Not that my 94 year old Grandpa is going to start playing Xbox anytime soon, but according to this particular survey gamers are an average of 34 years of age. So my point is that training departments can’t be naysayers about how the generation that works for them currently wouldn’t be interested in a video game since they aren’t hiring teenagers. In addition the study found that 40% of gamers were female and more than two-thirds of US households play video games. If you would like to see more statistics from the study, click here.
It’s no mystery that the human race always relates to other people better when they know them or have had more of an introduction to a person. That’s why movies spend quite a bit of time developing the storyline and characters, before jumping in to the “edge of your seat adventure”…well, the same holds true in simulation development. The trainee is better able to relate to the training program when the storyline and character development are presented in an in-depth matter rather than just seeing “Joe Schmoe” walking around the environment. Not only is character development an important factor in simulation design, but also realistic looking and acting characters are crucial to simulations replicating all of the complexities that the real world offers. Believe it or not…When developing simulations each character’s move is purposefully planned out by the developer- a simulation just doesn’t randomly have a person raise their hand for no apparent reason. I believe that the feeling of immersion and realness are the keys to drawing people in and making training stick.
I briefly introduced our latest and greatest technology, what we call “Hybrid Simulations” a few months back on the blog. Now I am pleased to say that we have an in-depth whitepaper available for download, click here to visit our home page.
A little more about what Hybrid Simulations are: Think of it as integrating decision-based elements within virtual worlds (and taking the best of each training type). Thus allowing for a lower cost solution with reduced development time to making it enticing to a variety of organization types, large and small.
With the new website design launch we decided it was time to give the Visual Purple blog a new look too, so welcome to our fresh new looks for 2011. Since beginning the Immersive Training Insights blog over two years ago we have delved into many topics from social media to virtual world training, intelligent avatars and serious games. We look forward to providing you with many more insightful blog posts and welcome hearing your comments. And remember that with a new year it may be a good time to look into new training opportunities for your organization, contact us – we’d love to help you save money and increase training retention!
In the past few weeks I have noticed a buzz word going around… “GAMIFICATION”. The name itself piqued my interest so I decided to go out and learn what it was all about. Here is a brief synopsis of what I learned.
Wikipedia defines Gamification as:
Gamification is the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications (also known as “funware“), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.
Gamification.org is a fast growing website that devotes all of its content to the subject, from game design to game psychology and everything in between.
You also might enjoy watching a video on Gamification from YouTube instead of just reading about it?
Gamification on YouTube
We’ve been working behind the scenes updating our website to a more simplified format, although we thought Flash was pretty cool we decided it was time for a fresh website look to mirror our expanding hat trick of capabilities. We have some interesting projects with new technology in play that we’ll be announcing in the near future and the re-design of the website is an important step in the process. Click here to take a look around.
With the new site design we have also highlighted the newest training type that we offer called “Hybrid Simulations”. We are also excited to show off the latest and greatest technology that we offer, called “F.I.S.T” which stands for FloChart Integration System Technology.
