[game_edu] Games in the Library

[Jose P. Zagal]

Hi,

The list available is here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3806-RYSJ-1102

Our lab manager David Henry had this to say about the program:

The Good:
* 100+ games, including lots of indie games
* accessible for PC and Mac
* new games automatically update to the cafe inventory without end-user 
installation
* great MMORPG support through Valve's servers (e.g. Team Fortress 2)
* very low maintenance -- Valve constantly fixes bugs and applies updates
* good quality control -- only good, solid games are made available on 
Steam; bad games are weeded out


The Bad:
* you buy a license to access the games, but do not actually own the games
* games cannot be played in offline mode -- when the Steam server goes 
down, the games are unavailable


Obviously, YMMV w/r to which games you think are good/bad, but it's 
definitely a lot more than only FPS games.


I have no idea what the pricing is just in case anyone was wondering. I 
assume it's decent value for money.

Jose


On 3/8/2012 9:56 PM, Malcolm Ryan wrote:

> Can you tell us what the "wide range of 100+ popular titles"

> includes? If it is just endless repeats of every big FPS game, it is

> not very valuable to me.

>

> Malcolm

>

> On 09/03/2012, at 2:29 AM, Jose P. Zagal wrote:

>

>> Hi,

>>

>> Have you looked at https://cafe.steampowered.com/

>>

>> I'll ask the people who run our labs about any additional insights

>> they might have.

>>

>>

>> Jose

>>

>> On 3/7/2012 9:53 PM, Malcolm Ryan wrote:

>>> Jose,

>>>

>>> The Cyber Cafe option sounds like a possibility. Can you provide

>>> any more information on it?

>>>

>>> Malcolm

>>>

>>> On 06/03/2012, at 2:20 AM, Jose P. Zagal wrote:

>>>

>>>> Hi,

>>>>

>>>> Here at DePaul we have two game labs where students can play

>>>> games. The PC lab has lots of different games installed, and

>>>> we've been using Steam's Cyber Cafe option. As far as I know

>>>> it's the only way to get decent pricing options for multiple

>>>> copies/licenses of the same title (on Steam).

>>>>

>>>> Our library also has games available for checkout (only the

>>>> recent consoles though), and we've tried having handheld

>>>> consoles available for checkout as well. That last option

>>>> wasn't that popular though.

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> Jose

>>>>

>>>> On 3/4/2012 6:18 PM, Malcolm Ryan wrote:

>>>>> Does anyone have experience with getting computer games into

>>>>> their school library?

>>>>>

>>>>> For my game design course I give the students a list of

>>>>> "readings" -- games to play each week that illustrate the

>>>>> concepts we are going to be talking about. Most of the games

>>>>> I use are small indie games from Steam. I find these games

>>>>> usually illustrate a particular idea more succinctly than a

>>>>> major title, plus they are a lot cheaper. Nevertheless the

>>>>> price tends to add up as the session goes on and many

>>>>> students are reluctant to pay.

>>>>>

>>>>> If this were any other course, the readings would be

>>>>> available in the university library for them to borrow and

>>>>> possibly also sold as a subsidised anthology. I would like to

>>>>> find a similar arrangement for my students?

>>>>>

>>>>> Does anyone have any experience doing this successfully?

>>>>> Might it be possible to arrange a special license with

>>>>> Steam?

>>>>>

>>>>> Thanks,

>>>>>

>>>>> Malcolm _______________________________________________

>>>>> game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org

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

>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________ game_edu

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>>

>> -- José P. Zagal Assistant Professor College of Computing and

>> Digital Media DePaul University

>>

>> http://www.ludoliteracy.com/ http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal

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>

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-- 
José P. Zagal
Assistant Professor
College of Computing and Digital Media
DePaul University

http://www.ludoliteracy.com/
http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal