[game_edu] Readings, Libraries & Copyright...from the librarian

[Brena Smith]

I just now zoned in on the topic of this thread - I'm a librarian and I
subscribe to a number of library-related listservs, copyright comes up a lot
and I tend to breeze over those.  Then I realized it was coming from
game_edu, so I thought I might be able to offer a little bit of advice
here.

First, if you haven't done so already, talk to a librarian on your campus -
if there is a film librarian, talk to that person.   There are a
number of copyright issues related to films and libraries and these tend to
be similar to copyright issues for games.  You should also tell this person
about the Steam licensing.

I looked at your original post and it looks like there are several issues
you are asking about (please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these 3
points).  1) You would like to make a "reading list"  or "to play list"  of
games available to your students?  Shouldn't be any copyright issues there.
That's a list you can hand out to your students or make available on your
course website.  It's no different than providing a bibliography of textual
works.

2) Making games available on reserve in the library.  Generally speaking, I
don't think there are copyright issues, but you do have a console issue.
How long would you let them be checked out for?  Are you going to provide
the consoles to the library?

3) You are interested in establishing a game collection within the library.
This can be a little trickier.  For example, a copy of a movie on DVD may
cost $20 to a consumer.  But institutional copies may be $100 - to cover
copyright/royalty costs because they assume the movie will be shown to
groups and multiple times.  Same thing goes for institutional subscriptions
to journals - an individual subscription may be $100; institutional $500
(yes, it's that much more and I'm being conservative...please go worship
your campus library for paying for all of those journals...but I digress).
In can get really expensive really fast.  I'm sure I don't need to tell any
of you how bad the economy is hitting educational institutions - and
academic libraries are getting hit very hard.  Most are not going to be able
to maintain current subscriptions, their collections budgets are getting
slashed...but I'm sure many of you know this.  It might not be the best time
to try to build a new collection.

That said, a few libraries have begun building game collections.  The two
most notable that I know about are UC Santa Cruz and University of
Illinois, Urbana Champaign.  In fact, UIUC has developed a whole portion of
their site to the collection
http://www.library.illinois.edu/gaming/index.html UCSC relied heavily on
donations from Sony, which took are of the copyright issues.  They wrote an
article about building the collection if you are interested, here's the
citation:


Kane, D., Soehner, D., & Wei W., 2007.  Building a Collection of Video Games
in Support of a Newly Created Degree Program at the University of
California, Santa Cruz. *Science & Technology Libraries*, 24, 77-87.

I hope this info helps somewhat.  Copyright is a nasty, nasty beast for
libraries and its users!  Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Best,
Brena


On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 5:57 PM, Malcolm Ryan <malcolmr at cse.unsw.edu.au>wrote:


> On the issue of licensing, I discovered that Steam offers a special

> "CyberCafe" license [1] that gives access to "100 games". This may be an

> option for universities if they want to run a games lab. I have contacted

> them about educational pricing, but haven't heard anything yet.

>

> As for the games I use, I structure my course around MDA and the 8 kinds of

> fun [2]. My list of examples changes from year to year, but this year I've

> used:

>

> Bartok (card game)

>   - A simple modifiable game to illustrate MDA

>

> Trogdor

>   - To analyse mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics

>

> Braid

>   - Discovery: For the elegantly crafted training levels

>   - Sensation: the atypical choices of art and music

>

> AudioSurf

>   - Drama: pacing and a dramatic arc

>

> The Path

>   - Fantasy: Creating fantasy through atmosphere and indirect storytelling.

>   - Discovery: An open world with many paths to 'victory'.

>

> Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy

>   - Storytelling: Changing avatars creates dissonance as the player's

> loyalties shift

>   - Storytelling: The opening scene puts the player in media res.

>

> Mafia (round-table game)

>   - Fellowship: Mixture of cooperation and competition.

>

> Zen bound

>   - Sensation/Ritual: Slow meditative pacing with art and music to match.

>

> Everyday shooter

>   - Sensation: The game is as much about interactive colour + music as it

>     is about challenge.

>

> Galatea/Aisle/Facade

>   - Fantasy: Storytelling with many endings. Dialogue systems.

>

> Fallout 3

>   - Self expression: Character creation and growth. (I could do with a

> shorter game to illustrate this but most RPGs tend to be long).

