Prof. Bob Stone - University of Birmingham

The last speaker was professor Bob Stone. I'd seen the presentation before and thought about leaving early, but I was stuck in the middle of the row in the lecture theatre, and also wanted to stick around for the UCLan showcase. He talked about the use of 'serious games', and how then can be used for education, corporate training, public healthcare, cultural training, heritage etc. The key point he made was that it isn't the technology, it's the content.

He talked about how the 'cryengine' from the half life computer game can be used to create serious games, and mentioned some other game engines. In fact he talked a lot, and went so fast is was difficult to write decent notes! One thing he did mention was that serious games are virtual reality's 'second chance', as he described that VR systems from the 80's (clunky headsets etc) had been a failure, and we are still using keyboards, mice etc for interacting with computers

As I said, he covered a lot, and this little summary doesn't really do his session justice - I'm glad I stayed