Gamification

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On board games

Olivier Charbonneau 2019-09-19

Here is a selection of books and other resources about board games. It came after a flurry of emails on academic listserv. Thank you to all of those who have suggested materials for this short bibliography !

Material on the Internet (aka “free stuff”)

Print or published material (aka “stuff you purchase or borrow from a library”)

AuthorTitlePlace of PublicationCountry of OriginPublisherCopyright Year
Tobin, JosephPikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of PokémonDurham :United StatesDuke University Press2004
Parlett, DavidParlett’s History of Board Games: By the Author of the Oxford History of Board GamesBrattleboroUnited StatesEcho Point Books and Media2018
Bell, R. C.Board and Table Games from Many CivilizationsNew York :United StatesDover Publications1980
Finkel, I. L.Ancient Board Games in Perspective: Papers from the 1990 British Museum ColloquiumLondonUnited KingdomBritish Museum Press2007
Peterson, JonPlaying at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing GamesSan Diego, USAUnited StatesUnreason Press2012
Arnaudo, MarcoStorytelling in the Modern Board Game : Narrative Trends from the Late 1960s to Today : Narrative Trends from the Late 1960s to TodayJefferson, UNITED STATESUnited StatesMcFarland & Company, Inc.2018
Murray, Harold James RuthrenA History of Board-Games Other Than ChessOxfordUnited KingdomOxbow Books2002
Engelstein, GeoffreyBuilding Blocks of Tabletop Game Design : An Encyclopedia of MechanismsBoca Raton, FL :United StatesTaylor & Francis2019
Parlett, DavidOxford Guide to Card GamesNew York, USAUnited StatesOxford University Press1990
Livingstone, IanBoard Games in 100 MovesLondonUnited KingdomDK Publishing2019
Woods, StewartEurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board GamesJefferson, USAUnited StatesMcFarland & Company, Inc.2012
Booth, PaulGame Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board GamesNew York, USAUnited StatesBloomsbury Academic2015
Knizia, ReinerNew Tactical Games with Dice and CardsBlue Terrier Press2019
Copyright Gamification Librarianship

Support our project to get indie digital games in libraries

Olivier Charbonneau 2016-03-23

Suivez l’évolution de ce projet: http://www.culturelibre.ca/tag/knight/
Follow the evolution of this project here: http://outfind.ca/tag/knight/

I am really excited to share with you Concordia’s own Technoculture Art and Games’ (TAG) submission for the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge, here is the link:
https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/how-might-libraries-serve-21st-century-information-needs/submissions/play-at-your-leisure
The goal is to get digital games from small (aka indie) studios into libraries. The benevolent Knight Foundation’s News Challenge is an open call for projects to fund innovative ideas and this current iteration focusses on Libraries.

The Knight Foundation has already granted us “prototype” funding last year to create our alpha prototype, codenamed Alice (family pictures on the proposal page). Now, we want to develop and test our library videogame system with partner libraries (Brooklyn NY, San José CA, Civilla in Detroit and with the Indigenous Futures communities in the North) over the next few years. The Knight Foundation focusses on the USA and rest assured that we will be seeking support to deploy our system in Canada and elsewhere!

Because the News Challenge uses an “open” community based evaluation process (in addition to a formal review), you can help in some very simple ways:

1. Please click on the link to get the page view count up.
2. Register an account on the system to either “heart” the proposal or leave a comment. Some useful comments could be “I would love for my local public library to have indie/digital games” or, if you are a game maker, “I would love for libraries to add my game to their collection” (or some variation thereof). Of course, please feel free to add your own comment!
3. Forward this email to anyone who believes that libraries should have Game Clubs and Indie Games.

The Comment phase of the granting cycle closes in about 2 week.

On a more personal note, my ambition is to strengthen libraries everywhere by devising an open social computing platform so that everyone can play and make games. This will also help libraries acquire and preserve digital content through open markets (fixing some pesky collective action & copyright & technological issues). I am blessed with a myriad of colleagues at Concordia who also share this vision and are willing to embark on this quest!

Thanking you in advance for your support of our project,
Olivier

Gamification Research

Indie Games Licensing for Libraries Presentation

Olivier Charbonneau 2015-07-17

Aussi en français: http://www.culturelibre.ca/tag/knight/

Follow the evolution of this project here: http://outfind.ca/tag/knight/

Panel_07
Here is the presentation I will be delivering to the Knight Foundation about the Indie Games Licensing for Libraries project.

This slide explains the main idea behind the project, namely connecting indie developers with libraries through a series of copyright contracts, also called licenses:
ecosystem

Gamification Information Technology Outfind.ca

Meet Alice, the first digital gaming kit for libraries

Olivier Charbonneau 2015-06-04

Aussi en français: http://www.culturelibre.ca/tag/knight/
Follow the evolution of this project here: http://outfind.ca/tag/knight/

Alice is the codename for the first prototype digital gaming kit for libraries

Alice is the codename for the first prototype digital gaming kit for libraries

Above is a picture of our prototype, codename Alice for a few reasons:

  1. it is our “alpha” or A prototype;
  2. Alice, in encryption circles, tries to talk to Bob; and
  3. it is a “clin-d’oeil” to Lisa, Apple’s first computer with a graphical interface and my favorite character on the Simpsons

Many many thanks to the Knight Foundation for their wonderful support !!

