The panel discussion consisted mostly of the presentation given by Mike Worth, which touched concisely on the main issues related to the Videogame Growth Initiative started in Philadelphia. Worth started off with some statistics about the interactive entertainment. According to his sources, the revenue of the industry equals $41 billion for 2008. The growth of the industry has a double digit growth, compared to other industries, including the movie industry, which register decline. 250k people are employed in the interactive entertainment. Another fact he pointed out was that the interactive entertainment is a multi-discipline realm because of the variety of professionals involved n order for it to function – layers, biologists, physicians, artists, musicians. It is also integral to ethical improvement. As an example, Worth pointed out a game that has been proven to have a positive effect on children’s ability to deal with chemotherapy.
Next, Worth discussed some demographic statistics, that contrary to the common expectations state that the average gamer age is 35 years old and that 43% of the gamers are females. But why should a city need to develop game industry. Worth arguments were that the reasons are:
1. The industry will establish itself because of the community that supports it. Worth used the term sticky to describe the extremely tribal nature of the industry and the way game design studios or game store owners network with gamers all over the place.
2. It employes the expanding technology.
3. It becomes a drive and platform for innovation and fore-front technology creation (Drexel’s Lazybrains, Project NATAL)
4. It creates a community of diverse and educated professionals.
The Q&A section was focus on money matters and activities related to executing a project in real life. Hardik Bhatt, Developer at Comcast, Frank Lee, Professor, Department of COmputer Science, Drexel University, Dennis Manning, Scindocs, LLC, Lou Tranchella, 3D Artist, and Grant Shonker, Game Programmer and Designer at MegaTouch, talked briefly about issues like necessary factors for a game studio do start, current state of the industry in Philadelphia, and preparation of young professionals.
