My French Library

Video games: a tool for questioning and self-construction

Who are we ?

• Legotheque• French comittee from the French National

Association of Librarians• 13 members – public and academic libraries• Our points of interest: gender,

multiculturalism, racism, identity, self-construction

Why video games ?

• Video games: multi-shaped • Puts the player and the gaming experiment

first in the gaming mechanics• Playing : becoming a hero that does not

necessarily look like us and from whom we don't know much

• But, identification is important, through values or physical elements

Video Games in Library ?!• Attract new users, possibly younger ones

• Diversify documents offer

• Change perception of libraries

• Fulfill demand of equality of access to ressources : video games are expensive

• Extend sociability of users, enjoy playing activities and the skills that develop with gaming

• Initiate users to cognitive mechanics on one side (follow a story and live adventures) and on another side to the digital word (screen-reading …)

• Play, and have fun playing!

Video games & self-questioning

• Video games: perfect media to use to question yourself !

• But, when dealing with identity, it may be hard to relate, whether it be in terms of physical criterias or moral.

• Minorities and women don’t always appear in a positive, realistic way in video games.

• Mainstream games do not always provide the material for self-construction !

Video games created by LGBTQ community

• Share• Testify• Relate to a hero that matches expectations

Self-construction

• MMORPG: best use of video games• Sims and like-games offer, with new versions

or extensions, more and more possibilities to construct your character: sexual orientation, use of pronouns, family creation …

Women in video games

• Prize money (Princess Peach)• Strong character, sometime portrayed as a

fantasy (Bayonetta, Lara Croft)• Real women

Minorities in video games

• Few heroes are from minorities, but often present as support to the hero.

• Gears of War, a FPS-type game, features for example Cole, a former nfl-player

LGBT characters in video games

• Very present in games from 2000 to 2014 and continuing

• Different postures– Caricature – Powerful

Non-gendered

• Journey : the main character is not refered as he or she• Minecraft: not one animal in the game can be

identified – creator wanted to avoid gender questions

• Spore: ovipare creatures