Some people who have been in the hobby of games a very long time may recognize my name from my years working as a freelancer in the gaming industry. I am best known as an artist and illustrator, but also spent a great deal of time editing, writing, doing game design and development. Mostly I worked back in the days of the paper and pencil/tabletop games but have about 50 paintings in Magic: the Gathering (and many other collectible card games, most notably the Lord of the Rings Middle Earth ccg from Iron Crown Enterprises.) I contributed storyline, puzzle, and scenario development to a number of computer games for Interplay, New World Computing, and Electronic Arts. In 1996 I was inducted into the Academy of Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame (the creative arm of GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association http://www.gama.org). I have no continuing association with the game industry these days, but have been working in one of two large urban public libraries for the last 17 years, full time for the last two years. I have recently been asked to sit on the "experts panel" for American Libraries Association, which works with a Verizon grant-funded initiative to look at and develop games and gaming, specifically as related to learning and literacy in libraries.
This is the article that instigated my inquiries. Until then, I did not even realize WoW was the subject of empirical academic investigation.
ETA: The Arizona Daily Star just did a nice article about gaming in libraries, based on the Verizon Foundation's recent delivery of the grant money to ALA. I was interviewed, as well as others in the Pima County Public Library system -- including, importantly, hearing from the teens themselves.
Libraries booking young video gamers
http://www.azstarnet.com/
The ALA/Verizon Foundation press release is here: http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/june2008/verizon08.cfm
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