro artist for decades before becoming a library type person: http://flickr.com/gp/11673251@N00/9082SR
9/10 10:03:50.541 Nairarbil: Oh sweet, I needed one more Masquirade jaw to drop to complete this quest.
9/10 10:03:56.250 Catalogue agrees with you.
9/10 10:04:08.322 Sockmonger: I just need an 80 deathknight and I'll have an 80 of each class :X
9/10 10:04:08.516 Merrily laughs at Catalogue.
9/10 10:04:15.996 You cackle maniacally at the situation.
9/10 10:04:18.189 Hiemal: Sock, you're sick LOL
9/10 10:04:28.387 Sockmonger: i know...
9/10 10:04:37.317 Franticread: that is amaziing Sock -
9/10 10:04:39.396 Hiemal: I try to play all the classes but have only 2 80s... easily distracted... oh look SHINY
9/10 10:04:49.961 Sockmonger: i can never decide what to play so I just play everything
9/10 10:04:50.245 Nairarbil: Oh, WOW, Hiemal. Great work on that Helm.
9/10 10:05:02.633 Hiemal: thank you
9/10 10:05:04.810 Sockmonger: and I just broke 100,000g too
9/10 10:05:06.922 Hiemal: loooong way to go
9/10 10:05:19.997 Franticread: okay - see you at the next talk
9/10 10:05:20.190 Catalogue looks at sock in shock
9/10 10:05:20.379 Warriorwolf: nice work
9/10 10:05:22.084 Hiemal: but I hate pics of myself so said "What can I do to cover my ugly mug?"
9/10 10:05:23.770 Nairarbil: Sock, can I borrow 12.5k? Daddy needs a motorbike.
9/10 10:05:28.595 Masquirade: Now that's just showing off. If I had that kind of money i'd have the Insane title already.
9/10 10:05:33.286 Hiemal: Get to the Choppa!!
9/10 10:05:42.635 Catalogue: i got one :)
9/10 10:05:44.172 Sockmonger: Sure Nai, and I charge very reasonable interest rates
9/10 10:05:48.795 Hiemal: of course you do >.<
9/10 10:05:52.602 Catalogue: lol
9/10 10:05:55.023 Nairarbil: Hehe.
9/10 10:06:01.368 Masquirade: On how many characters Catalogue?
9/10 10:06:05.051 Merrily laughs.
9/10 10:06:09.983 Catalogue: 2
9/10 10:06:13.188 Catalogue: have the hog
9/10 10:06:24.075 Nairarbil: I'm going to do a quick alt swap, and then get back to work. Good to see you all again! Hopefully transcript up today.
9/10 10:06:26.161 Masquirade: Horde *grins*
9/10 10:06:28.408 Nairarbil has gone offline.
9/10 10:06:35.294 Hiemal: how many people here are reading the Parc PlayOn research as it comes out?
9/10 10:06:45.446 Librarylady waves goodbye to everyone. Farewell!
9/10 10:06:54.227 Sockmonger: alright, i'm off to finish my loremaster achievement. Farewell everyone!
9/10 10:07:01.297 Sockmonger has gone offline.
9/10 10:07:03.319 Hiemal waves goodbye to everyone. Farewell!
9/10 10:07:03.860 Warriorwolf: bye
9/10 10:07:07.333 Merrily: Thanks Franticread for setting up these seminars!
9/10 10:07:10.464 Warriorwolf waves.
9/10 10:07:10.671 Stefwynn: See you all later!
9/10 10:07:12.375 Hiemal: I'm outta here myself, then ...
9/10 10:07:18.579 You wave at Hiemal.
9/10 10:07:18.786 Hiemal: yes, thank you Frantic, VERY MUCH
9/10 10:07:19.052 Warriorwolf: cya
9/10 10:07:26.959 Catalogue waves goodbye to Franticread. Farewell!
9/10 10:07:32.258 Franticread: np - a pleasure
9/10 10:07:33.261 Hiemal: I'll post a link to the Scavenger Hunt
9/10 10:07:36.567 Warriorwolf: catch u all @ the next talk
9/10 10:07:39.041 Hiemal bows before Franticread.
9/10 10:07:44.307 Hiemal has gone offline.
9/10 10:07:48.481 You wave goodbye to Warriorwolf. Farewell!
9/10 10:07:51.100 Warriorwolf has gone offline.
9/10 10:07:53.882 Catalogue: back to dailies
9/10 10:07:57.961 Catalogue has gone offline.
9/10 10:08:01.327 Villapapyri has joined the guild.
9/10 10:08:09.671 Merrily: And time for me to start the commute to work.
9/10 10:08:17.393 Villapapyri: It's Nairarbil again. Now that that's settled, I'm back to work. Bye all!
9/10 10:08:25.594 Merrily waves goodbye to everyone. Farewell!
9/10 10:08:36.312 Merrily has gone offline.
9/10 10:08:39.935 Stefwynn has gone offline.
9/10 10:08:41.210 Masquirade: *waves* Time to hotfoot it back to my duties.
9/10 10:08:52.524 Franticread waves.
9/10 10:08:55.235 Masquirade: Transcript will be up shortly.
9/10 10:09:02.230 Villapapyri: Bye all!