My team of engineers are working hard on building a functioning prototype. We have selected a “stripped down” Linux distribution running Kodi as a platform. We picked some generic controllers, a hard plastic case and a mini-computers running on solid state memory (the Gygabyte Brix in fact).

They will hopefully deliver a first version of the device by late June. We will also deliver all our code via the usual open source venues (not sure which actually, but my team is keen on contributing their work back to the community quickly).

Afterwards, my team and I hope to visit with 2 public library systems: Montreal and Austin public libraries. We aim to discuss this project with library employees (administrators, professionals and staff), game developers and patrons. I have ethnographers working on our research instruments.

So, my team is busy with the work our grant has funded and we should have some tangible results in a month or so.

Please let me know if you have questions, ideas or comments, I am most interested in them! My email is: o.NOSPAMcharbonneau@concordia.ca (note to humans: please remove all capital letters from my email address to reach me).

Gamification Librarianship

Legacy Video Game Collection Simulator

Olivier Charbonneau 2015-06-01

I’ve been toying with documenting a burgeoning video/digital game collection for my institution. I took a stab at establishing some costs and space considerations for various assumptions. For example, average cost and sizes for consoles, controllers and games from years past… I’ve tried to capture some of the metrics and data I’ve gathered in this spreadsheet: Legacy Video Game Collection Simulator.

For the record, a legacy game collection implies physical objects embedded with digital media which are no longer commercially available.

(Special thanks to Darren Wershler, professor at Concordia University in Montréal, for his assistance in this project.

With it, you can modify the cost & size assumptions and generate model collections. Of course, it does not specify which exact consoles you would acquire for your collection, but it allows to generate some models one would plan budget or space requirements.

Please let me know if you have comments or questions!

Gamification

What about games in academic libraries?

Olivier Charbonneau 2015-04-15

Reading up on the subject of games in academic institutions

Scholarly articles & papers (slightly disorganized)

News, blog posts & other documents (by date)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOonDY8vCJU&w=560&h=315]

Library Research guides

Projects and initiatives (hat tip to Christy Caldwell)

Gamification Information Technology Librarianship

Indie Games Licensing: first progress report

Olivier Charbonneau 2015-01-30

Aussi en français: http://www.culturelibre.ca/tag/knight/
Follow the evolution of this project here: http://outfind.ca/tag/knight/

I am very pleased to announce that our project, called Indie Games Licensing, was awarded a Prototype Grant as per the most recent Knight News Challenge. I am absolutely thrilled and thankful towards the Knight Foundation and all my partners for this incredible opportunity to “leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities.”

Without further ado, here is a short video presenting the initial prototype we will be delivering at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iDXd5Y-3oo&w=560&h=315]

UPDATE as of May 19th 2015: The Knight Foundation had originally planned to have us present our prototypes at the ALA Annual Conference in the Summer of 2015, but that is no longer the case. 

Gamification

Syllabus Journal on games

Olivier Charbonneau 2015-01-30

The latest issue of the peer-reviewed Syllabus Journal just came out, with a special issue on teaching with videogames:

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new special issue of Syllabus Journal (4.1) on “Teaching with and about Video Games.” Syllabus Journal is a peer reviewed venue through which academics can publish syllabi, toolbox assignments (shorter, modular assignments that can be imported into any course), and articles on teaching.

The “Teaching with and about Video Games” offers 15 articles from international authors in three categories, and can be found here: http://syllabusjournal.org/

Table of Contents
Introduction by Jennifer deWinter and Carly A. Kocurek

Teaching about Games are syllabi for courses that teach game studies, game design, serious game design, and novel interface design (think new controllers), and include:

* Video Game Studies by Judd Ethan Ruggill
* How to Play Games of Truth: An Introduction to Video Game Studies by Bryan Geoffrey Behrenshausen
* Novel Interfaces for Interactive Environments by Robert W. Lindeman
* Educational and Serious Game Design: Case Study in Collaboration by Jon A. Preston
* Introduction to Game Design by Nia Wearn

Teaching with Games are syllabi that teach disciplinary content in multiple fields using games as a text, such as creative writing, history, rhetoric, composition, and literature. These include:

* Representing the Past: Video Games Challenge to the Historical Narrative by Stephen Ortega
* Learning Through Making: Notes on Teaching Interactive Narrative by Anastasia Salter
* Video Games as a New Form of Interactive Literature by Anne Winchell
* Writing in and around Games by Wendi Sierra
* Hints, Advice, and Maybe Cheat Codes: An English Topics Course About Computer Games by Kevin Moberly

And finally, we have collected together five toolbox entries that act as short modules (1-day to 2-week assignments) to be incorporated into classes and workshops.

* Teaching Network Game Programming with the Dragonfly Game Engine by Mark Claypool
* Root of Play: Game Design for Digital Humanists by Andy Keenan and Matt Bouchard
* Alternative Reality Games to Teach Game-Based Storytelling by Dean O’Donnell and Jennifer deWinter
* “Continue West and Ascend the Stairs”: Game Walkthroughs in Professional and Technical Communication by Stephanie Vie
* Annotated Bibliography for Game Studies: Modeling Scholarly Research in a Popular Culture Field by Cathlena Martin

This collection, we believe, represents the depth and breadth of video games in academic discourse. Not only do they add to the literature and pedagogical approaches in game studies, but these contributions highlight the interdisciplinary nature of game studies in history, computer science, literature, social science, and so forth.

Very best,

Jennifer and Carly