Génération numérique

Or "numerical generation", those who are 8-12 year old.

Link

This (french) article by Isabelle Musnik is an interesting summary of the situation.

Près de 8 [enfants] sur 10 ont une console de jeux, 1 sur 4 possède un portable [...]

Translated "Almost 8 [children] out of 10 have a videogame console, 1 out of 4 owns a laptop [...]". Children live by the screen. Here are my toughts on the subject.

Kids are raised in a world where machines became more intelligent than they are. Machines are superior to them, they are their teachers in some way, they are exemples. More than ours can be, their lives are made of numbers. Very old people sometime won't be able to read. Another generation doesn't have an idea about using a cell phone or tape recorder. The next one almost see computers as esoterism. All those things seem natural, and what may seem even as science fiction right now will be as natural to the numerical generation as reading, surfing the web or using a cell phone is to us. I never bought on eBay or Amazon, I almost never use Myspace or FaceBook, I bought my first cellphone today thinking I'd never have one!

To make it short, this is what the next generation is about: the unfamiliar becomes a need.

What I'll work for.

I'm just a student for now, but I don't plan on working in the game industry for no reasons. Adaptation and growth of the next generation is what I'm aiming for.

In big centers, like Montreal, kids are missing important things: space and freedom. Increasing danger (due to more cars over time, as an exemple) and prevention measures encouraged parents to be more protective toward their children. Urbanisation played a role too, confining children to smaller areas. Games, especially videogames, gave them back, in some way, space and freedom; they now have worlds to explore, spells to cast, experiences to live. All they need: a TV, a controller, a console and a game. They keep their security and use a minimal amount of space, but can learn to be, identifying themselves to some hero and exploring infinite possibilities.

Trough control schemes, adaptation capability becomes better; each time a new game is played, new rules, controls, etc, are imposed, bringing the gamer to be able to easily comprehend how to behave in new situations. This is the reason why I strongly believe taht, as game developpers, we must vary control schemes and situations in games. This is one of the reason I want to be a developper.

Games are a tool of pleasure, learning and growth. Those are not only purposes, they are a necessity in tomorrow's games. I had the chance to have space and freedom during my youth. Most of the next generations won't have that chance and as adults, we are all responsible for their education in a way or another.

Children are our future. We raise them.

We raise our future.

This is what I will be working for.

Game Summit!

November 18 & 19, the Montreal International Game Summit. There I was! As an introduction, I could say waiting for it to happen was quite exciting in itself! And the Summit... Warren Spector was giving the first conference and Jonathan Blow the last one. The two best I have seen!

More about those later.

Official Mushroom Cake Day.

A sad day, indeed.

The Mushroom Cake Day, or MCD, is nothing to talk about on the day itself. Nothing outweighs silence when it comes to describe the MCD.

You, humble visitor, are blessed to ignore what it is all about.