New Article: “Understanding Appeals of Video Games for Readers’ Advisory and Recommendation”

The following article was published in the latest issue of Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ).
Title
Understanding Appeals of Video Games for Readers’ Advisory and Recommendation
Authors
Jin Ha Lee
University of Washington

Rachel Ivy Clarke
Syracuse University
Hyerim Cho
University of Washington
Travis Windleharth
University of Washington
Source
Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ)
Vol. 57, No. 2 (Winter 2017)
Abstract

Despite their increasing popularity and inclusion in library collections, video games are rarely suggested in library advisory or recommendation services. In this work, we use the concept of appeals from existing literature in readers’ advisory and media studies to understand what attracts people to play certain games. Based on 1,257 survey responses, we identify sixteen different appeals of video games and elaborate how these appeals are expressed in users’ terms. We envision these appeals can serve as an additional access point for video games and will be particularly useful for recommendation and advisory services. In addition, we also examined the correlation between appeals and common game genres. The relationships between appeals and genres observed from our data support our argument that appeals can serve as a complementary access point to result in more diversified sets of recommendations across genres. In our future work, we plan to further investigate individual appeals such as mood and narrative across multiple types of media.

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