Thing Fifteen - Waiter, there's a game in my library!!!

Oh boy!

There are very few subjects that I would consider myself an expert in and I was surprised to find one in the 23 things list, gaming. This could definitely be considered a generational trait. I'm 24 years old, and video games really only gained immense popularity within the past 20 or so years. I grew up with video games, and technology in general. To give a small example of the popularity of gaming in society, the video game industry has made more money then the movie industry by over $1 billion for several years in a row now. I have been playing games since I was a wee lad and is now definitely an almost daily part of life. Games have expanded from the "toys" for little boys in the 80's, to serious pieces of electronics and to some, centerpieces for home theaters.

I'm definitely no stranger to online games, MMO's, (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games) specifically the world's most popular one, World of Warcraft (WoW). WoW has now exceeded 10 million subscribers worldwide, which is unprecedented. Each subscriber is paying $15 per month to play the game, so to soar to over $10 million is nothing short of astounding. Now seeing as WoW has nothing to do with 23 things no library would have a practical use for it, I will stop discussing it, though believe me I could fill multiple blog posts just talking about my experiences.

Second Life is an interesting title. Like they stated, it's really not a game, there's no goal or points and clear purpose. You kinda have to make a game out of it yourself, if you're looking to be entertained. As far as I could tell from using it, was people using it as a social tool, a place to gather in e-form. I can kind of see the appeal to it in that regard, much like chat rooms were fun and exciting for me when I first got the internet, I can see people have a similar experience and feelings in second life. Personally, Second Life to me is incredibly boring and pointless. I don't have friends that play this, I'm far past the point of randomly talking to strangers on the internet, so there's not a lot of appeal for me. Though from the videos, I can see the use of it educationally, to reach out to younger students that might not otherwise be involved. Putting assignments and challenges along with videos of teachers and information in this digital format was forward thinking kind of move, and I think we've yet to see if it's a practical use of our time.