Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop

Learning Beyond the Stacks

Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Hannah R. Gerber

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781800715066
• eBook ISBN: 9781800715073
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop: Learning Beyond the Stacks offers fresh perspectives of youth videogaming in public libraries. Abrams and Gerber delve into research-based accounts to explore feedback mechanisms that support important reflective and iterative practices. Highlighting how videogame library programs can evolve to meet contemporary needs of youth patrons, the authors equip readers to re-envision library programming that specifically features youth videogame play.

Chapter One

Introduction

This introductory chapter discusses the importance of studying youth videogaming activities in library spaces. In this chapter, we look to existing research of library videogame programming, and we call attention to the feedback loop, which promotes in-game advancement and iterative meaning making. An overview of two foundational theoretical concepts – constructivist and sociocultural theories of learning – helps to explain how gamers’ meaning making occurs through the feedback loop. Finally, we close with a general sketch of each chapter in the book.

Two youth, Davis and Billy, converse in low voices about the best character to select for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a videogame in which players assume the roles of popular characters from various PlayStation franchise games.

Billy exclaims, “Nope, seriously, you are crazy. Ratchet is the best one to play. He heals faster. Go ahead and play Kratos. You may deal more damage than me, but I will be able to move out of the way faster, so you have to be able even to hit me first.”

“Uh huh,” murmurs Davis, “that is what you think.”

Meanwhile, two other youth, Carlos and Jeri, wander up and start to engage in a conversation with Davis and Billy about which character is best to play. Clara, who is sitting at a nearby computer, overhears the conversation. Wanting to provide information to the players, Clara pulls out her mobile phone and searches the PlayStation All-Star Wiki; she begins to list aloud numerous statistics (e.g., health, damage, and the recovery/rebirth rate) for each character within the game. As Davis and Billy start their match, they announce the character they selected and support their decision with some of the statistics and reasons that Carlos, Jeri, and Clara had noted. Davis and Billy continue to play the All-Star Battle Royale game, and Carlos, Jeri, and Clara remain as onlookers who interject various anecdotes, facts, and exclamations.

This example might seem common to many who have overheard or seen youth playing videogames, and it represents the types of interactions and meaning making we have observed in public library spaces in the northeastern and mid-south United States. It was from interactions, such as these, that we began more closely investigating how and why videogamers were making meaning, in general, and in library spaces, in particular.

Although videogame playing in libraries might seem like a foreign concept to some, the scenario above is quite common in libraries that support videogame playing. In fact, despite the sluggish uptake of videogames in public libraries (Abrams & Van Eck, 2019), the inclusion of videogaming activities in public libraries, school libraries, and academic libraries has been gaining nationwide momentum within the past decade (Adams, 2009; Courtier & DeLooper, 2017; Gallaway, 2009; Levine, 2006, 2008; Neiburger, 2007; Nicholson, 2009, 2010; Thomas & Clyde, 2013). As more and more librarians across the nation continue to (or look to) integrate videogames into their youth programming, it is important to examine how youth play, how they make meaning, and how they negotiate their learning within these spaces. Doing so supports an understanding of a medium that not only can contemporize youth library services by attracting countless youth to partake in library programming, but also can engage youth in iterative and agentive learning. In other words, through videogaming, youth continuously reflect on their thinking and refine their ideas, all the while assuming ownership of their learning processes. This learning is supported by, what we refer to as, the feedback loop.

The feedback loop, as we conceptualize it, is an iterative system of four main features in and around the videogame that offer the player essential information: (1) objectives and rules (i.e., how and why the game is played), (2) progress bars (i.e., real-time information about progress), (3) in-game maps (i.e., visuals of a player’s in-game location), and (4) leaderboards (i.e., post-game scoreboards). Although each of the four entities has its own purpose, no one feedback loop feature is privileged; rather, the integrated system works vis-à-vis the interplay of its components. After all, progress bars and in-game maps have little meaning without the context of objectives and rules; leaderboards that showcase the final tally often motivate players to improve performance, and, thus, the players look to real-time information from progress bars and in-game maps to achieve objectives; and in-game maps help players to navigate within the game, and successful navigation will lead to sustained “lives” and progress.

Although these examples might oversimplify the complex and integrated nature of the feedback loop, they highlight how the four features work in concert to provide players the information they need to play the game. Youth often succeed in games by anticipating, interacting with, and responding to each of the four features individually and as a feedback system. This book offers a window into youth meaning making in library videogame spaces, and we use the feedback loop to frame this discussion of iterative learning that takes place in and around videogame play.

