Could I Become Addicted to Online Gaming?

Yes.

Have or will I?

No. I'd never tried online gaming before this week. But it's only because I get literally insane when I get too deeply into a game. I've learned over the years that I cannot handle any except the most casual gaming experiences and so have to carefully monitor my game useage. Kirby's Epic Yarn? I got it as a Christmas gift this year and love it because it's 1. easy  (aimed at 7 year-olds, I believe) and 2. very contained - there aren't a lot of choices. I lost the months of January and February to Harvest Moon last year -another game essentially aimed at children, so I knew I had to be cautious when exploring World of Warcraft and other online gaming experiences this week.

Luckily, I was able to talk to my friend's husband, who is a former W.O.W. player. He explained the concept to me, the storyline, and the characters...and then told me how completely addicted to it he had become a few years back. He tried to play less or not on certain days, but quickly realized he had to stop altogether. I understand why kids enjoy these and similar games, and I don't see an educational use for them. They can be fun in moderation and I'm glad I know about them as a librarian, but I'd rather focus my educational efforts on other online applications. Perhaps there could be an online gaming club afterschool to discuss strategy or gameplay- it'd be a way to connect with kids but still leaves the more valuable learning experiences (in my opinion, anyway) to the school day.

I found Second Life to have perhaps more educational possibilities, but it's still an environment that's enormous, potentially unsafe, and hard to monitor/control with students. I saw some great SL libraries that librarians had set up that are really fun ways to access online books and resources, and a way to chat with others who are interested in libraries. I would have enjoyed interacting with other librarian avatars but couldn't find any during my visits (or couldn't figure out how to find them). I'm sure that SL gets easier and more manageable with even more use. But I wouldn't want students chatting with random avatars on the site or visiting innapropriate or completely non-educational areas. So while there are possibilites (virutal field trips and assignments, virtual cross-curricular community planning, etc.) it would take a lot of time, energy, and planning to keep it safe, educational, and easy to access.