Williams Kevin Mr - The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities

The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier

Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities

KEVIN WILLIAMS and MICHAEL MASCIONI

GOWER

Kevin Williams and Michael Mascioni 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Kevin Williams and Michael Mascioni have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.

Published by
Gower Publishing Limited
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Union Road
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Gower Publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Kevin, 1967

The out-of-home immersive entertainment frontier : expanding interactive boundaries in leisure facilities / by Kevin Williams and Michael Mascioni.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4724-2695-6 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-2696-3 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-2697-0 (epub) 1. Leisure--Economic aspects. 2. Leisure industry. 3. Popular culture--Economic aspects. I. Mascioni, Michael. II. Title.

GV182.15.W55 2014

790.06'9--dc23

2013045605

ISBN 9781472426956 (pbk)
ISBN 9781472426963 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781472426970 (ebk-ePUB)

UK-born Kevin Williams has amassed a wealth of experience of the past and present of the industries that are defining themselves as key to the DOE arena after leaving school, he worked with leaders in amusement, commercial and military simulation, virtual reality, theme parks, games software and CGi technology. Possessing knowledge of both sides of the business table as developer, manufacturer and originator, he is one of the elite group of past Walt Disney Imagineers. A well-known commentator in the trade media including InterGame, Replay Magazine, Vending Times and the web portal Arcade Heroes, he also publishes his own provocative news service (The Stinger Report) and is a veteran moderator and presenter on the aspects that drive this and related markets. From his position in the DOE sector, he has championed the non-traditional opportunities this sector affords.

Michael Mascioni is a market-research consultant, writer and conference planner in digital media. He has undertaken research projects on such topics as DOE, video games, interactive TV, online entertainment and interactive compact discs for such companies as the IMAX Corporation, Sony Pictures, HBO, Paramount Communications, Thinkwell Group and Image Entertainment. He served as a senior analyst in the broadband entertainment group at Strategy Analytics and as a research associate in consumer electronics at LINK Resources. He has written articles on digital media for such publications as Funworld, Daily DOOH, Digital Signage Today, Digital2Disc, Internet Evolution and Technology Review. He served as the project manager of the 2012 DNA/US DOE conference and programme manager of the 2013 DNA/UK Seminar. He was programme director of the Intertainment conferences on interactive entertainment and managing editor of the A&A Monthly newsletter on Interactive Entertainment.

In co-authoring this book, both Kevin and Michael look forward to opening up the discussion regarding the opportunities and future developments of the DOE sector and providing a detailed commentary on what is seen as the next big development in the application of digital technology to virtual environments.

The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier endeavours to offer readers a glimpse into an innovative universe of entertainment and immersion. Both authors would like to personally thank the leading lights and innovators interviewed for this book, who have helped to create a groundbreaking publication: without their help and support this would not have been possible.

In writing this book, both authors have endeavoured to create the first publication to assess the implications of the evolution and expansion of immersive media in leisure facilities and highlight the multifaceted nature of interactivity in those facilities.

Charting the scope of the digital out-of-home entertainment (DOE) market not only tells the tale of the emergence of the digital-game narrative outside the home but also of the creation of technologies that can entertain, educate and inform unlike any other medium. From its first deployment in arcades and theme parks, the digital-entertainment platform in public-spaces has generated a draw unlike any other, unshackled by the price and development limitations of its at-home counterparts.

This book the first in a series on the establishment of the new interactive entertainment narrative outside the home charts the emergence of this technology and especially how it has been adapted to a broad range of applications. Touching not only the conventional pay-to-play amusement and attraction industries, DOE technology has also started to be deployed in the retail market, marketing and promotion, sports and leisure and even museum and visitor-attraction sectors.

Along with the technology, the methodology of gaming has had to be tailored to the out-of-home environment. The term gamification, meaning the application of elements of game-play to the development of content for this environment, has come into common usage. Fundamentally, the sophisticated modern audiences that populate all the venues described (and more) are familiar with the elements of play. They have known the internet and digital technology from birth: they are digital natives.

It is important to know the key events in the evolution of out-of-home entertainment. We have supplied a timeline here. They will be discussed at greater length in the main text: