You can learn a lot about a person from the video games they play. The enthusiasm that many gamers bring to their hobby can be a gateway to finding them the perfect book to read in their analog downtime. Here are some ways to dialogue with your gamer patrons and help them know where to start in your collection.
Players who enjoy first-person shooter (FPS) games like "Fortnite" and "Overwatch" like to be in the middle of the action and allow their innate survival skills to shine. Try our genres like adventure stories, survival stories, spy stories, or thrillers and suspense. Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart might be just the right pick for a middle grade FPS gamer.
The driving force of role- playing games (RPGs) like "Legend of Zelda" and "Dragon Quest" are their rich fantasy worlds and complicated plots. These readers enjoy stories that take them on a fantastical journey with a chosen hero. Try recommending fantasy fiction with appeals like world-building, descriptive, or lush. Give adult fans of RPGs the lush and stylistically complex Afrofantasy series starter, Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.
Use similar reasoning to match game type with book characteristics and level up in the eyes of your gamer patrons. Here are a few other ideas.
- Players who like collection games like "Pokémon" and "Animal Crossing" may gravitate toward quirky and sweeping stories with a large cast of characters.
- Got a "Minecraft" or "Frostpunk" player? Games like these allow players to be architects of their own world. Try one of NoveList's plot-your-own-stories choices.
- Gamers that get lost in story games like "Undertale" and "Professor Layton" like to follow the clues. Give them mysteries with themes like solve the puzzle or locked room mysteries.
- Retro gamers enjoy the nostalgia of the franchises of the past and those classic pixel styles. Try the theme press play to start for stories about players who get lost in the world of the game.
Reach your gaming patrons with these templates made in LibraryAware.
Let NoveList do the work for you by creating searches like these using NoveList story elements (genres, themes, and appeals).
Want more ideas for video game RA? NoveList now Recommended Reads lists based on selected video games in our "For fans Of" list category for various age groups. Current lists include Animal Crossing, Five Nights at Freddy's, Hades, and Among Us. To find the ones in your version of NoveList, try this search: SU Video games AND ND Recommended Reads.
This is an abridged version of an article found in the NoveList database. NoveList users can find the full version using the search: UI 452878.
Lindsey Dunn is a Readers' Advisory Librarian at NoveList. She is currently reading Pudge and Prejudice by Allison Pittman