After all, in videogame play, feedback loops enable players to (re)assess their progress; youth reflect on their progress in-game and post-game, and such self-assessment is crucial to decision making and mastery development. As scholar James Paul Gee (2012) explained, and videogames research confirms, assessment in games involves

(1) problem solving, (2) the quality of one’s choices and decisions across time in terms of their short– and long-term consequences, and (3) preparation for future learning, that is, how well the player is prepared to go to the next harder level, not just what the player has mastered in the level. (p. xix)

These types of assessments are critical to youth engagement in interest-driven, reflective, and iterative learning experiences that often are achieved through the feedback loop (Abrams & Gerber, 2013). Addressed in greater detail in Chapter Two, the feedback loop is an important framework that promises to help readers within and beyond the Library Sciences field to consider enhancements to and refinement of youth videogame programming and meaning-making practices.

Furthermore, although library videogame programming typically has been situated in the brick-and-mortar library building, the feedback loop and its implications and applications for youth meaning making, in general, and library programming development, in particular, can be extended into remote situations wherein the library, via the Internet, remains the hub for youth interaction and supports equity and access to videogame play. We recognize that remote situations often privilege youth patrons who have reliable Internet access, and, even in the third decade of the twenty-first century, there are people in rural, underdeveloped, and impoverished areas of the world in which Internet access is nonexistent or unreliable.

When we discuss videogaming in remote situations, we envision a number of possibilities for all librarians and patrons, regardless of their geographic location or context. First, satellite-based Internet can offer a temporary and portable solution to those without immediate installation of cellular towers or hardwired Internet access. Second, the check-out method of videogame hardware (e.g., consoles, controllers, cables) for non-Internet game play is another viable option that we have witnessed youth take advantage of at various libraries. Despite the possibilities these two options offer, we recognize that there are limitations. Satellite Internet is not yet cost effective and notoriously has horrible ping time¹ for any multiplayer gaming, and checking out gaming hardware without Internet connectivity will not fully support youth engagement in remote (e.g., not physically next to each other) collaborative gaming activities. Although we recognize that these options for collaborative gaming do not mitigate the issues of equity and access, nonetheless, both ideas provide gaming opportunities to youth who do not have consistent or affordable access to Internet, data plans, or videogame hardware. Furthermore, it is our sincere hope that, by calling attention to equity and access issues and opportunities, readers will consider the far-reaching implications and applications of library-based youth videogame programming.

Following the discussion of the feedback loop – what it is and how it works – in the first half of this book, we offer practical ideas for building upon the four features in digital and nondigital ways, and we address how the feedback loop can sustain and promote youth interaction when circumstances require remote socializing.

Why We Wrote this Book

As educators and education researchers interested in learning about youth meaning-making experiences in, through, and across digital and nondigital videogame spaces, we initially were intrigued to see many librarians promote videogame programming in their libraries. We have met with librarians who are interested in learning more about videogames and youth learning, as well as those who skeptically wonder why videogames should be included in library programming. We have spoken with librarians who are gamers; who are interested in supporting youth-driven practices; who are hesitant to promote videogames; who are uncertain why videogaming should be embraced; and who might not fit into any one of these categories but, overall, show concern about and interest in videogame programming.

Eli Neiburger’s (2007) well-known book, Gamers . . . in the Library?! The Why, What, and How of Videogame Tournaments for All Ages, helped to support many librarians looking to initiate and maintain videogame programming at their libraries. Now that some libraries currently offer or look to offer videogame programming, another book – one that draws upon research of videogaming in public libraries to provide insight into gaming and learning – is needed to support librarians in developing, reconceptualizing, and reinvigorating youth programming. More specifically, we contend that videogaming inherently involves important reflective and iterative practices, and, by examining and understanding ways that the feedback loop can help youth develop and make sense of their practices, librarians can help youth hone their meta-awareness of such meaning making, even as librarians find ways to develop their youth videogame programming. Videogames, Libraries, and The Feedback Loop: Learning Beyond the Stacks takes up this work.

Why Videogames and Why Libraries?

