When affordable home computers became available to mainstream families in the early 80s, the UK experienced its big bang moment in hobbyist computer programming. From their bedrooms, young people would indulge in their new-found passion for technology and create games to entertain themselves and friends. This was the very beginning of a UK computer and video gaming business that would go on to be a major player amongst the country’s creative industries. Find out how gaming took the UK by storm and how it stacks up against other creative industries, including film and music.
With gaming established as part of the cultural mix, the use of gameplay mechanics – scoring, skilling, levelling up – are being adapted and taken into the workplace, especially in learning and development. This is gamification and it can engage, empower and excite learners everywhere. Hear real examples of a gamified approach to learning design, some rules (and when to break them), along with some key gaming principles that can enhance the learner experience.
Since the venue for this business lecture is the Centre for Computing History, there will be time after the talks during the networking session to get hands-on with the exhibits and see some of the gaming machines from the 1980s onwards. Read more about the venue here: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
About the speakers
Simon Miles is a leading games industry talent spotter and responsible for hiring thousands of game developers, artists and tech types into UK games companies. As Senior Talent Acquisition Manager for Jagex, Simon is responsible for the employer brand and employer value proposition and specialises in alternative markets.
Rich Eddy took a gap year before university on a chance offering of working in the games industry… that was 30 years ago. From editing market-leading gaming magazines, to representing major gaming companies, including Codemasters, Konami, and PlayStation, and their brands, Rich now leads communications for Jagex as it enters a new phase of growth and portfolio expansion.
Jay Sharpe is a champion for innovation in learning and people development within business. He specialises in learning design, developing trainers, mobile learning, gamification and customer obsession and has previously worked at Three, Apple and the Vodafone Group. Jay recently joined Jagex as People Development Manager to transform people development and enable everyone at Jagex to be at their best.
About Jagex
Established in 2001, Jagex Games Studio today stands as the UK’s largest independent game developer and publisher and is the home of the flagship online adventure game, RuneScape. Celebrating its 15th Year anniversary in 2016, RuneScape has welcomed over 245 million players to its world and more than two million of them play every month, while millions more watch avidly through social channels.
Through RuneScape, Jagex is a high-performing, recurring revenue, multi-platform business that is active in the PC, mobile, and tablet markets. In addition to RuneScape, Jagex is developing new RuneScape-branded games as it enters additional genres, including Chronicle: RuneScape Legends, an adventure strategy card game, and RuneScape: Idle Adventures created in partnership with Hyper Hippo, the developers of cult hit Adventure Capitalist
Jagex is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and home to over 320 talented developers and specialist operations teams. Its strategic focus on building a world-class franchise portfolio, delivering rewarding gameplay experiences, broadening player reach, and deepening player engagement, today puts Jagex at the epicentre of online gaming growth.
To sign up please register at: http://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/events/save-the-princess/