Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop by Sandra Schamroth Abrams

Author:Sandra Schamroth Abrams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800715073
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2021-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

Objectives and Rules

As mentioned in Chapter Two, objectives and rules in videogames are central to understanding one’s mission, quest, and/or role within a particular game or setting. Objectives and rules can be imposed by the game or space in which the player is playing, or they can be self-imposed and self-directed by a collective group of gamers or even by an individual gamer. In either case, the social negotiations that occur within and around game objectives and rules also (a) support players’ reflections on their personal goals and missions and (b) advance their game play through leveling up and/or increasing opportunities for creative engagement. Progress, therefore, often immediately relates to short- and long-term goals. Additionally, the player can feel appropriately challenged and rewarded, and interaction with the game and those in the game space often is meaningful.

Consider, for example, how players can use objectives and rules to explore and make meaning in Minecraft, which offers a variety of objectives depending on the players’ interests and self-determined goals. In survival mode, players build in the world while being mindful of the time of day and strategize accordingly; mobs (monsters), such as creepers, spiders, skeletons, and zombies, spawn at night and can lead to in-game demise. This looming danger can prompt players to work swiftly when the Minecraft sun is setting, to remain close to their homes, to remain sated (hunger causes weakness), and to keep a distance from the mobs (or kill them in the game). In creative mode, players can build without worrying about zombies or other attackers, time constraints, loss of life, or depletion of resources. Players also have access to most, if not all structural blocks,14 building improvements, and weapons, as well as the ability to fly over and view work they have created and others have built. Such freedoms enable players to build a home, create a village, spawn animals and operate a farm, or craft whatever comes to mind, and then to fly over these creations to get a bird’s-eye view of their progress. These options demonstrate how youth can be arbiters of their gaming experiences.

Both inside and outside of the library space, Abrams has watched youth independently and collaboratively use Minecraft in creative mode in this fashion. In one instance, she observed youth determined to create a complex roller coaster. After building supportive structures, digging tunnels, and laying the rail ties (see Figure 4.1), the youth used a predesigned Minecraft cart to go for several rides on their above-ground and subterranean roller coaster.

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