Game Over, Boris?

Boris Johnson made the headlines last week with a a proud and loud u-turn regarding his personal opinions of computer games.

A while back, Boris made some very public, and controversial, comments regarding computer games, the most infamous being “computer games rot your brain” and “It is time someone had the guts to stand up, cross the room and just say no to Nintendo,”

So why have these comments made the front page again, well as Mayor of London Boris found himself last week standing up infront of Nintendo, and the rest of the computer games industry, welcoming them to the London Games Festival, saying ”I’m delighted that the London Games Festival is back in our city for its third year. It demonstrates the creativity and range of the gaming industry, which, as an important part of London’s creative sector, makes a vital contribution to the economy as a whole.”

Maybe Boris’ about turn is due to the realisation that 64,000 people in London alone are employed by the Games Industry.  Or the fact that the Games Industry in the UK is now worth more than the Music Industry. 

Boris’ comments were made back in late 2006 when the games market was primarily full of the slash and kill action games, aimed at and played by mostly younger males.  However, the games market has seen massive change over the last 24 months, with consoles such as the Wii and Nintendo DS awakening a games market in females and older people.  Who’d have thought a couple of years ago that that grannies all over the country would be playing Brain Training on their Nintendo DS.

Boris comments go to show us what a rapidly changing and exciting market the games industry has, and that new technology and new applications can be harnessed to create whole new types of games players.  Computer games are more than just slasher games, games such as Warhammer and World of Warcraft see literlly millions of people coming together in a fantasy world, creating whole online communities bigger than many countries.

So maybe Boris has woken up and smelt the coffee, or maybe one of his PA’s has given a kick up the backside and pointed out to him just how much the games industry contributes to the UK economy.

Photo credits; Independent 6/5/2008

A break from Reality

If you’re fancying a wee bit of break from the stresses and trials of normal life, then pop over here;

http://www.fantasycouriers.com/vgame/supervanman.swf

 

And have a bit of a go on our arcade style platform game.

 

Online Competitiveness

Newest online business simulation game.

This is going to be  the latest craze in online games, it lets the players run their own Fantasy Business.

They can hire and fire virtual employees, run fleets of vehicles, buy premises, even takeover their competitors. It is a unique game, positioning itself to appeal to many sectors of the online gaming and entertainment markets, and both the education and development markets, with the key UPS of real time online competitiveness.

Players

The target is to launch with about 3000 players registered and playing the game within the first two months of going live, and 10,000 players within the first year of going live, and with this number of players it’s going to be very competitive.

All sort of people will play against each other to get on the leader board, and every player can see who’s on top. Companys will play each other, schools, police stations, banks, offices, mums & dads brother & sisters, Work colleauges, and friends can all compete to show who is the best.