R U Game Talk 10th Sept 2010

We will be having another talk tomorrow on Saurfang realm on the US version of World of Warcraft. So if you have an account and feel like coming along be at the Ironforge Library at 9am server time to listen/read to Shaun McCann, Digital Projects Librarian at Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan, talk about his experiences with games in University Libraries.

For details about further upcoming events see here.

If you are located in other parts of the world and don't know what time 9am server time Saurfang is in local time try this. We are currently not in Daylight Savings Time, you will need to pick Australia - New South Wales - Sydney from the list in order to convert.

Exhausted

I'm currently exhausted and annoyed. When I get overly tired I feel ill and my head spins, rather than subject myself to the hour long drive to work I called in sick assuming I could see the registered Nurse or Doctor at the local clinic today. Promptly slept through til 11am. Upon visiting the local clinic I am informed that I can't get in to see the doctor without a pre-booked appointment, when I ask if I can book one I am informed that I can't. When I ask if the Nurse is allowed to issue a medical certificate to explain why I wasn't at work today, which is a requirement at my job I am informed that she can't issue me one.

I'm not really sure what's happened to the medical centre here, used to be you could turn up and go see the registered nurse for a medical certificate and not need to see the doctor at all. I'm certainly not capable of driving into town in order to see a doctor there, if I was I'd be at work!

So right now I'm at home tired and ready to get back to bed to sleep off more stress and exhaustion. Catch you all later when I'm feeling better.

Dear Tony Abbott

Dear Tony Abbott,

Hi, I'm here to talk to you today about your attempt to appeal to the "family" vote crowd. While I understand that better conditions for parental leave I would like to bring up the following points. How are you going to compensate the following people for the taxes that go towards something they will never use or currently can't due to the state of laws in Australia.

People Unaffected by Parental Leave:

• Couples who do not intend of having children - I fall into this category
• Couples whom have already finished having children
• Couples of an alternative lifestyle - LGBT

So I want to know Mr Abbott, why do my taxes go towards giving those who choose to have children now and in the future longer parental leave when I myself gain nothing? Those of us who do not want kids, have had kids or leave supposedly "alternative" lifestyles are feeling a bit left out here.

One last thing before I go:

Mr Abbott conceded he had previously proposed funding such a scheme via an increase in state-levied payroll tax but said he had since realised a direct levy would be preferable to avoid the need for the co-operation of states.

"Funding paid parental leave from the budget would be unfair to single-income families, who shouldn't have to pay heavier taxes to support the different choices that other families make," he said.

- Tony Abbott

Am I a single income family?