Computing in Northamptonshire: game

Showing posts with label game. Show all posts

Monday, 24 August 2015

Does the games industry need to do a better job recruiting women?

What is your vision of a gamer? Possibly a male aged between 14 and 25?

Recent figures by the US Entertainment Software Association states that in the US, 44 per cent of gamers are female with the average age of female gamer being 43 years old.

In the UK, a 2014 study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows the majority of gamers are female (52 per cent). So the stereotype of gamers does not fit the reality. Mobile games are an important market, but in the IAB report of the female gamers polled within the previous six months 47 per cent played a disc-based game, 68 per cent had played an online game and 56 per cent have played on a console.

Read more at: Does the games industry need to do a better job recruiting women?

Sources

Department of Education (2013) National curriculum in England: computing programmes of study — Publications — GOV.UK. [online]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study [Accessed August 22, 2015].

Entertainment Software Association; (2015) Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Games Industry.

Gamasutra (2014) Gamasutra Salary Survey 2014. Gamasutra. [online]. Available from:http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2014/09/05/GAMA14_ACG_SalarySurvey_F.pdf [Accessed August 22, 2015].

Jayanth, M. (2014) 52% of gamers are women — but the industry doesn’t know it | Meg Jayanth | Comment is free | The Guardian. Guardian.

TIGA (2015) TIGA | Tiga Publishes Free Equal Opportunities Policy Templates For Uk Games Businesses | Press Releases. [online]. Available from: http://www.tiga.org/news/press-releases/tiga-publishes-free-equal-opportunities-policy-templates-for-uk-games-businesses [Accessed August 22, 2015].

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

learning foreign languages via the use of games

Recent work by a BSc Computing student, University of Northampton - Andy Matt-Mbuku

Towards the development of an Educational Software tool designed for teaching children words in foreign

languages via the use of games.

Andy Matt-Mbuku

Abstract

Firstly games in general are today an important part of many children’s leisure lifestyle and a growing part of many cultures throughout the world. More than three quarters of children play games regularly; Parent can watch in amazement as children spend hours to amusing themselves by controlling characters on the screen.

In the past games have been discharged as a distraction to from more important activities such as studying or doing homework.

Nowadays however, there are questions being asked by teachers and other researchers about how this influential concept may be used to support children’s leaning in schools Instead of turning their backs against it, with the new foreign language curriculum for primary school pupils across the England being introduced very soon, there is now an increasing interest in asking whether games might be a powerful new resource to support learning in primary schools.

This dissertation project intends to explore the current thoughts about the role of games in educations which supports children’s learning inside and outside schools, and also highlighting the critical areas of research such as the rising interest in pleasurable learning and the ‘learning by doing’ that many games seems to offer;

This project also acknowledges the challenges and obstacles to using games within the current education system and will aim to provide general recommendations for future games-based learning approaches in schools for teachers, game developers and education policy board.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else”. (Albert Einstein, 1955).

Computing Courses

BSc and HND Computing Provision (click on the links below for more details of the courses)

The University of Northampton's, Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies offers five courses within the MSc Computing postgraduate provision (shown below) all available either part-time or full-time.

The contents are the opinion of the author(s) and not necessarily the view of the University of Northampton.

Thursday, 21 March 2013

University to create MMOG with students

BSc Computer Games Development lead by Martyn Simmons is the focus of an article by the Magazine EDGE about plans to develop a massively multiplayer game ( MMOG). The MMOG is just one of the aspects considered, a game involving Stoke Bruene Canal is discussed as is the Games courses multidisciplinary nature.

BSc Computer Games Development
HND Computer Games Development

Also mentioned in the article is NVision and the advantages of having on-site immersive environment equipment.

For more details see: University of Northampton to create MMOG with students
The article can be found at: http://www.edge-online.com/get-into-games/university-of-northampton-to-create-mmog-with-students/2/

Computing Courses

BSc and HND Computing Provision (click on the links below for more details of the courses)

The contents are the opinion of the author(s) and not necessarily the view of the University of Northampton.