Video games are affecting a public that is becoming more and more heterogeneous and intergenerational. Nowadays, more than 600 million people play video games worldwide.
Thus, they are becoming more important in hobbies and have taken a major role in global entertainment, teaching and communication.
SERIOUS
GAME
Video games are in the process of democratizing
In the 80s, the video game industry mainly built its growth on a targeted public: male teenagers. In the early 90s, video games democratized themselves and focused on a very specific kind of video games fans called “geeks” leading eventually to an opening to every categories of players in the year 2000. Between 2005 and 2010 they expanded explosively, putting an end to the stereotypical picture of the “gamer” and appealing to the whole population.
Today, video games target a very large and various public. Nowadays, its players diversity by gender and age does not vary too much. Even if the 25 years old and less are still the privileged target, all generations can now be targeted throughout various themes and game mechanics. The possibilities are infinite: a game can attract a universal public with a platform or a puzzle game, or a more restricted and specific public with, for example, a horse riding game, which will more likely appeal to 6 to 14 years old young girls, or a car race game, that will attract a more masculine audience.
Gamification at your service!
Today, we call gamification the use of video game activity and its mechanics in order to reach other fields than just entertainment such as education, advertising, prevention, etc. Video games have become a powerful and well-studied tool to guide the player’s actions and to create a better contact between a label and its customers. It appears as a revolutionary, attractive, and above all, an ideal mean to communicate an advertisement or an educative message.
Indeed, video games have turned into a real social phenomenon because of their capacity to massively influence the way people think in a significate and growing way. A video game can, for example, raise children’s awareness to the fact that they should eat more fruits and vegetables by making them look for fruits to feed their virtual animal.
Gamification and marketing, a stunning duo!
The advergame, or « advertising video game », has a stronger potential to create a buzz than other more traditional Medias. Indeed, it brings a fundamental innovation to the relationship between the customer and the label, simply because of its own true essence. Thus, the advergame is primarily the ideal tool to:
Generate traffic on the internet and in the branches.
Create a profile user database.
Raise the time of exposure to a message.
Encourage customer loyalty.
Improve the label's awareness and corporate image.
The game that teaches!
Moreover, video games have earned a place of choice in education and are proving to be excellent interdisciplinary mediators. According to Chris Crawford, game designer at Atari, the fundamental motivation of any game is to teach, even if this educational motivation is unconscious for the player (Chris Crawford, 1984). Nowadays, video games are increasingly considered as a tool in the pedagogical context. Indeed, because of their playfulness, they favour children's learning process by developping cognitive growth, such as memory, reflexion or communication. They also allow an easy way to approach and picture complex thematics: there are, for instance, a lot of strategy or adventure games that are based on historic events.
In high schools and companies, video games have a key role in simulation exercise for students or employees. For example, Airbus aircraft pilots are training using the well known game Flight Simulator®. Video games allow the creation of contexts in which it is possible to immerse oneself, have fun, and thus learn new things without even noticing (Lloyd P Rieber 1998). Thanks to that, the students are taught through fun and games, which makes it more enjoyable for them than the usual laborious learning.
Create you game at will!
As we have seen, with a good quality video game and a strong and lasting promotional spreading due to social networks, your company will own the ideal tool to reach a large public in Switzerland, as well as your objectives : generate trafic on the internet and in the branches, create a profile user database, raise the time of exposure to a message, encourage customer loyalty, or train your employees. Thanks to this video game medium, your company will also gain a brand new communication experience while improving its corporate image.