Havchr is a developer and co-founder at Tumbleweed Interactive.
Personal opinions are personal, not company policy!

The Norwegian government has issued a new manifest to the public libraries. In this receipe for operations, video games is now mentioned. Every public library in Norway is obliged to have on-location access to video games. This will probably be executed with a seperate game room at the libraries.

Another interesting fact, is that the librarians is also supposed to be knowledgable about the medium. The government has stated that it will take time before librarians get the extra education they need to be “gamers”, but I think if they open their mind, this will be the most fun extra education they have ever experienced.

Our local library in Hamar, will also be part of the library gaming revolution. All the game developers and game developer students here in the region, should work together with the library to make it a hub for the great culture of gaming.

Personally, I love this. Bringing games into the library is a brilliant idea. Maybe the Citizen Kane of Video games everyone is waiting for, will be made by a kid who sits at the library playing games all day, then suddenly wanders off into all the other rich forms of culture that occupies the hundreds of bookshelfs.

He mixes, stirs. Concepts from a game, issues and questions raised by, say, Kafka, reads a book about game theory, builds upon that, builds something amazing.

I remember reading an interview with Ken Levine, where he slagged off game developers of always using the same story and setting. Fantasy, Sci-fi, what geeks grew up with. Maybe 15 years into the future, we’ll see someone make a good video game with themes such as those presented in “Crime and Punishment”, instead of just another sci-fi shooter with space marines. (I like my space marines, but variety is a blessing much needed)

So yeah, I’m very positive about this new development of the Norwegian public libraries. I hope the librarians in Norway will embrace this with open arms, and I look forward to what can be achieved on this front locally here in Hamar!