Presentation of Legotheque at My French Library stand, IFLA 2014

1. My French Library
Video games: a tool for questioning
and self-construction

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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!

5. 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 !

6. Video games created by LGBTQ
community
• Share
• Testify
• Relate to a hero that matches expectations

7. 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 …

8. Women in video games
• Prize money (Princess Peach)
• Strong character, sometime portrayed as a
fantasy (Bayonetta, Lara Croft)
• Real women

9. 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

10. LGBT characters in video games
• Very present in games from 2000 to 2014 and
continuing
• Different postures
– Caricature
– Powerful

11. 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