Future of serious games and immersive technologies

Immersive Technology Strategies
www.davidwortley.com
Fun ‘n Serious Games 2011
The Future of Serious Games and
Immersive Technologies
David Wortley FRSA

Topics
 Definition and role of Serious Games and
 Example Features and Applications
 Disruptive Technologies
 Future Challenges and Trends
 Technology and Society

Definition and Role of Serious
Games and Immersive Technologies

Serious games have been defined as games whose
primary purpose is not entertainment but which have
been developed for a potentially serious benefit or
outcome. It might also include entertainment games
that have been intentionally re-purposed to deliver
serious outcomes
This definition is not always helpful because it does
not reflect or embrace the full range or potential of
technologies which create or use immersive
experiences to deliver serious benefits. These
applications may not use gameplay at all.

Most Popular Games are Serious
Games generate passion, excitement, commitment,
loyalty, belonging, awareness, support and action

Games are Immersive Experiences
They usually Involve Challenges, Rules, Rewards, Physical and
Virtual Worlds, Social Networks, Personal Development and
Commercial Exploitation

Serious Games are NOT New
Games have always been an essential and
ubiquitous part of life

Games are Our Personal Choice
Games are where we choose to spend our discretionary time,
attention and finances which makes them very important
commercially and developmentally

The Secret of Success
 Attractiveness
 Accessibility
 Affordability
Does it interest/excite me ?
Is it easy to access ?
Can I afford the time,
attention and money ?

Attractive, Accessible, Affordable
Immersive technologies focusing on attractiveness
(engagement), accessibility (no barriers) and affordability
(cost and time)

Some Statistics
 Games industry is bigger than movie and music industry
 180 million active gamers in the USA playing on average
13 hours per week
 China 200m, India 105m, Europe 100m, Russia 10m
 One million people played Red Redemption’s Climate
Change Game
 100k people played Floodsim in first 6 weeks
 World Crisis games are very popular e.g. World without
Oil, Evoke, Lost Joules, Innocentive (crowd sourcing)

Games Virtual Worlds Social Networks
Immersive Technologies provide an attractive, accessible
and affordable space in which to devote our
discretionary time, attention and money

The Importance of Immersive Technologies
Immersive Technologies are hugely important because of three
main factors – commercial potential, societal disruption and
technological innovation

Example Features and Applications

Ticking all the Boxes
Immersive Technologies have not only created huge market
potential but have driven innovations across all sectors

Driving Innovation
3D rendering, image processing, broadband speed, collaboration
tools, networking, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition are
all driven by Immersive Technology features

Learning through Games
Watch, copy, get feedback, iterate and share

Incubating Creativity
Bringing Science and Art together

Solving Complex Problems
Collaboration under Pressure

Harnessing Local Talent
Empowering citizens and employees

Building Knowledge Networks
Windows help – Get a friend to help you over the internet
Ask experts and other Windows users !!

Building Relationships
Using Artificial Intelligence, Geo-location, and Profiling to build
new partnerships and knowledge networks

Building Community
Intel’s Planet Blue is an internal social network

Connecting the Physical & Virtual
Building new ways to learn and collaborate

Preparing for the unexpected
Simulating emergency or combat scenarios

Hosting Virtual and Hybrid Events

What are the Key Features ?
 Personalisation / relevance
 Interface and Ubiquity
 Cost in time and money
 Ability to control / shape
 Richness of experience
 Challenge / motivation
 Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

Disruptive Technologies

Why are Immersive Technologies Disruptive ?

A Fantastic Time in History

Disruptive Communications Technologies
The internet is different in its scope and impact on business
and society to any previous disruptive technology

The 21st century is an unprecedented period in
human history full of new challenges and
opportunities created by low cost on demand
and ubiquitous access to both global
knowledge and powerful publishing tools.

The Prosumer
The prosumer effect is unique in our history

The Prosumer Phenomenon
Digital Media Technologies empower individuals in
ways previously unknown in mankind’s history

The Attention Economy
Capturing and retaining attention and loyalty are critical
in today’s digital media society

Future Challenges and Trends

We are in largely uncharted waters and
technologies which engage, influence,
educate and above all create and sustain
relationships will be critical.

The Skills Challenge
Successful Immersive technologies need multiple disciplines

Common Language ?
Experts speak in different languages

Expectations
End users expect console quality action and gameplay

Expectations
Clients expect value for money and modest costs

Likely Solution
Software which has embedded expertise and resources and
partners to provide pedagogical and storytelling skills

Immersive Technologies and Education
Driven by developments in immersive technologies,
education is undergoing a revolution :-
We are entering the
era of the portable
lifelong personal
coach / mentor
facilitated by a
transformed
relationship
between humans
and technology

What will this mean in practice ?
 Personalised learning
 Intelligent persistent lifelong profiling
 Collaborative peer to peer learning
 Learning by discovery
 Virtual worlds linked to real world data
 Tutor/Mentor/Coach tools for content
 Learning communities
 Serious Games linked to societal issues

Sophisticated Personalisation
Visualisation and Fidelity

Simulations linked to real data

Build your own Training Scenarios

New Interface Devices
Brain wave controllers

Motion / Voice Controllers

Sensor interfaces modelled on real life elements
www.birthplay.com

New Applications – Interactive Movies
Using Sensor interfaces to control learning activities

New Applications - Gamification
Gamification is being applied into many different areas such
as brand development and Recruitment and assessment

Technology and Society

Is technology replacing human beings in the
knowledge economy ?

Knowledge Professionals train for many years to deliver their
skills and knowledge more efficiently, and effectively

The internet and digital media delivers current information and
knowledge faster, more efficiently, and on demand
but what is missing ?

Human beings use intelligence, judgement, sensitivity, emotions,
empathy and experience to deliver unique and personal
experiences – differentiating us from machines

Machines and Humans
Power, speed, efficiency,
accuracy, stamina, capacity,
availability, inflexibility
Judgement, sensitivity,
care, humanity, fallibility,
creativity, versatility

Humanising Technology
 To love and be loved vs devoid of emotion
 Treated as individual vs one size fits all
 Easy to get on with vs unnatural interfaces
 Be remembered vs blank pages
 To discover new things vs repeat existing things
 To be understood vs Memorisation of facts
 To be Connected vs Self sufficiency
 Motivated and challenged vs Repetition
 To create new things vs standard responses
Human Needs Machine Features

Are Immersive Applications
Humanising Technology ?
Delivering more control over our lives, our world and
our relationships – giving us access to a global network –
building personalised relationship with our technologies

Humanising Technology
We are developing immersive technologies that recognise
our voice, our actions and our preferences to deliver
personalised experiences

Relationship with Technology
For thousands of years mankind used its intelligence and
skill to harness the potential of machines

Many of us were born into a world in which machines and
technology had no intelligence

Today intelligence is embedded into our almost everything -
sensing us, learning from us, gaining power to shape our lives

Gadgets to God Book
Charting our changing relationship with technology from
human intelligence and skill controlling machines to
machine intelligence and skill controlling humans

Questions

Future of serious games and immersive technologies

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (19)

Ähnlich wie Future of serious games and immersive technologies

Ähnlich wie Future of serious games and immersive technologies (20)

Mehr von David Wortley

Mehr von David Wortley (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Future of serious games and immersive technologies