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Research on forms of agency in digital games has been directly applied to major game releases in Facebook and social-mobile development, demonstrating substantial and measurable commercial impact with global potential within a highly competitive industry. Specific research insights have affected key aspects of the design of individual games, resulting in higher than usual success rates for the titles involved. These insights have also improved the playing experiences of large numbers of players, as demonstrated by the level of take-up, creating a broader cultural impact. The impact is significant, in substantially improving the performance of games, and has extensive reach via the numbers of players who have benefited from an improved experience.
To date the research has had impact on more than one million players and helped to secure multiple contracts worth more than £2 million for the British game company Mediatonic. It has the potential (based on the user-bases of the companies involved) to reach more than 300 million users. Social-mobile games are at the forefront of the contemporary games industry. Mediatonic is a world leader in this form of gaming and this research has substantially influenced the company's design strategy.
MissionMaker is an innovative tool developed by IOE researchers in partnership with a software publisher which allows children and young people to make sophisticated 3D computer games without having programming knowledge. It has expanded thinking about games as an art form and children's ability to make and understand their structures, and has challenged stereotypes about games as `gendered' toys. It is endorsed by examination boards and used in hundreds of schools and centres throughout the UK and internationally. Designed in consultation with pupils and teachers, it encourages creative and strategic thinking in the English and Media curriculum in respect of games, which have received scant attention in school curricula.
An innovative approach towards researching story-telling and its relevance in games design has resulted in cultural and economic impact in the creative sector and generated novel approaches that have influenced creative practice in the games industry. As a direct result of the research, an independent games development studio has been established and two commercial game titles have been released, with commercial sales to date of approximately £1.65m. The first release, Dear Esther, has been a major commercial success, has also won several industry recognition awards and is cited as directly responsible for the genesis of a new gaming genre.
Research from the Digital arts strand of the CMR has had an impact in two related areas.
Research at UWE Bristol in new media and games has engaged business and policy communities. The resulting knowledge exchange has underpinned the AHRC Creative Economy Hub REACT (Research and Enterprise for Arts and Creative Technologies) which has stimulated £200k value of new business for SMEs in its first year of operation. The research has enabled start-ups, micro businesses and SMEs in the digital economy to use our critical and creative methods to improve their products and services. It has also made a significant contribution to the development of policy on games for young people.
Kafka's Wound', a response to Kafka's short story `A Country Doctor' (1919), was created as part of the `Re-imagining the Literary Essay for the Digital Age' (RILEDA) project. The essay is available at www.thespace.lrb.co.uk.
Commissioned from the London Review of Books (LRB), an independent literary publisher, RILEDA was supported by £45k from ACE who invested £3.5m in 51 commissions. The work was `located' in the Space, an experimental digital arts service, itself a major project within Arts Council England's creative media policy and its Public Value Partnership with the BBC.
Headed by Will Self, novelist and professor of contemporary thought at Brunel University, RILEDA involved over 70 collaborators drawn from the School of Arts and many other departments (especially Computing, Engineering and Design) in a collaborative, interdisciplinary, practice- based, research project. Institutional contributors included the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the Imperial War Museum, and the National Centre for Jewish Film. The research was carried out between March and July 2012 and the essay was `published' in August 2012.
Highly innovative and of high artistic quality, RILEDA has impacted diverse audiences worldwide, evolving the multi-media digital literary essay while encouraging innovative approaches to digital arts and supporting the case for future public digital arts services. It raises important issues about the nature of authorship, collaboration, and co-design in digital forms which frame broader questions about the nature of creativity, intellectual property rights, and the processes and experience of reading.
The high artistic quality and innovative user interface engaged a significant worldwide audience with 49,208 visits in 12 months, 57% from outside the UK.
The key impacts of the research into the non-entertainment use of computer games technology and virtual worlds at the Serious Games Institute (SGI) have been:
The reach of these impacts extends to partners both within the UK and overseas. Beneficiaries include companies, health professionals, educators, young people and their parents.
The research of Richard Stevens and Dave Raybould has had significant worldwide impact on the curricula for, and teaching of, audio for video games. The research conducted by, and under the stewardship of, Stevens by the IASIG's education working group defines the scope of this new discipline and outlines the syllabi required to meet the needs of the economically powerful computer games industry. Based upon this framework, and including additional research into specific creative and technical practices, Stevens and Raybould's book `The Game Audio Tutorial' (Focal Press) has become a core text for both game audio and game design programmes.
The ICTE Research Centre at UWS has transformed the way advanced technologies are used as tools within education and training, covering a range of sectors across Europe, and has contributed to policy formation, economic impact and benefits to society. Focussing on Web 2.0 technologies and specifically serious games, underpinning technologies have been applied to a range of educational disciplines at all levels of education and within organisations. External engagement has ranged from the level of individual teachers to the level of regional and national policy, and individual partner organisations have benefited economically from adopting and adapting these underpinning technologies.
Research from the Creative Futures Institute (CFi) has generated original understandings of how social media has triggered change within the practice of journalism. The evidence shows how findings from 3 inter-related projects were a catalyst for skills development and generated new contributions to civil society and the creative community. Impact is demonstrated across 15 organisations where new community media collectives were developed around the Vancouver 2010 Olympics (W2 Centre & True North Media House) and London 2012 Olympics (#media2012 & #CitizenRelay). UWS research led these organisations to invest £115,000 additional funds and implement these findings in their current work.