Library Gamer

Games are drawing attention in libraries as successful outreach tools for tweens, teens and seniors. They are also gaining ground in schools as valuable resources that introduce and reinforce a variety of curricular, social and life skills.

The inclusion of gaming in a library collection is not unexpected if you take some perspective. Libraries hit a turning point when they made the decision to start including popular media in their collections. By doing so, they shifted their collection development practices to be more inclusive of what their patrons want, embracing the desires of the community. They also opened the door to more non-traditional resources. And by continuing to develop a more inclusionary collection development policy, libraries are laying the foundation for building a collection of ideas.

Now, as librarians who grew up playing games are coming into the profession, they are bringing with them a respect and understanding of gaming. And the games themselves are drawing attention with a depth of storyline, once available mainly in RPG’s, which can now be found in nearly every genre of electronic gaming. The story quality in video games has drawn in such Hollywood talent as Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart and Michael Ironside.

Add to this, the maturation of board games over the last twenty years and you can start to see the value that games hold as community resources. They have grown into another avenue of creative expression that, like a good book or song, can capture and share ideas with those who invest the time.

Number of Players: 4 to 8
Grade Levels: Elementary and Up
Length: 20 Minutes

ELA Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

ELA Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

1.2.6 Display emotional resilience by persisting in information searching despite challenges

2.1.2 Organize knowledge so it is useful

4.1.5 Connect ideas to own interests and previous knowledge and experience

Imagine if you will, a blender… filled with gleeful, pixie-stick Ritalin monkeys, a farmyard See ‘n Say, and the kid from the front row who always said: “Oooo Oooo”. If you can, then you have the flavor of Out of the Box Publishing’s jubilant cacophony of barnyard fun, Snorta!

Snorta! is an infectiously fun memory game that cleverly reuses the familiar “War” card game mechanic. Each player receives a barnyard animal and a barn in which to hide said animal. Before the players place their animal in the barn, they take turns showing them to the everyone. Once the critters are away in the barns, players are dealt cards. The cards feature pictures of the barnyard animals that are used in the game. This little details serves to complicate things for all involved.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards. To do so, players take turns laying down cards one at a time, going around in a circle. If at anytime, players have matching cards, they need to try to make the sound of the animal that is hidden in the other person’s barn. The person who correctly remembers and makes the animal noise first, gives all of their cards to the other player.

Remembering 7 or 8 different farm animals is challenging enough. Now add in the fact that you are looking at farm animals on the cards as well. So, for example… player A and B have matching cow cards showing on the table in front of them. Player A instinctively makes a “moooooo” sound because of the cow cards on the table, while player B remembers that there is a rooster in player A’s barn and yells out “cock-a-doodle-doo”. The game play that results is a medley of varying animal noises as players desperately try to match the right noise to the right player.

Verdict: This game works! It works even better when you have a full 8 players on board. We recently had a games workshop for the other staff in our building to showcase some of the games that we have been collecting for our game library. We had a Wii, Guitar Hero and Snorta! set up. Snorta! won hands down. The wee Wii controllers and the pseudo-Strat controller sat abandoned as everyone played several rounds of this game.

School Library Connection: So how does Snorta! fit in as part of a game library in schools? Snorta! is an exercise in information organization. This is a foundational skill for studying, note taking, writing and many other core educational activites. There are few tools out there that help students to practice organizing information for quick and easy recall and I can guarantee you that NONE of them are this much fun!

I wanted to make available the finished AASL Standards & Board Games alignment document. It was well received at ALA Annual in Anaheim and I am in the process of reworking a abbreviated copy for ALA’s “I Love Libraries” booth at the upcoming Gen-Con conference.

If you are unsure where to start your collection, you can head over to the School Library System’s Game Library to see the games in ours. There, you can browse through the collection and narrow down games according to New York State educational standards or the new AASL standards.

Also, look forward to new reviews coming soon, including: SNORTA!, Railroad Tycoon, Age of Empires III and more.

This has been a labor of love, but I am so glad to have this finished and ready to share at ALA next week. I will have the finalized hard copies on hand at the open gaming night and MIG events. After ALA, the document will be available for download from the Genesee Valley BOCES School Library System Gaming website.

Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society

3.1 Skills:

• 3.1.1 & 3.1.2 Games are participatory pastimes that encourage learning communities through the sharing of concepts and strategies, collaboration amongst players and reflection on personal performance.

3.2 Dispositions in Action:

• 3.2.1 Play is powerful. It removes social barriers and provides a level of comfort that allows students to develop leadership skills and the confidence to present ideas to others.

• 3.2.3 In many cooperative games like Lord of the Rings, players can only succeed by working productively together through group discussion.

3.3 Responsibilities:

• 3.3.1 & 3.3.2 Success in modern games is not always limited to one set strategy. Settlers of Catan, and many other games, teach students to respect diverse perspectives and seek a variety of viewpoints.

• 3.3.5 When games are used in an educational context, they motivate students to participate in an exchange of ideas, often extending beyond the learning environment.

