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Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Boringest Video Game of All Time

posted by on January 17 at 11:05 AM

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In which players must sort books according to the Library of Congress classification or some shit.

Enjoy!

RSS icon Comments

1

This, in fact, actually beats out Penn and Teller's "driving a bus to Las Vegas" game as the boringest ever!

Posted by bma | January 17, 2008 11:09 AM
2

I clicked a book a couple of times and gave up.

Posted by Mr. Poe | January 17, 2008 11:09 AM
3

Fuck. This. Game.

This reminds me of the cataloging class I'm taking right now.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Posted by Rotten666 | January 17, 2008 11:19 AM
4

this is worse than community service!

Posted by josh bomb | January 17, 2008 11:24 AM
5

Is this what Laura Bush used to do for a living?

Posted by Mahtli69 | January 17, 2008 11:27 AM
6

Boring my cracker ass, this is the very first video game I've seen that's actually, like, interesting in any way.

Posted by levide | January 17, 2008 11:34 AM
7

Considering the number of people who come into my library and don't know how to find a book on the shelf using a call number (and note, this includes people working on their PhDs, for pity's sake!), I'd say more people need to be playing this game!

Posted by Meg | January 17, 2008 11:38 AM
8

Kudos to #1 for the mention, but seriously, this lousy edutainment thing is STILL more interesting than Penn & Teller's Desert Bus Challenge. That thing is truly the Andy Kaufman of gaming. Check it: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/03/penn_jillette_discusses_unrele.php

Posted by Sam M. | January 17, 2008 11:53 AM
9


I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time at Google Image Labeler. Quite a time sink.


Posted by kid icarus | January 17, 2008 11:57 AM
10

You know, librarians such as myself find this kind of thing very fulfilling. I'd much rather play this game than, I don't know, Super Atari Shoot Some Madden Army Men or whatever.

Posted by mattymatt | January 17, 2008 12:02 PM
11

This was my career for a decade. Thanks for reminding me why I decided to change everything and go after my dream of making a living as an artist.

And boy do I need reminding from time to time.

Posted by doctiloquus | January 17, 2008 12:24 PM
12

Sad, that could have been an interesting game if the challenge was to classify the books in the first place. Taxonomies are hard.

Posted by gfish | January 17, 2008 12:58 PM
13

ackkkkkk!!!!!! anyways..we all know Dewey kicks LC's ass every time.

Posted by M | January 17, 2008 1:01 PM
14

This game was created because no one reads books or goes to the library anymore except to use the Internet.

Posted by Gay Seattle | January 17, 2008 1:23 PM
15

@14 obviously you haven't been to a library recently.

Posted by Rotten666 | January 17, 2008 1:50 PM
16

@ 14:

Book?

What is this "book" of which you speak?

Posted by Toby | January 17, 2008 1:52 PM
17

@9 - hey Kid Icarus, sounds like you should be messin' with this:

http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=233

Posted by Readin' Is Fundamental | January 17, 2008 2:20 PM
18

@12 I hate to say this, but level 3 in this game actually has classification...

Posted by bma | January 17, 2008 2:32 PM
19

For whatever reason, I decided to try this again. Did anybody even turn the sound up on this game? Every time you place a book in the correct spot, some guy yells "YES!" and "ALL RIGHT!" like you just rolled a wicked saving throw. Fucking awesome.

Posted by Sam M. | January 17, 2008 2:48 PM
20

@9 - Thanks for the tip!

Posted by kid icarus | January 17, 2008 3:17 PM
21

@ 15 Actually I did. It was a complete waste of time. Every single person there was on the Internet or picking out DVD's. I looked for any HTML guidebooks and there was nothing. I inquired and they said they had a few in the entire library system but each had about 25 people on a waitlist. Latter, I was enlightened by someone to the fact that the library exists just to supply the bare minimum and get by. I have a feeling some people go to check out fiction novels. But who the hell has time to read fiction.

Posted by Gay Seattle | January 17, 2008 3:24 PM
22

I mean @17, duh.

Posted by kid icarus | January 17, 2008 3:28 PM
23

@13: Dewey FTW! Give me something from Dewey, and I'd be all over that shit, all day long.

Posted by Jessica | January 17, 2008 4:31 PM
24

Took a bit to figure out the gameplay, but after that it was a fun personal challenge to see if I could remember how to shelve in order and where things fall in the classification by subject matter. Fun! (Love reading the comments here, too.)

Posted by Anna | January 17, 2008 8:01 PM

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