Videos games: a tool for questionning and self-construction
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Transcript of Videos games: a tool for questionning and self-construction
My French Library
Video games: a tool for questioning and self-construction
Who are we ?
• Legotheque• French comittee from the French National
Association of Librarians• 13 members – public and academic libraries• Our points of interest: gender,
multiculturalism, racism, identity, self-construction
Why video games ?
• Video games: multi-shaped • Puts the player and the gaming experiment
first in the gaming mechanics• Playing : becoming a hero that does not
necessarily look like us and from whom we don't know much
• But, identification is important, through values or physical elements
Video Games in Library ?!• Attract new users, possibly younger ones
• Diversify documents offer
• Change perception of libraries
• Fulfill demand of equality of access to ressources : video games are expensive
• Extend sociability of users, enjoy playing activities and the skills that develop with gaming
• Initiate users to cognitive mechanics on one side (follow a story and live adventures) and on another side to the digital word (screen-reading …)
• Play, and have fun playing!
Video games & self-questioning
• Video games: perfect media to use to question yourself !
• But, when dealing with identity, it may be hard to relate, whether it be in terms of physical criterias or moral.
• Minorities and women don’t always appear in a positive, realistic way in video games.
• Mainstream games do not always provide the material for self-construction !
Video games created by LGBTQ community
• Share• Testify• Relate to a hero that matches expectations
Self-construction
• MMORPG: best use of video games• Sims and like-games offer, with new versions
or extensions, more and more possibilities to construct your character: sexual orientation, use of pronouns, family creation …
Women in video games
• Prize money (Princess Peach)• Strong character, sometime portrayed as a
fantasy (Bayonetta, Lara Croft)• Real women
Minorities in video games
• Few heroes are from minorities, but often present as support to the hero.
• Gears of War, a FPS-type game, features for example Cole, a former nfl-player
LGBT characters in video games
• Very present in games from 2000 to 2014 and continuing
• Different postures– Caricature – Powerful
Non-gendered
• Journey : the main character is not refered as he or she• Minecraft: not one animal in the game can be
identified – creator wanted to avoid gender questions
• Spore: ovipare creatures