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PSFK’s Report Serious Games Overcoming Unsolvable Challenges



Via: Interactive Multimedia TechnologyPSFK’s Future of Gaming Report [Preview]

PSFK’s Future Of Gaming Report (Summary Presentation) discloses key trends emerging within the gaming space that brands, non-profits and communities can leverage to build engagement and motivate their target audience towards achieving a desired goal or outcome. As a consequence, the report includes various examples of Serious Games in action.

Recognizing that there is a tremendous amount of research and study taking place around gaming, PSFK positions this report as a contribution to the conversation.  It provides a current snapshot into the innovative ways that Serious Games are being used within the broader marketplace, examines their expanding role in effecting change on an individual and societal level, and highlights the new technologies that are making these experiences possible.

According to the website, PSFK will be publishing the emerging trends in gaming that they came across after analyzing 800 data points, and speaking to the people behind key projects leading this change. Their research yielded 17 key gaming trends that sit within three broader themes- Purpose behind the Game, Mechanics that Drive People to Action and Game Functionality and Systems. This report presents the key examples under those themes.

Games and play are at the foundation of how people learn, develop and socialize. As humans we respond instantly to entertaining and engaging experiences. But what makes a game worth playing? What rules must it have? How should it work?

The report provides an overview of the key trends permeating the creation of games today. It specifically looks at how play is being used by organizations, corporations and communities to achieve a specific purpose. Fueled by the ability to gather many players across the world through online connectivity, projects of any scale can be undertaken, overcoming previously unsolvable challenges. When applied to socially responsible enterprise or charitable programs these collective efforts are capable of bringing about real change.

The mechanics behind games are evolving as social connectivity influences both the way and the pace at which people interact with one another. The nature of our modern online presence allows us to communicate, compete and collaborate with one-another in real-time at any point in the day. Driven by rapid advances in mobile and sensor technology, games are now able to bridge real and virtual worlds. They can now take place across separate realities that often influence each other, creating new opportunities for play and changing the way players experience their daily lives.