3.4 Self-Assessment Strategies:

• 3.4.1 Many games, such as Age of Empires III, have a set order of actions that are repeated over several rounds. This provides an opportunity for students to assess how well they are learning to play in order to revise strategies and learn more effectively in the future.

Pursue personal and aesthetic growth

4.1 Skills:

• 4.1.1 The enjoyable nature of games encourages reading, viewing and listening for pleasure and personal growth.

• 4.1.5 Through the use of well developed themes, games can connect ideas to the interests of students and build upon their previous knowledge and experiences.

• 4.1.6 Snorta!, is an elementary level game memory and matching game that requires familiar information to be organized in a way that can be called upon easily and quickly.

• 4.1.7 Collectable card games, table-top miniatures and board games all have a fan base that uses online social networks to communicate strategies, share stories and pictures, facilitate meetings and connect with each other.

2.1 Skills:

• 2.1.1 Games such as Puerto Rico, Caylus and Amun Re employ strategy and intricate mechanics which encourage the continued use of an inquiry based process through the application of critical thinking skills.

• 2.1.2 Enchanted Forest and Froggy Boogie are two examples of memory games that require students to mentally organize information for recall and use when needed.

• 2.1.3 Students playing Mystery of the Abbey, Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow or other deductive games use various strategies to draw conclusions from information encountered within the game and then apply any knowledge gained to future investigations.

2.2 Dispositions in Action:

• 2..2.1 Princes of Florence and Agricola provide a variety of paths to victory, enabling the flexible use of resources for adapting strategies to each unique situation.

• 2.2.2 Many games with an artistic mechanic (i.e. Portrayal or Cluzzle) require students to use divergent and convergent thinking for success.

• 2.2.4 The intrinsic enjoyment that comes from playing games, helps to foster a student’s ambition to demonstrate personal productivity through game growth and success.

2.3 Responsibilities:

• 2.3.1 The 18XX series helps students to develop real world skills by building an understanding of business, economics and the stock market.

• 2.3.2 The settings and themes in modern board games span both the globe and history. Students who are able to incorporate a more diverse and global perspective, benefit when attempting to draw conclusions based on the theme of the game.

2.4 Self Assessment Strategies:

• 2.4.1 Press your luck games, including Incan Gold and Formula De’ create situations where students must decide how to act on available information. They need to determine how much they are willing to risk and whether they need to accept, reject or modify their situation.

• 2.4.2 & 2.4.4 As students play games, they are actively applying critical thinking skills. They analyze available information, synthesize a strategy, evaluate their progress, and finally organize the results for reflection and development of direction for future games.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have a thing for shifty politicians once featured on tin lunch pails in anti-establishment comedic family sitcoms… so I may be slightly biased in my review.

Number of Players: 2
Grade Levels: High School
Length: 2 to 3 hours

1.1.2: Use prior/background knowledge as context for new learning
1.2.5: Adapt by changing the focus and strategies to achieve success
2.1.1: Apply critical thinking skills in order to draw conclusions and build new knowledge
3.1.5: Connect learning to community issues

1960: The Making of the President is one of two sophisticated political offerings from Z-Man Games. It is a two-player card driven simulation game. Each player takes on the role of a political candidate in the 1960 election: John F. Kennedy or Richard Nixon. The goal of the game is simple; maneuver through the delicate political landscape of 1960 in an effort to win state support and take the election.

Game play consists of several rounds, each broken up into phases. Players use cards from their hand to sway the political climate their way. Each card features an event from the time period that had an influence on the campaign.

Players may trigger the event or play the card for campaign points. Events may be of immediate value to one of the political parties or they may have a longer effect on the debates or the electoral count itself. If a player chooses not to use the event, he may use the card’s campaign points value to a few ends. He may use them to directly campaign in states in an effort to swing its leaning or strengthen his hold; he may invest in advertising with the hopes of overriding the power of a carried state or to pick up any undecided voters come election day; or he can strengthen his hold on the issues of the day: the economy, defense or civil rights.

The attention to detail in this game is breathtaking. The gameboard, a representation of the United States in 1960, accurately reflects the electoral votes at the time and serves as a great discussion point for the shifting of political influence over the years. Each of the cards has event specific photographs from the era, helping students to visualize how social, cultural and economic factors can influence the American political process.

All of these great American History and Government connections come with price… two to three hours of gameplay. This game demands a lot… but delivers. In a school setting, 1960 could work well with a small group, working in teams, for enrichment. Another option could be to use two copies of the game and split the class in half, having each group split into teams and play. After both games have finished, have the students come together as a class and discuss the outcomes of their games. What factors were key to the outcome and how do they compare with the other team’s game?

Overall, this is an outstanding game that requires some planning to implement effectively. The effort is worth it in the end. 1960’s ability to encompass the rigors of an election along with the myriad of mitigating circumstances that influence the process while packaging it all in an engaging manner is impressive to say the least.