>

> Crayon Physics

>   - Self expression: Not just about finding a solution, but building the

> 'coolest' solution.

>

> World of goo

>   - Sensation: A consistent theme and an interface that makes the 'goo'

> feel almost tactile.

>

> Once Upon a Time (card game)

>   - Fanstasy/Self Expression: A 'story-making' game that facilitates the

> players to tell their own story.

>

> [1] https://cafe.steampowered.com/

> [2] http://8kindsoffun.com/

>

> On 23/09/2009, at 1:26 PM, pawlicki at cs.rochester.edu wrote:

>

>

>>

>> Even if the list were 100 long it should be annotated to the point of

>> why it makes the list - what it exemplifies. In this way, someone

>> with specific course goals could select from the list.

>>

>> Haha... "standard"... good one. :-)

>>>

>>> There have been numerous "must-play" lists. Whenever I try to make one of

>>> my own, I can never seem to narrow it down below 30 or so.

>>>

>>> I think a lot depends on your goals. If it is just a matter of "game

>>> literacy" -- that is, playing at least one canonical game in each major

>>> genre, playing all the games that are well-known, and so on, then you

>>> will

>>> come up with a very different list than if you are looking for games that

>>> offered technical innovation for its time, which in turn is different

>>> from

>>> a list of games that were pioneering new forms of design or unique visual

>>> art styles or even games that were failures in notable ways.

>>>

>>> Rather than trying to cram all of these into a single class, it might be

>>> better to spread it across the entire curriculum. Provide exposure to a

>>> few games at a time as they tie in to the content of any given course,

>>> and

>>> make sure the sum total of classes gives students exposure to all the

>>> games you'd consider "must-play". Sure, you can have a "Game

>>> Appreciation"

>>> course that covers a lot of games, but I'm not sure you could fit

>>> everything into 10 or 12 weeks... nor would you want to (else you run the

>>> danger of students thinking that all the games in that class aren't

>>> relevant to their other coursework, since it's all too self-contained).

>>>

>>> - Ian

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> ________________________________

>>> From: "pawlicki at cs.rochester.edu" <pawlicki at cs.rochester.edu>

>>> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>

>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 1:17:48 PM

>>> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Readings, Libraries & Copyright

>>>

>>>

>>> Malcolm,

>>>

>>> I would be interested in your list.

>>>

>>> Assuming that a semester is about 12 weeks or so, do we have

>>> a "standard repertoire" of the top 10 games that all

>>> students should have played and critically examined?

>>>

>>> Ted

>>>

>>>

>>> Thaddeus F. Pawlicki, Ph.D.

>>> Undergraduate Program Director

>>> Computer Science Dept.      (585) 275-4198

>>> University of Rochester      FAX (585) 273-4556

>>> Rochester, NY  14627-0226  pawlicki at cs.rochester.edu

>>> http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/pawlicki/

>>>

>>>

>>> ''One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others

>>> may

>>> despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men

>>> out

>>> of touch with their instinctive selves.'' - Carl Jung 1977

>>>

>>> Malcolm Ryan wrote:

>>>>

>>>>> As a lecturer in game design, I want to set a 'reading list' of games

>>>>> for my students to play. In other disciplines the University has

>>>>> standard copyright arrangements which allow them to make sets of

>>>>> readings available to students at little or no cost, but there doesn't

>>>>> seem to be any appropriate arrangement for software.

>>>>>

>>>>> Have you encountered this problem? How have you addressed it?

>>>>>

>>>>> I know that a lot of good cutting-edge independent work is available

>>>>> cheaply or for free online, but I don't want to be forced to exclude

>>>>> AAA titles from examination. Ideally I would like to set up a library

>>>>> of games but I am worried about the copyright and licensing issues.

>>>>> Does anyone know more about this?

>>>>>

>>>>> Malcolm

>>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>>> game_edu mailing list

>>>>> game_edu at igda.org

>>>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>> game_edu mailing list

>>>> game_edu at igda.org

>>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>>>>

>>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_edu mailing list

>>> game_edu at igda.org

>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>     _______________________________________________

>>> game_edu mailing list

>>> game_edu at igda.org

>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>>>

>>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_edu mailing list

>> game_edu at igda.org

>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>>

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_edu mailing list

> game_edu at igda.org

> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20090923/7e2daaa2/attachment.html>