Rachel Ivy Clarke

Developing a video game metadata schema for the Seattle Interactive Media Museum

As interest in video games increases, so does the need for intelligent access to them. However, traditional organizational systems and standards fall short. To fill this gap, we are collaborating with the Seattle Interactive Media Museum to develop a formal metadata schema for video games. In the paper, we describe how the schema was established from a user-centered design approach and introduce the core elements from our schema. We also discuss the challenges we encountered as we were conducting a domain analysis and cataloging real-world examples of video games. Inconsistent, vague, and subjective sources of information for title, genre, release date, feature, region, language, developer and publisher information confirm the importance of developing a standardized description model for video games.

A conceptual model for video games and interactive media

In this article, we describe a conceptual model for video games and interactive media. Existing conceptual models such as the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) are not adequate to represent the unique descriptive attributes, levels of variance, and relationships among video games. Previous video game‐specific models tend to focus on the development of video games and their technical aspects. Our model instead attempts to reflect how users such as game players, collectors, and scholars understand video games and the relationships among them. We specifically consider use cases of gamers, with future intentions of using this conceptual model as a foundation for developing a union catalog for various libraries and museums. In the process of developing the model, we encountered many challenges, including conceptual overlap with and divergence from FRBR, entity scoping, complex relationships among entities, and the question of how to model additional content for game expansion. Future work will focus on making this model interoperable with existing ontologies as well as further understanding and description of content and relationships.

Facet Analysis of Video Game Genres

Genre is an important feature for organizing and accessing video games. However, current descriptors of video game genres are unstandardized, undefined, and embedded with multiple information dimensions. This paper describes the development of a more complex and sophisticated scheme consisting of 12 facets and 358 foci for describing and representing video game genre information. Using facet analysis, the authors analyzed existing genre labels from scholarly, commercial, and popular sources, and then synthesized them into discrete categories of indexing terms. This new, more robust scheme provides a framework for improved intellectual access to video games along multiple dimensions.

Why Video Game Genres Fail: A Classificatory Analysis

This article explores the current affordances and limitations of video game genre from a library and information science perspective with an emphasis on classification theory. We identify and discuss various purposes of genre relating to video games, including identity, collocation and retrieval, commercial marketing, and educational instruction. Through the use of examples, we discuss the ways in which these purposes are supported by genre classification and conceptualization and the implications for video games. Suggestions for improved conceptualizations such as family resemblances, prototype theory, faceted classification, and appeal factors for video game genres are considered, with discussions of strengths and weaknesses. This analysis helps inform potential future practical applications for describing video games at cultural heritage institutions such as libraries, museums, and archives, as well as furthering the understanding of video game genre and genre classification for game studies at large.

A qualitative investigation of users' discovery, access, and organization of video games as information objects

Video games are popular consumer products as well as research subjects, yet little exists about how players and other stakeholders find video games and what information they need to select, acquire and play video games. With the aim of better understanding people’s game-related information needs and behaviour, we conducted 56 semi-structured interviews with users who find, play, purchase, collect and recommend video games. Participants included gamers, parents, collectors, industry professionals, librarians, educators and scholars. From this user data, we derive and discuss key design implications for video game information systems: designing for target user populations, enabling recommendations based on appeals, offering multiple automatic organization options and providing relationship-based, user-generated, subject and visual metadata. We anticipate this work will contribute to building future video game information systems with new and improved access to games.

Exploring relationships among video games

This poster explores relationships among video games in an attempt to better understand the domain of video games and interactive media as well as improve user access to games. Video games are related in complex ways that cannot be adequately represented by contemporary conceptual models like Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). Relationships between game editions, series, distribution methods and additional game content all pose challenges for those seeking to describe video games in a user-centered way.

Domain analysis for a video game metadata schema: issues and challenges

As interest in video games increases, so does the need for intelligent access to them. However, traditional organization systems and standards fall short. Through domain analysis and cataloging real-world examples while attempting to develop a formal metadata schema for video games, we encountered challenges in description. Inconsistent, vague, and subjective sources of information for genre, release date, feature, region, language, developer and publisher information confirm the imporatnce of developing a standardized description model for video games.

Designing disciplinary identity: an analysis of the term design in library and information science vocabulary

This poster explores the role of design in the disciplinary identity and positioning of librarianship and information science through examination of the term “design” in two prominent contemporary library and information science vocabularies: the thesaurus for H.W. Wilsons Library Literature & Information Science Full Text database and the American Society for Information Science & Technologys Thesaurus of Information Science, Technology and Librarianship. Findings include conflicting and fractured identities, power struggles and paradigm entrenchment. Further research into disciplinary identity is necessary not only to improve controlled vocabularies but also to solidify and unify professional identity.

Mood metadata for video games and interactive media

Video games are becoming an important part of digital library collections due to increasing popularity and the acknowledgement of their significance as cultural artifacts. In order to support robust search and browse functions, it is imperative to develop a metadata schema to effectively represent this medium. The potential of mood metadata in the domain of video game classification is little explored, despite the value given to it by gamers in user studies. Here, we present a Controlled Vocabulary (CV) for moods related to video games with 17 defined mood terms, equivalent terms, and game examples. This CV will enable catalogers to organize video games by mood, allowing mood to be used for search and collocation. In order to evaluate the applicability of this CV and discover which terms are most relevant for video games, we annotated the mood of a sample collection of 617 video game titles. In this poster, we discuss the issues and challenges we encountered in the creation and evaluation of the current CV and our future research goals.

Find, identify, select...socialize?: Alternative objectives of library catalogs

Throughout history, library catalogs have served various purposes, yet most formal statements of catalog objectives focus on inventory and holdings. As contemporary libraries face questions about the continued relevance of the library catalog, these purposes inspire reexamination. This poster presents a historical review of library catalogs with emphasis on purposes, as well as a review of proposals for alternatives to these extant objectives in order to inform future catalog design and library advocacy.