i’ve mentioned scott nicholson before in relation to his video series, board games with scott; he’s also a professor of library science at syracuse university and runs their library game lab. recently, scott got funding to conduct an online course on running game events at libraries as a series of youtube videos (connected to discussion forums). the course has ended, but since all of the course content is on youtube, all of scott’s (and guests’) lectures remain available for viewing.

you might find the material redundant if you’re already knowledgable of games, or irrelevant if you’re not a librarian. i think the course is worth exploring, though, for two reasons:

the first is that scott presents a framework for understanding and thinking about games that encompasses all kinds – digital games, board games, “alternate reality” games, role-playing games. too often those of us who are involved in videogames fall into the trap of thinking about videogames as something completely seperate from the larger body of games and game experiences. (this is the fallacy of thinking about digital games as media rather than as experiences.)

and the second is that the course is interested in games as social experiences. librarians want to establish libraries as centers of community, and scott sees games as being potentially central to the creation of those communities. games are always considered in light of what kinds of experience they create for the people who are playing them and what kind of interactions between the players, the players and the community, and the players and the library they can facilitate.

i found sessions nine to fifteen, where professor bear presents a conceptual framework for understanding the experiences games create and then discusses five archetypes of experiences that accompany different games, the most valuable. i’m interested in games in social spaces, and this might be a good introduction to thinking about that subject.