WSA. What
is World Summit Award?
The World
Summit Award contests are held to make inventors share their awesome ideas,
based on best e-content and ICT applications.
The best
ideas will be selected as winners of a World Summit Award.
Everyone
around the globe can join and send their app or content.
It is all
about sharing and making the world a more innovative place.
The WSA was
initiated in Austria in 2003. That’s where it all started. At first they only
had an e-content contest, but as of 2010 there is also a mobile apps contest.
This is
because the digital world is changing and mobile cellphones. Tablets and apps
are becoming a crucial part of the digital empire.
E-
Entertainment & Games
So I did
some research on the website pages of WSA e-content and WSA mobile content, to
see what is going on in the world of Entertainment and Games.
I went
trough all of the 35 winners, starting from 2003 until the winners of last
year, 2012.
It was very
interesting to see what kind of e-content or apps were made throughout the
years.
What
surprised me is that some products got very big while others don’t even exist
anymore. It is like they have fallen of the face of the earth since winning the
WSA award.
This shows
us that, even if you have won an international award, it is still really hard
to get trough the competition in the gaming & entertainment world.
It also
shows us that this category is very big and booming. Great ideas won’t make it
because there is just so much to choose from nowadays.
Trends
Making a
time travel in the world of e-entertainment & games made me discover some
trends.
I will be
so kind to share them with you, starting with;
Tadadada…..
Social Media. Not really surprising is it?
pic:Social media |
It
immediately caught my eye that around 2008/2009 the WSA winners were also
online at Facebook. This did not happen before 2008. This seems logical because
Facebook was publicly open to join in 2006. In the beginning the popular
(English) social media site was only translated in Spanish, French and German.
Around 2008 a whole lot more countries were able to use Facebook in their
foreign language. So it makes perfect sense for the WSA winners to start using
Facebook around 2008/2009. For example, Desert Rebel, Casebook and Streetdance
school The Centre were earlybirds. Facebook was not that big at that time as it
is now. It is good to see that they were using it though; they should be the
ones to see trends coming. And after the WSA edition of 2009, you see that
almost every winner has a Facebook or Twitter page about his/her product.
Another
trend I have seen is the possibility to interact with other people online. In a
lot of games or websites, there is a chat or forum function so that it’s always
possible to have a conversation with another gamer.
Pic:Forum |
You can see
this in My Machine, Casebook, Xplus, Wreckamovie. (Ultimate example!!)
Most of these
winners were from the WSA 2009 edition. This is a little bit strange to me,
because the online forums existed way earlier already. I think they became
popular around 2009 because then, people were finally used to using the
internet. They didn’t go to the library anymore when they needed information,
they used Wikipedia. And then the next step was asking other internet users
questions about, well, almost everything.
This happened on all kinds of forums.
pic:Financial Crisis |
They
weren’t that innovative as the years before and after 2007.
I found
that, for example; Desert Rebel, Boys and Girls and Binar e-world weren’t
really WSA worthy. They all weren’t really new concepts or had a stunning
design, a different content or great interactivity. While for example the
Dvd-kids product of 2005 was way more innovative, had a great design and just
had way more to offer. I think it is a trend that 2007 was not that successful,
but I can’t seem to figure out why. It might have something to do with the
financial crisis that started in 2007 with the stagnated home market in the US.
Interactivity
is another trend that is still getting bigger everyday.
I saw it in
some winning products in 2007,
but it really became an important factor in
games/apps from 2009- now on.
I loved the
game ‘My name is Haas’. I think it is
really interactive, because you design the entire game by your drawings. Also Wreckamovie
is very interactive, as well as Sumo, Joytunes, Casebook, Starwalk and Sekai
Camera. All of these winners are from the 2009-2012 editions. I think
interactivity became a big hit because of the release and success of the Xbox
Kinect.(2010) The developments in the ICT world make it possible to be
interactive, and especially with games it is a very important factor, because
it makes the game way more fun and less predictable and tedious.
Wow, I have
been talking way too long already. But there were some more trends within the
WSA winners that I’ve noticed which I will write down in short:
- Games/Apps becoming more cross-functional
- Games are more often published with English as main language, starting from 2009
- Games got way more creative and different in 2011, then in the years before. They are no more traditional games but they all needed something extra.
- A lot of games are all about the theme, vibe experience and setting.
- The possibility to play games on multiple devices started in 2012
- Being able to make a character and play your digital self ( this was already happening in 2005 )
- Games are mostly about: history, environment, education, moving, interesting facts/articles and creativity and how to stimulate it.
The future
What I
think that will be the next trend for 2014 is virtual reality. As I have
researched on the WSA page, interactivity is important and the opportunities
are growing. Movement games with a webcam/recorder/kinect, games that you play
by using your own body are very hot as well.
And let’s
not forget 3D-movies and televisions! Almost every movie in the cinema is in 3D
nowadays. Even the older ones are getting a make over in 3D!
And because
they are always researching and developing virtual reality games for over a
decade now, I think it is about time that it’ll get huge. Cool vid: virtual game 2012
I say, 2014
is the year for virtual reality!
Door: Denise
WFcomsep2011A
Door: Denise
WFcomsep2011A