![]() Ten years ago at E3, I took a surprise meeting with legendary coder John Carmack, who was trumpeting the reemergence of virtual reality, along with a homebrew headset made by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. VR is finally more than a fad, but much less than the future This poses another, different set of challenges for an industry that is used to catering to - not to say exploiting - an audience with an abundance of free time.Ĥ. Perhaps just as significant is the steadily increasing age of the average gamer - millennials seem much more reluctant to let go of the hobby than earlier generations of gamers. Gen Z and younger players are much more diverse, particularly along gender lines, as they race ahead of the industry’s sluggish attempt to diversify itself. ![]() That bias still exists, but it’s falling away with increasing speed, even if you choose to ignore the vast influx of older women gamers introduced by the smartphone revolution. Gaming is traditionally understood as the pastime of children and (very) young men. This one seems like an obvious demographic fact of life, but you might be surprised how few people truly grasp it. The audience is massively more diverse - and more adult - than it used to be There’s no evidence yet that metaverses are a mass-market proposition outside games - or that they need to be.ģ. Fortnite and Roblox are fully fleshed-out metaverses that have vast communities and booming internal marketing and content industries, plus avatars that have legs. None of the use cases have been proven yet - except in games, which arguably birthed the concept and began developing it with the advent of the massively multiplayer game over 20 years ago. In the past couple of years the tech industry, particularly Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, has fallen over itself to will a persistent internet reality called the metaverse into being as the supposed successor to the smartphone. Video games are the only successful metaverses Mobile-only games have struggled with quality-control and business models, but the barriers between mobile and “traditional” gaming are gradually falling - Fortnite is as much a mobile hit as anything else, while subscription services like Apple Arcade and Netflix curate brilliant collections, completely free of bullshit monetization.Ģ. What actually happened was a half-prophecy, and a kind of best of both worlds mobile enormously expanded the total market for video games without significantly shrinking core gaming. Many predicted the death of consoles of course, that didn’t happen (although in some Asian markets, like Japan, they were dealt a terrible blow). ![]() Image: Apple via Polygonġ0 years ago, smartphones were still relatively new and the industry was in the grip of an almighty gold rush, split between a grab for new casual players and an attempt to move core gaming onto these ubiquitous new devices. Highlights of our week included connecting Science and Social Studies curricula with virtual reality explorations of the Northern Lights and Festivals Around the World, candy cane experiments where students tested their hypotheses around which substance would dissolve their candy cane the fastest and engineering explorations where students were given the challenge to build with gumdrops and toothpicks.Apple Arcade is a new way to think about what mobile games can be, and how they can be sold. “Providing our grade level technology reps the opportunity to work collaboratively to build these weeks made for a supercharged student experience by offering our students a chance to wonder, investigate, create, reflect and think critically.” ![]() “STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) is an integrated approach to learning that fosters better problem-solving skills and increased creativity and collaboration,” said MacPherson. The joy in learning was on full display last week as students in our Primary School were led through a variety of challenge-based learning opportunities and explorations with their classroom teachers and our Director of Educational Technology, Chris MacPherson.
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