Gaming with the National Library

Introducing our event programme Takaro

In today’s fast changing online world, we know that parents and educators are wondering how to stay connected with the younger generation.

It’s one thing to choreograph a family tik tok but quite another to understand the nuances of a multi-player gaming platform. Not to mention the eye rolls from the kids when we ask lots of questions. In this new world, parents also worry about what is appropriate content for children and just how much adult supervision is the right amount.

At the National Library, we struggle with this too. How do we remain relevant to youth audiences to ensure that our collections and services will meet their current and future needs?

Takaro | Gaming is our new public programme aimed to meet younger audiences (and their parents and teachers) where they are, and that’s online. In particular, esports which is the fastest growing segment of media and entertainment. 1

Esports

Esports (short for electronic sports), are video games played like competitive sports on viewing platforms. They are a developing market with a significant presence on social media sites frequented by youth.

There is no denying the impact of gaming in our modern world. As of 2021, research shows that 76% of all New Zealanders play video games. The number of young Kiwi players is 93% (those aged 5-14). 2

Since their inception in the 1970s, video games have gone from a nerdy pastime to a major pop culture movement. The perception that gaming is a solitary pursuit is also being debunked, with an estimated 70% playing online with friends.

The Esports industry is big business, conservatively valued at $1.38 billion (and expected to rise to $2 billion within 5 years). 3 Corporate sponsorships are rising as business seeks to stay connected with, and relevant to, youth audiences.

Gaming and esports is also becoming a viable and attractive career pathway. For example, the US Military use it as a recruitment tool to reach youth and educate them on military service. However, the opportunities are not limited to just playing -

“Most people think the only career in esports is professional gaming. In reality, there are jobs in management, operations, sales, event planning, coaching, travel agent, and even social media coordinating. With esports quickly becoming a billion-dollar industry, more fantastic jobs are becoming available beyond gaming”.

Are esports good for our tamariki?

Like all new frontiers, there are questions including the nature of the content that children are exposed to online and concerns about the impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.

Content classification

Over the past four decades there has been much debate around the influence of video games, and specifically the correlation between games and real-world violence.

In 1994, the Electronic Software Rating Board (ESRB) was created to establish a universal content rating system. Founded with the help of child development and academic experts, they became an important source of information for parents about gaming content. Their rating system includes factors such as violence, substance abuse, nudity, gambling and more in determining the appropriate age ratings for games. Since its inception, the ESRB is the world’s most effective rating system.

In New Zealand, the rating system used for gaming is also the ESRB. This provides parents with guidance on content in a similar way to how television and movie content is classified.

Wellbeing

As esports has developed into a serious and potentially lucrative entertainment and sport sector, maintaining player physical and mental agility is key to competing successfully.

The Takaro Esport programme will include nutrition and wellbeing talks alongside regular movement breaks to maintain alertness and a competitive edge. Just like international Esport models.

Gaming and violence

Today, there are many games that have become easily recognisable. Fortnite, Call of Duty, Halo, Sonic, Pac-Man and Super Mario to name a few. These games have shaped themselves to become subcultures of gaming with their own fandoms, lore and even series/movies. But video games started as an expensive and generally socially unacceptable pastime.

The first game launched was in October 1958 by Physicist William Higinbotham. His creation would later lead to the 1970s game “Pong”. “Pong” became the start of a revolution into gaming. This changed gaming in all its forms, from revivals to pinball machines, the rise of arcades, and gaming consoles in the 1970s and 1980s. In the later part of this decade game creators centred storytelling concepts on more mature audiences to access older audiences and increase sales.

1976 saw a move into more action/mature based games with the unlicensed release of Death Race, based on the movie of the same name. In the previous year, a game version of Jaws was also released but Death Race saw more human centred violence. The associated press and several health and safety board’s immediately voiced concerns about the messages of the video game. This resistance to gaming was increased with the release of Mortal Kombat, a fighting game that openly depicted violence and gore. 4

There has been much debate and many studies over the decades about whether violent games lead to violent behaviour.

A study by The Royal Society Open Science re-examined 28 previous studies on this topic along with their own study which surveyed 21,000 youth about the effects of violent video games. The study found that all the data studied together showed “a statistically significant but miniscule positive correlation between gaming and aggression, below the threshold required to count as even a small effect” and concluded that, “Thus, current research is unable to support the hypothesis that violent video games have a meaningful long-term predictive impact on youth aggression.” 5

The study goes on to explain why the gaming industry and violent games have received so much criticism. It lists publication bias as the primary source of disinformation among the public as the first major obstacle. The other is the shift of moral panic to social trends are now predominantly all centred-on video games. In the 1950s the moral panic was on comic books due to their exposure of violence and crime. In the 1960s this panic was on pinball machines due to them being linked to rebellious behaviour and in the 70s-80s it was Rock’n’roll and Heavy Metal. All have been unfounded and are now accepted parts of our culture.

Modern researchers have also found that gaming (even action/shooting games) increase cognitive thinking, problem-solving and hand eye co-ordination. This has now led to gaming being a central source for modern learning and information retention.

That said, given the growth of the sector, ongoing research and analysis is to be expected.

Esports game day at the Library

The National Library is looking to educate and discuss these topics with the public and invites you to join us in learning how to support this movement with our own esports simulator on the 8 October. Come and find out what it takes to be an esports athlete and register for a place in an esports team.

This free Esports game day includes opportunities for young gamers to participate in esports based on the game Valorant (rated teen).

There will be other age-appropriate games for younger children and seminars for parents and teachers on how to talk gaming with your kids.

Footnotes

1. What Esports Jobs are Available Other than Gaming? — Ready Esports

2. Share of the population who play video games in New Zealand in 2021, by age group. — Statista

3. Esports Market Value — Statista

4. Violence and Video games — Wikipedia

5. Do Longitudinal Studies support long-term relationships between the aggressive game play and youth aggressive behaviour? A meta-analytic examination. — Royal Society Open Science