Games in the Library - How Fleeting Fame Can Be

The selection of games available for check-out in our library as well as games available at events have gone through a scrutinizing process in order to get their barcodes.

• Is the price worth the game play we can get out of it?
• What is the rating?  Why was it given this rating?
• Is it co-op?  Single player?
• What type of game is it (casual, RPG, simulation, sports, etc.)?  
• Will that appeal to our audience?  
• Will that be good for gamers who can only come in occasionally for fifteen minutes at a time?

Clearly, there are a lot of factors, even more than when purchasing a book for the collection, which means I put a lot of consideration into each video game when we have the budget.  There have not been specifically allocated funds for video games for about a year, since we received approval for a Wii, equipment, and multiple game purchases, so we seemed overdue.

While teens occasionally bring their own games to events, many do not have their own to share, making the library events even more appealing, but thrusting more responsibility on the library to provide the "latest and greatest."  They are more than willing to voice their opinions about what the next game should be in the library and it did not take a complex equation, scientific formulas, or even a tally to see what the most popular request was...

Thanks to our Wishing Tree from last month, I was able to  purchase Halo 4 on XBOX 360, something for which the teens had been clamoring for approximately a year.  The teens asked after this game at least twice a month, but I feel this was restraint compared to how much they wanted this game.  Now that we finally had it, I felt pretty cool.


The general reception was instant excitement.  Though the game is a little under a year and a half old, it was new to them and to the library.  It has been checked out multiple times by teens and was played heavily at our game night last week.  While it has only been "on the shelf" for two weeks, it has already paid for itself.

But then there's that one teen...

When I first mentioned we would be getting Halo 4, one teen who had been looking forward to it commented, "Oh, I'm into Assassin's Creed now."

This was bound to happen, of course.  Fame can be very fleeting and the world moves fast for teens in the 21st century; what is popular today can be old news by tomorrow.  The good news is that this game will most likely hold in popularity for the general community for quite a bit.  Halo 3, though coming up on seven years old, is still popular and Soul Calibur IV, at six years old, is still checked out frequently, though it is slowly being eclipsed by Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii.

Out with the old, in with the new!

The moral is: Act fast when you can to ensure you snag everyone's attention, but grabbing some tried-and-true trends a little late in the game is still acceptable when you need to account for other factors such as a tight budget (just ensure you know the difference between a trend and a fad).

As a side note, I often lean toward acquiring games that have co-op features for at least two players (though we can accommodate up to four on Wii and XBOX 360).  Many studies have researched and reported the values video game play can have for teens, which includes the rising statistic of social game-play that include further benefits of increased self-esteem in a group, teamwork, and general interaction skills for many players.  As a community center, it is important that the video games available not only be entertaining, but an outlet for socializing and development. 

Teenagers Assemble!