Across the nation, youth are finding technology-oriented outlets for expressing themselves; one such ubiquitous outlet is videogame play (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Center on Media and Child Health, 2019; Lenhart, Smith, Anderson, Duggan, & Perrin, 2015). Understandably, youth gaming and the topics of some videogames have prompted concern about the ways that videogames – especially popular shooter games and others that involve violence – might affect youth.² Research repeatedly suggests, however, that whereas violent videogame play is not recommended for individuals predisposed to violence, videogames themselves are not the specific reason people are violent or that they commit crimes; antisocial behavior noted in early research is a “phantom” effect of videogame play in that it does not exist (Zendle, Kudenko, & Cairns, 2018, p. 27). Research indicates that videogames “whether violent or nonviolent, have minimal deleterious influence on children’s well-being” (Ferguson, 2015, p. 655), and violence in videogames does not lead to increased aggression (Dowsett & Jackson, 2019). Furthermore, violence in videogames is not something that transforms every person’s behavior; other psychological factors play a primary role in shaping behavior (Newman, Fox, Roth, Mehta, & Harding, 2005). With that said, we acknowledge that videogaming is a popular and prevalent contemporary practice with controversial media attention.³, ⁴ Our research suggests, however, that videogaming principles and practices can be used to support and advance youth videogame programming in public libraries despite controversies about the medium.

Videogames have rich, multimodal environments that encourage critical thinking about and interaction with diverse modes (e.g., images, sounds, movement, texture), storylines, concepts, and practices that exist across the online and offline gaming spaces. Videogaming and game-based activities in and beyond the library also have encouraged youth to partake in practices related to civic engagement (Abrams, 2015, 2017; Gerber & Gaitan, 2015, 2017; Hollett & Ehret, 2016; Kahne, Middaugh, & Evans, 2009; Lenhart et al., 2008); to develop passions for and understandings of history (Abrams, 2009a, 2009b Squire, 2005), literature (Abrams, 2009a, 2009b; Gerber, 2009; Gerber & Price, 2011; Stufft, Abrams, & Gerber, 2016), math (Abrams & Russo, 2015), and science (Barab et al., 2009); and to engage in interest-driven practices (Abrams, 2009a, 2009b, 2010, 2012, 2015; Gerber & Abrams, 2014; Hollett, 2016; Kafai & Fields, 2013). In our multiple studies of youth gamers, for example, we have found that their videogaming is not limited to playing a videogame; rather youth are creating and engaging in new material related to their game play, echoing scholars’ observations that gaming engages players in active, critical knowledge development (Abrams, 2009a, 2009b, 2017a, 2017b, Apperley & Beavis, 2011, 2013; Apperley & Walsh, 2012; Burwell & Miller, 2016; Gee, 2003/2007; Gerber, 2008, 2017). Furthermore, players not only engage with the videogame on the screen, but also they act out game scenes and physically respond to the videogame beyond the screen in nondigital environments (Abrams, 2011, 2012, 2015).

The movement to include videogames in the library recognizes how games can be important tools for learning. Playing videogames is an important literacy practice that some libraries have acknowledged, including the National Library of France, which, 15 years ago, defended videogames as “document[s] and … object[s] for scientific research” (Kirriemuir, 2006, p. 64). The examination of videogaming in libraries can provide insight into the ways youth digital practices can exist within the confines of traditional environments, as well as the physical and conceptual structure(s) that supports a dynamic culture of learning.

Arguing that libraries have an imperative to stay relevant by addressing community needs, Eli Neiburger (2007) traced the origins of the library to public spaces where patrons engaged in reading on stone tablets, to the subsequent move to books that were chained to desks, to the evolution of the printing press that allowed for the mass production of books that individuals could purchase. Libraries retained their purpose as a public space, however, by enabling patrons to borrow those same books. Fast forward to the beginning of the new millennium, Neiburger acknowledged that library circulations included electronic media, such as DVDs and CDs, as a way to appeal to a population that increasingly turned to technology for information and entertainment. In contemporary library spaces, patrons with Internet access can acquire books and media through the online library site. Considering that many youth can engage in research from their homes and seeing the growing popularity of videogames, some librarians have begun to include videogames among the materials their library circulates (Baker et al., 2008) and offer on-site videogame play opportunities for youth, thereby increasing youth comfort with and use of libraries (Boyle, 2018; Pham, 2008). In the last deca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Chapter One Introduction
• Chapter Two The Feedback Loop: Learning from Videogame Experiences
• Chapter Three A Tale of Two Library Videogame Spaces
• Chapter Four Making Meaning Through the Feedback Loop
• Chapter Five Where Do We Go from Here? Rethinking Library Videogame Programming Through the Feedback Loop
• Chapter Six Looking Forward: Possibilities for Future Library Videogame Programming
• Afterword
• Glossary
• References
• Index