Game Based Learning

Essential Facts about the Gaming Industry 2014 Here are a number of extracts from the report below, which I have been researching in my quest to fully understand the Gaming industry and more importantly, how we might utilise Games and the vast Gaming community to address real world / business / education / political problems or issues. And in the process still retain the Gaming experience, which is key as participating in Gaming is voluntary and enjoyable - which is not always true of our 'real world' experiences. Essential Facts - The ESA - 2014 “ Our industry has a remarkable upward trajectory. Computer and video games are a form of entertainment enjoyed by a diverse, worldwide consumer base that demonstrates immense energy and enthusiasm for games. With an exciting new generation of hardware, outstanding software, and unmatched creativity, technology, and content, our industry will continue to thrive in the years ahead.” Michael D. Gallagher, president

So 20 years on and it's the anniversary of the PlayStation 1. 20 years ago Nintendo commented in the press that "We do recognise Sony as a major player, it's just we are confident that we know video games better than anyone, and we feel supremely confident that at every technical turn the Ultra 64 is a superior machine to the PlayStation". The key difference between the PlayStation and the Ultra was that the PlayStation utilised the CD ROM and the Ultra was cartridge based. I was not aware until I started to research the launch of the PlayStation, the original launch that is. June 1991 in Las Vegas, that the PlayStation was a originally meant to be a joint venture between Sony & Nintendo, a partnership that would project both organisations into the new world of multimedia entertainment. The marriage quickly fell apart with Nintendo partnering with Philips. Sony HQ in Japan was hurt and started the process of designing their own video games console

So lets go back in time....... My initial introduction to gaming / computers was back in 1983 - 1984, when I purchased a Commodore 64. I can remember sitting under the stairs with my computer, screen and tape deck! I remember how amazing the whole experience was, coding took a lifetime and de-bugging was another experience, once you had finally developed something you then had the major time delay of saving and loading the program via the tape drive. I developed a similar game to 'pong' only it had the odd snowflake type object that randomly fell from the top of the screen, you had to play your 'pong' shot and take into account the occasional snowflake! I thought this was genius, the sense of engagement and pride that I had achieved all of this from a simple keyboard and a weird new language. I now look back and wonder how my children would have handled the delay.....anything up to 20 minutes to load this program from a tape deck, I can hear my youngest Zac

Gamers, Gaming, Gamification, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Engagement, Social Interaction, Badges, Leader boards……….. I’m a 51 year old British born father of two, who has probably spent less than 150 hours playing video games. Recently however I have become fascinated by the subject, why the sudden interest? I have been employed in the IT business for over 25 years, I can recall Datapoint machines, Floppy Discs, AS/400’s, IBM mainframe computer rooms, where we abused employees we called ‘tape monkeys’. Their sole purpose in life was to change data tape spools in the computer room, to ‘load-up’ the relevant code or database that we demanded of them to complete a certain payroll or to back out a job that had processed incorrectly.  I’ve worked with organisations that include IBM, Microsoft, ICL, SAP, Oracle, SalesForce.com and many, many more. A large part of my professional experience has evolved around document management, workflow, analytics, change programmes and trans