A Reason to Visit the Library?

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Author: Ben Karl
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An Illinois public library attempts to draw teenagers with a Halo 2 tournament. Parents react with more complaining...

Go Read a Book!

The Mount Prospect Public Library in Mount Prospect, Illinois announced that they would be holding a Halo 2 tournament this Sunday, July 29. The reason for holding this tournament is, of course, to get the attention of teenagers and children. So the library is advertising a video game tournament in the hopes of getting a few kids to pick up a book... riiiiiight. Although I strongly advocate reading, I don't think hosting this tournament is the best strategy. Instead of tricking kids into going to the library they should just give out copies of Metal Gear Solid 2, which, about a thousand pages of text and perhaps a million hours of reading time. Seriously, it takes me fifteen minutes just to skip a cut scene.

Anyway, the tournament has garnered some criticism from parents and officials. Though students are required to have their parents sign a letter of consent before participating in the tournament, the permission slip fails to mention Halo 2's M rating. Those damn sneaky librarians are always trying to trick us.

Here's what Kotaku had to say:

"how many books in that libraryperfectly accessible to childrenhold the same level of violence, maturity or societal subversion without any designation?"

Good Point. Why not let video games do what they do best and leave the parenting up to the parents?

Hey, Thanks: Kotaku

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