Game informer magazine : for video game enthusiasts

Bibliographic Information: McNamera, Andy. Game Informer. Sunrise Publications, August 1991-current. ISSN 1067-6392
Genre: Technology, Gaming
Reading Level: Ages 13+
Curriculum ties: Computers
Publisher: Sunrise Publications
Awards: None
Note: website: http://www.gameinformer.com

Reader’s Annotation: A bimonthly magazine for video game enthusiasts covering everything from games to systems.

Content: This bimonthly magazine features news, reviews and previews of games for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, 3DS consoles.
The world’s largest-circulation video game magazine includes many other sections other than reviews of games. Some staples of this magazine include “Connect” which discusses the latest, cutting edge, news and technology from the gaming world; “Impulse” which serves as a guide for computer downloadable games; “Gear” where they highlight geeky gadgets designed to enhance your gaming experience; “Charts” which shows retail sales data for the editor’s top 10 games; and “Interviews” with influential people in the gaming business. Most of the pictures in the magazine are vivid snapshots within games which provide readers with a great sense of the games with just one look.

Critical Evaluation: One of the downsides to this magazine was the lack of age appropriateness ratings. Although the reviews gave very complete back stories and history of each game reviewed, there was little or no mention of the rating level. The only information that was constant was: style of game, publisher, developer, and release date. When including game reviews for younger children (like “Super Monkey Ball”; rated e for everyone) there should be some awareness to ratings for more mature games. The reviewing system is  is as follows: a score of 1 is considered worse than terrible; 10 is a rare, “outstanding”, nearly perfect game; and 7 is “average”, a decently playable (but flawed) game. There have only bee 20 games that have received a perfect “10” score.

Booktalking Ideas: N/A

Challenge Issues/ Defense:

Challenge Issues: Violent images

Challenge defense ideas:
• Each video game has rating including the age appropriateness levels for each game. 
• Refer to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) for rating guidelines. See: http://www.esrb.org/index-js.jsp.
• Refer to Video Game, violence, sex and effects studies and statistics at: http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/videogames/reviews/studies.asp
Why was this book included?: Included as a representation of magazines tailored to male teens.
Editor Information: One of the original game journalists, Andy McNamara started his career in 1991 writing reviews of NHL Hockey and Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis in the magazine’s premiere issue. Named editor-in-chief in 1994, McNamara turned the quarterly newsletter into the number one monthly video game publication in the world, with over 3.6 Million subscribers and counting. From the humble days of running the ASCII version of Star Trek on a workplace server to years of joyously exploring Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Intellivision games during the golden age of video games, Andy immersed himself in pixilated adventures right up to the industry crash of 1983. Between ‘83 and ‘85 video games fell off the face of the Earth, but Andy rekindled his love of interactive entertainment when the Nintendo Entertainment System launched the modern era of video games with classics like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid. Andy still attributes Metroid as the reason he is involved with video games today. One of the longest standing editors and journalists in the industry, sharing his passion for games with gamers around the world is the reason Andy gets out of bed in the morning. Sure, it¹s around noon, but those are gamer hours.
(Editor biography obtained from Game informer website. Retrieved from: http://www.gameinformer.com/members/giandy/default.aspx).

Blogging for Teens by John W. Gosney

Bibliographic Information: Gosney, John W. Blogging for Teens. Thompson Course Technology, 2004. ISBN 9781592004768.
Genre: Non-fiction, Blogging, Computers
Reading Level: Grades 7-12
Curriculum ties: Technology, computers

Awards: None
Note: Most of the information in this book can be found online but in my library, many teens do not have internet access at home but still want to keep up with technology.

Reader’s Annotation: Do you want to blog but don’t now how to get started? This book will show you how step by step.

Plot Summary: A purely informational guide for starting a blog from a teen point of view. With fun chapters like “Perks of being a Wallblogger” and “Beyond the Blog: Expanding your Voice,” teens learn step by step how to chose which type of blog is appropriate for them and how to start one from scratch. The book is laid out in three parts: Finding Your Voice, Building Your Blog, and Blogging Examples. Finding Your Voice (chapters 1-5) focuses on finding the proper blog that will express your thoughts and feelings the way you want them to be seen by the world. Also, this section helps you connect your blog to the things you already passionate about like music and books. Building Your Blog (chapters 6-10) is the technology portion of this book, step by step. It also has a section on how to incorporate your blog into your everyday life so that you are not tending to it every minute of every day. The last section gives examples of blogs that would appeal to teens.

Critical Evaluation: The drawbacks to this book is the lack of color photographs, possibly too much text. The issue of text is somewhat alleviated by the “Special Elements” insets throughout the book that touch on all elements of blogging. Some of these include tech tips and warnings / cautionary tales, all from a teen bloggers perspective. There is also a section at the end of each chapter “Blogger 70” that presents a fictional blog postings that incorporate all of the key elements discussed in that chapter to provide examples of how they can imaginatively be incorporated in a real world situation. When read together, the “Blogger 70” posts actually tell a short story of a teen starting a new school and a new blog. In the appendix, teens will find a helpful list of abbreviations often used in texting, Instant messaging and blogging. The examples are relevant and funny which breaks up all of the serious tech talk found in the rest of the book. This book will give teens a good sense of the blogging world that is available to them.

Booktalking Ideas:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a blog?
Would you feel that blogs are a good outlet for teens to voice their opinions?
What role do you feel that technology plays in the average Teen’s life? How many hours a day are they using technology?

Challenge Issues/ Defense:
Challenge Issues: Cyber predators, privacy issues
Challenge defense ideas:
• Throughout the book, the authors warn teens to research the reliability of the hosting site.
The issue of security is addressed by the authors advising teens to set their privacy settings to where only certain people that they have invited can see the information posted on the site.

Why was this book included?: A representative of computer technology books for teens.

Author Information: John W. Gosney is the faculty liaison for the Learning Technologies division of University Information Technology Services (UITS) at Indiana University, and an associate instructor in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, Indianapolis. Prior to these roles, he served as director of technology services for the Indiana University School of Dentistry.
John also has experience in the publishing and pharmaceutical industries as an application developer, training consultant, and technical writer. He writes on all facets of the IT arena, including market analysis and forecasting, as well as guidebooks for application developers.
(Author biography obtained from Indiana University. Retrieved from: http://www.indiana.edu/~uits/iconference2011/present.html).