There are many books that are not fun. They tell good stories and have memorable characters, but they are not something you read for fun; you read them to be challenged mentally and emotionally. Being challenged mentally and emotionally is not congruent with the conventional idea of “fun.”

Weighty Books
That’s not to imply that one should never reach for a challenging and engrossing book, one that tries to tackle tough questions about the human condition. As with your diet, your reading should be balanced. As library staff, it’s our job to make sure people know that and it’s our job to do the same. We need to educate people on literature that enlightens and encourages thought and meditation just as much as we need to inform them about entertaining books that help them relax and refresh.

If we’re going to embrace games and gaming as part of our services and programming, we need to realize that games, especially video games, offer the same range of experience. We think of games as being fun, and they may be the best programming tools that libraries have ever used. However, there are many games out there that are anything but fun and would be nearly impossible to implement into a traditional library gaming program. That doesn’t mean that libraries should ignore these games.

Weighty Games
There are many games that forego sheer joy and try for intellectual stimulation. Braid, by developer Number None, is a complex puzzle game that also serves as an ambiguous narrative about one obsessive man’s existential crisis. Valve’s Portal, an unforgivably difficult game that requires keen observation and experimental skills, also examines the consequences of an artificial intelligence that has become not only self-aware but subtly deceptive. These games may not be as accessible or as simply enjoyable as Wii Sports or Guitar Hero, but they tell amazing stories that tackle weighty topics and are the very definition of games teaching concepts and critical thinking.

The Path, recently released by Tale of Tales, is a bizarre and unsettling take on the traditional story of Little Red Riding Hood. The game player wanders through a dark forest filled with objects both menacing and curious. Rattling chains and shuffling footsteps constantly foreshadow the appearance of a creature you know can only be the Wolf, and in the course of the game the player learns that not all wolves are literally animals: some are very human. It’s a slow-paced game with no obvious win-or-lose conditions. Not a "fun" game at all.

There are many more games out there that are not fun at all, but are brilliant works of both game play and artistic expression: Gravitation by Jason Rohrer, Flower by ThatGameCompany, even big-budget releases such as BioShock by 2K Boston/2K Australia offer up challenging material for both game play and story. Most of the true ground-breaking work is being done in the indie scene. And be sure to follow websites such as Pop Matters and The Escapist for a critical look at video game content.

Thoughtful Programs
These games do not lend themselves to social programming. How should libraries spotlight these games then, if they aren’t easily adaptable to a relaxed night of social gaming or good-spirited competition? Consider these opportunities: open panels that discuss the game with a few neighborhood gamers invited in to talk, or an online exhibit directing patrons to where these games can be read about—or even better, played. Either would be a great way to spotlight these titles. Maybe you could host an “intellectual gamers’ night” where you pre-load a few PCs with these titles and invite your local professors, writers, philosophers, poets—maybe even the library director—to come in for coffee, pastries, quiche, and some sophisticated games.

Libraries stock Great Expectations and No Country for Old Men right alongside The DaVinci Code and The Crystal Shard. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t promote Half-Life 2 right alongside Dance Dance Revolution. In the spirit of giving the medium all of the attention due it, libraries need to expand the scope of the games they integrate into their collections and programming as well as how they promote and talk about them. Games are not always fun and gamers are cool with that. So should be libraries.