The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

The second day of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival Conference started with Eyjolfur Guomundsson giving a fascinating insight into the futuristic world of Eve. Both the graphics and the number of subscribers to the game were staggering. Out of the complex game play environment has emerged a fully functioning economy and structures of government.

Next up was a panel on MMOs which gave some useful insight into issues of hardware, software, management, user interface design and authenticity.

Magnus Nilsson then presented the platform offered by Wayfinder for mobile GPS-based games. Slowly, but surely, many of the hardware and network issues are beginning to be resolved.

The main part of the conference closed with an inspirational, whirlwind of a session, by Scott Foe on the “Reset Generation”. He basically outlined the development of mobile casual games and how you ensure that you meet the expectations of the “Reset Generation” who have grown up with computer games.

In the afternoon there was an academic symposium. Richard Bartle gave an informed reality check on both Video Game Design education and Research in the UK. I then left skipped a couple of talks to see what was new in the world of EyeToy. You can see my exploits in my post about cheerleading.

On my return to the symposium, Gianna Cassidy gave an overview of music in games and the psychology behind it. The final round table of the day focused mostly on the educational aspects of game design.