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!
Sweet! I wish he played Entropia Universe; I could use some librarian buds there. 🙂
Comment by Terri Wilson — July 24, 2008 @ 10:23 am
[…] the rest of this great post here Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and […]
Pingback by WoW Your Librarian Friends — July 24, 2008 @ 10:35 am
Thanks for the linkage and discussion, Jenny. I hope we get lots of WoW playing library staff joining the Guild. Last night we were on with our first four members, including a couple of library directors. It was a blast chatting with them and getting things set up!
Comment by Michael Porter — July 24, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Yeah, I should have noted that I do intend to get into WoW, as I find it fascinating. I just want to be able to truly enjoy it. 🙂
Comment by jenny — July 24, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
[…] gotten into MPORGs (Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games). However posts this week from Libraryman, The Shifted Librarian, and Terri at Creative InfoPro have piqued my […]
Pingback by Jason the Content Librarian » Blog Archive » Would you like to play a game? — July 25, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
Is this an Alliance Guild? What kind of classes do you think you will need? I would like to start a new toon but want to be sure I choose the right type.
Comment by Carol Payne — July 28, 2008 @ 10:12 am
Hi Carol! Michael Porter here, Guild Master for the Libraries and Librarians Guild. We are an Alliance Guild on the Aerie Peak server. You can see *some* of the members on the guild web site linked above and here: http://librariesandlibrarians.guildomatic.com/ The guild is almost twice as big as what is showing up on that site, but we have lots of folks under level 10 (which don’t show up on the member roll). We seem to have a lot of hunters. If you come online and find a guild member there is a good chance they can let you in. Also, that site linked above has a guild application form. I haven’t tested it yet, but this might be a great opportunity. 🙂
Hope to see you in the Guild soon!
-Michael (aka in WoW: libraryman, librarette (druid), libraryrogue, librarymage and libraryhuntr)
Comment by Michael Porter — July 29, 2008 @ 2:13 pm
There is another guild of librarians in WoW, which I just learned of a week or so ago. They’re on Kirin Tor: http://thelibrarian.wowstead.com/character/53551. “The Librarian” is the guild name and they’re over 100 members at this point. They are Alliance and I would guess they operate on Eastern Time?
I’m not trying to create competition for Michael’s guild, merely showing other librarians have jumped into Azeroth.
Cheers,
Jim
Comment by Jim Buckett — July 30, 2008 @ 7:19 am
[…] a more library-related note (though, there is a WoW guild made-up only of people who work in libraries, so it’s sorta library-related), working in the […]
Pingback by Thing 9 « Playing With Electric Toys — August 16, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
Jim’s right! I’m the guild master for The Librarian on Kirin Tor. We aren’t _just_ for Librarians, since I discovered that on Kirin Tor, we just didn’t play frequently enough to make things fun. I also don’t mean this as competition for Michael’s guild, but rather a compliment to it. We formed up in May, so the fact that we’ve been around longer coupled with free access to all interested should account for why we’ve more members. There are now even more guilds named The Librarian, and I’m dying to know who started them.
Of note, Aerie Peak as of this posting is a full realm.
Comment by BWS Johnson — November 7, 2008 @ 10:20 am