Meet Mii

[Carl Cross]

Happy Friday everyone,

Last week Nintendo launched its glasses free 3D handheld the 3DS.

There are at least two other librarians on this list with one /waves/
and probably a few more.

For those of you who don’t have one it has an inbuilt social gaming
feature called Street Pass. The idea is that your 3DSes send
information to each other as you pass unknowingly in the street. Hence
the name.

At the moment the information is your Mii (avatar) and a few game
specific features such as downloading your best laps in racing game
Ridge Racer as a ‘ghost’ for the other player to beat. Streetfighter
takes a similar approach by having your team of trophies battle each
other for fun, profit and prizes.

There’s loads of fun stuff built into the 3DS that encourages social
interaction from early JRPG-alike StreetPass Quest to the utterly mad
face shooting ARG Face Raiders.

All cool stuff but what has it got to do with libraries?

Not everywhere is as population dense as Tokyo or London or Manchester
and your chances of meeting another 3DS owner in the wild are somtimes
slim.

Some enterprising folk are using the power of social media to hook up
with others in real life to swap data and to game. All you need is a
location and a bit of advertising, preferably in an online space like
the Meet Mii Facebook page.

See what it’s got to do with libraries now?

It needn’t stop at that of course. While only one of the launch lineup
of games offers online multiplayer (Streetfighter IV for the curious)
others have local multiplayer as long as both players have a copy of
the game. We’d be offering ourselves up as a venue to find other
players.

Of course there are problems with this idea. As far as I can see two
biggies and the usual ones about noise:

Biggie 1: It’s potentially a shop window for potential muggers – the
3DS is an expensive piece of kit and if they know there’s a whole load
of people with one in their pocket they may well take advantage.

Biggie 2: It’s no good trying to limit this to a given age group. If
you’re going to do it at all it must be for all comers which means
parents need to be warned. It’s a good opportunity to talk about
online security in general of course.

I’m considering trying this in a couple of our libraries and see what
happens. I will also be starting a regular Wii club in the near future
so I expect that to form part of that too.

Anyone else tempted? Can anyone else see any major problems with it
that I’ve missed at this stage of a Friday?


Meet Mii Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=135302413204689

Meet Mii webapage:

http://www.meetmii.net/


Have a good weekend,

Carl.

[Jen.Ba...@birmingham.gov.uk]

Hi all,

Have you seen this yet?

new pervasive/location-based game launched today designed by
internationally-renowned games designer, Jane Macgonigal for New York Public
Library. Looks like a really interesting use of the library space and
assets.

http://game.nypl.org/#/menu



Kind regards,

Jen

Jen Bakewell
Children's and Youth Librarian
Children's Office
Birmingham Central Library
Chamberlain Square
Birmingham
B3 3HQ
telephone: 0121 303 2175 / 07947185538
email: jen.ba...@birmingham.gov.uk
http://twitter.com/BhamLibrarian

Find us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/libraryofbirmingham & www.facebook.com/youngreaders
Find us on YouTube - www.youtube.com/user/LibraryofBham2013

How can we engage the 51% of people who don't currently use libraries?  Join the discussion on the Birmingham Libraries Staff Network -  http://birminghamlibrariesstaffnetwork.mixxt.me
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[JamieO]

Hi LibGaming UK
You raise a number of great points Carl, it seems a shame that The Sun
newspaper has taken the opportunity to ride the wave of enthusiasm
surrounding the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS, by focussing on claims that
the machine gives people headaches and makes them feel dizzy:
http://3ds.nintendolife.com/news/2011/04/nintendo_refutes_claims_of_widespread_3ds_headaches

I have played my 3DS for long periods of time, I was reviewing a game
and spent an entire day playing The Sims 3 in 3D, to the point that it
was the poor battery life which made me plug my 3DS into a mains that
frustrated me most. I am not saying that people do not experience
headaches, and I am definitely not advising people to play it for a
whole day, but it has not affected me (note that my eyes see the 3D
clearly with the slider placed in a very low position, which is not
far from it being set at the 2D level). Gamers have reacted to The
Sun’s reports in their own inimitable way, with a heavy dose of
sarcasm, as can be found at Pocket Gamer:
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/3DS/Nintendo+3DS/out_there.asp?c=28934

One extra point to note to libraries is that Nintendo have been very
clear that the 3D effect of their new handheld is not to be used by
children aged six and under, in its Health & Safety Precautions
section:
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/3ds/en_na/health_safety.jsp

If you would like to learn more about 3DS, Nintendo Life has an
extremely detailed FAQ feature (I am not mentioning this just because
I write for their website, the article is written by Corbie Dillard
who was one of the first gamers to play 3DS at Nintendo’s E3 2010
press conference and he is highly knowledgeable about their new
console):
http://3ds.nintendolife.com/news/2011/02/feature_nintendo_life_3ds_faq

Have fun with 3DS everyone,
Jamie.