Play, Win and Visit - Video game and Tourism industry

Play, Win and Visit - Video Game and Tourism industry

In the 1970s, video games began to emerge on the market through arcade machines and game consoles. Since that day, video games have become a real industry in the world and this growing industry managed to merge with other booming industries and vice versa: like the Tourism industry. Indeed, today it is possible to:

• Travel through video games: Ubisoft first mover

Traveling virtually is not brand new, Ubisoft ten years ago with his first episode of Assassin’s creed initiated it through travels in the past. They reconstituted cities at the time of the third crusades where the hero had different missions to achieve. Two years ago, they get a step further by refocusing on the universe of the game without constructing a complete story, the player was more independent. In order to create the best experience possible, designers really wanted to have an accurate reconstitution of cities, to be as precise as possible so that the gamer can navigate as if he was visiting the city. Traveling in the game became a real purpose for the player beyond the missions he should do.

Quotation of a gamer: “Walking through Assassin’s Creed II was one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had with a video game. They absolutely nailed Venice and actually managed to capture some of that awe it inspires”.

• Travel to discover reconstructed video game universe

                  As we have just seen, we can travel in our living room by playing. It is also possible to choose to travel thanks to video game. Indeed, tourist site had been created to reconstruct scenery of some video games. One of spectacular example is “Witcher School” in Poland. This school was inspired by the saga video game “The Witcher” where we become the hero of it. All the conditions of the game are transcribed in life size. This new trend is called “live action role-playing game” (LARP).

• Travel and play with serious game

                  “Serious game” is a new tool and it will more and more used in the tourism industry. This new trend is a way to learn by playing, which is usually used thanks to a mobile application. For the tourism industry, principally in museum, it is a way to interest young people during the visit of the site, like the Castle of Fontainebleau which have created riddles and games of tracks throughout the visit. There are also many other examples, such as Ingress (created by google thanks to geolocation), Interiago (visit of a city scripted), Urbangaming (professional entertainment), which are adapted today to all age groups.

                  As we can see, the tourism industry is taking advantage of the growing video game industry in different ways and it will become more and more important thanks to the digitalization of our society.

These trends can be a real opportunity for the destinations: they could communicate about it on social medias taking advantage of the popularity of this video games where they appear.

Sarah ALTMAYER and Lena BENOIST 

Sources 

Audureau, W. (2016) Ubisoft, agence de voyages en jeu vidéo. Available at: http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2016/09/29/ubisoft-agence-de-voyages-en-jeu-video_5005466_4408996.html

Gerardi, M. (2016) Readers explain the pleasures of video game tourism. Available at: http://www.avclub.com/article/readers-explain-pleasures-video-game-tourism-239619

Charleselie (2016) The Witcher school: Le culturel / vidéo-ludique au service du tourisme. Available at: https://jvtourisme.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/the-witcher-school-le-culturel-video-ludique-au-service-du-tourisme/

Charleselie (2014) L’évolution et le futur des serious games dans le tourisme. Available at: https://jvtourisme.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/evolution-futur-serious-game-tourisme/