Library Voice

Nate Garrelts has a new book out called Meaning And Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays .  I have not read the book, but I will admit that it looks intriguing.  I’ve looked into ordering it for our library, and it’s on my Amazon Wish List as well.  However, I do question how much you can read into a video game.  TechDigest has doubts as well.  One example is quoted in Top 10 things you never knew about Grand Theft Auto (because you’re not brainy enough):

“Edges are employed to define geographical, social, and aesthetic boundaries, and within the overall ludic framework of the game’s magic circle, the city’s aesthetic and psychological edges also come to signify various ways of understanding play spaces in relation to the city. The idea of space as ludic depends in this sense both on the spatial properties outlined by game play as well as the created sense of enclosures…”
- from ‘Cruising in San Andreas: Ludic Space and Urban Aesthetics in Grand Theft Auto’ essay by Zach Whalen.

Does this make you want to play the game? I wonder how much fun the authors had while playing the games, or if they had any fun at all.

A couple of colleagues are using meebo as method to “Talk to your librarians.”  They’re using the meebo widget which is displayed prominently on the Communications Blog and on both of their contact pages (here and here).  I’ve had the meebo widget on my Business Blog for a couple of months now, and I’ve actually had a few people contact me that way.  I’m hoping that my colleagues’ widgets really take off, and I am very much encouraged by their pioneering effort in offering this new service. I’ll try to post more on this later as the service grows. 

GamesIndustry.biz says that it is a possibility that Apple could move into the video game console business.  According to the article:

Apple’s move into the console hardware market is ‘a distinct possibility’ according to Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora.

The research company believes that Apple could combine technology from some of its leading products to create a home console, supported by the continued evolution of its market-leading

“We think the videogame market represents a distinct possibility for Apple, especially considering that it recently announced the availability of videogames for its iPod through its iTunes store,” Tortora said in a note to clients.

While this does sound very intriguing, I wonder if the industry could support a fourth console?