Until a few years ago, the last time I had really played videogames was in college, where I lost a couple of months of my life (in a row) to SimCity on the Super Nintendo system. I learned my lesson from that and since then, I’ve stayed away from games that I know will suck in huge amounts of my time because I’ll probably enjoy them so much. So instead, I stick mainly to casual (and usually social) games, although I do keep a list of all of the ones I’m going to play someday when I have more time, including The Sims, Myst, and World of Warcraft.

Which is why I love the fact that Michael Porter plays WoW and explains it in his presentations and sometimes on his blog. He even started a Facebook group just for WoW librarians, but now he’s gone one better and created a WoW Guild just for libraries and librarians.

The Libraries and Librarians Guild in WoW -the Largest On-line MMORPG Game in the World

“World of Warcraft is the largest “Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game” in the world. It has 10 million plus subscribers and is, in addition to being a blast and a lovely distraction, gloriously fun and addictive to many. And now, finally, WE (Libraries and Librarians) have a guild. If you play WoW and work in, for, or with Libraryland, you can now join the Libraries and Librarians Guild. We are new, but we already have a substantial Guild web site complete with a forum (very good in Wow-land). And a bank. In fact, we have a bank with three tabs and daily pulls for repairs (that is also quite good in WoW-land). Heck we even have an optional free (to you) Guild tabard (sort of like a t-shirt you wear in the game)….

So join us! We’ll be there waiting to show you the ropes…and chat…and kill bad guys! Along the way, you’ll likely grok the whole online community/gaming/libraries thing just a little bit more, and have a blast while you’re at it. In fact, consider this your invitation to do exactly that!

Note: If you want to join this guild you must be on the Aerie Peak -US server. If you are a new player be sure to pick that server! Also, if you are creating a toon (new character) or transferring an existing character to join this guild, be sure you put it on this server (Aerie Peak - US)!!!” [Libraryman]

Michael has already created a parallel community in the new, forthcoming version of WebJunction, as well, which will make a nice complement to the Games and Gaming group that will live in ALAConnect. Gaming is all around us!