The project

Understanding video games

Video games are immersive and interactive experiences, but they are much more than entertainment. They are an increasingly useful tool for learning and improve our knowledge. We can achieve this by including them inside awareness programmes aimed at discovering and pointing out their potential and the wide range of multifaceted interpretations they may provide. We must also consciously handle the medium. In doing so, we will become aware users.

As we introduce videogames within several cultural as well as educational fields we will engage users, support learning or educational processes, and provide new different perspectives to face and interpret the actual world we inhabit, as well as our society.
 

Videogames and tourism: an opportunity for the territory

IVIPRO is a national and cross-regional project, working closely with all local institutions. The objective is first of all to give value to the available data, to the existent mapped locations, in order to evaluate their potential for a videogame setting. At the same time, IVIPRO wants to extend the database with new locations that are more suitable for virtual worlds: impressive architectures, urban configurations for open worlds, evocative cities and locations for the game’s target audience. Thanks to its historical and artistic heritage, Italy can represent one of the most important locations for videogames.

Videogames are peculiar in that the gameplay is strictly connected to the virtual space where the game takes place. The setting is the key asset of the game. It establishes its limits and potential. Some locations are more suitable than others as a setting for the narration: ancient villages and fortresses, abandoned buildings, monuments, ancient villas. Moreover, the local folklore, mixing history and legends, can further contribute to the characterisation of a location.

IVIPRO entertains a continuous dialogue with software houses, in order to understand their needs, to know their projects, to guide them and to provide specific contents.