SmartGate – the Game 2 just launched…

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I still discovered some bugs, but SmartGate the Game 2 has been released. After almost 16 months of talking, looking for the main problems around air cargo and in the offices of all stakeholders, IJsfontein delivered game 2 and my job as a consultant is done!
The first game was all about transporting cargo from shipper to airplane. Game 2 of the SmartGate project takes this a little bit further and brings more detail to the playing field. It let’s you experience the possible effects of your actions in a virtual logistic air cargo game.
My first thoughts at the time where that the ‘final’ game of the SmartGate project would be a sort of RUSE / Sim City / Logistic Tycoon in an air cargo environment where the player needs to build up a solid business (like the game ‘Jones’, if people remember the 90’s).
The main purpose of the game is to manage your air cargo business in a efficient, safe and reliable way. This means that, depending on the sort of cargo, it’s destination and the reputation of the trucker, you make decisions to either do the job or don’t and if there is a risk involved, that you manage that risk to your best ability (e.g. either employing specialist staff or having each shipment checked by Customs).

We also enclosed some minigames in the so-called ‘e-learning’ section where we challenge players on specific knowledge about exceptional situations and dilemma’s.

Besides this, we also included a badges system. The more efficient you are (planes leave the airport 100% full) or if you always check your cargo, you will receive badges and upgrades. The best thing to have in Air Cargo is an AEO status (Authorized Economic Operator) which means you are a reliable party within the chain.

And of course there is a leader board where you can check your score.

I challenge everyone to play the game and let me know what you think!

You can play it here: http://www.smartgatethegame.nl/game2/

RESULTS GAME 1 

The results of the first game where quite impressive by the way. There are about 2.000 people active in the Air Cargo sector around Schiphol airport and almost 1.300 of them played the game! That’s almost two-third of all people in the sector.

Apart from that we had 3.700 visits in four months time and a total of 184.000 page views!

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Games as a disability aid…

>Thanks to a few Linkedin groups I’m part of I discovered this great gameconcept to help children with cognitive and motion disabilities. It improves motion accuracy, eye-hand coordination and the ability for visual reaction speed. It works on PC together with a webcam.

Hopefully medical institutes and schools will see the potential of games to help kids growing up and ‘learn by doing’ and making practicing fun!

There is more information on www.timocco.com

You can order the product there as well.

If you would like to join the discussion how games can be used in health care click here if you like (I think it’s an open group)

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Games for Internal Branding: Microsoft Silver Line Society ARG

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Microsoft used an Alternate Reality Game to encourage players (employees) to increase cooperative working. The puzzles had to be solved by working together before the 7th of december….

The strength of the execution lies in the fact that both virtual- and real-world elements have to be combined to achieve all goals… check the films to learn more!

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Games to support change management problems

>Today my dear client Air Cargo Netherlands (Aniek) and I held a presentation at the Marketing Information Event 2010 at the World Forum in The Hague (Den Haag ;-).

IJsfontein GameWise, Atos Consulting and BrandNewGame have teamed up to develop a great game containing loads of e-learning elements in a series of three stunning games of which the first is soon to be released.

It all started end 2009 when Air Cargo Netherlands, Schiphol airport and the Dutch Customs approached IJsfontein GameWise with the question how a game could support their goals.

We sat down with them and decided to go into an ‘analyse-fase’ to determine if – and if so – how games could help to achieve their goals. Soon we discovered that this would be a really cool project and we have been working on it the past year, doing interviews with all the stakeholders within the logistic chain surrounding Schiphol. After the interviews BrandNewGame developed the first ideas which gameconcepts could be effective for their specific needs. IJsfontein is nearly finished developing the first game and I am very proud to have been working with them on this FANTASTIC project!

The presentation below will explain more about their specific situation and will give you insights how games can be used to achieve marketing goals.

The gametrailer for the first game is stated below:

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Games for change management presentation at Aviadrome Lelystad during the DAG meeting

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We show the first build of the game that GameWise is developing for Air Cargo Netherlands and Schiphol Airport at the Dutch Aviation Group event in Lelystad

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Stuart Brown says: Play is more than fun! It's the way we learn things in Life!

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Ingame advertising: Base-x

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The Dutch Royal Airforce has developed a game called Base-X and uses in-game advertising in Battlefield 2142 to promote this. In my opinion it would have been much more effective to have a Modification developed in BF2 or America’s Army like we proposed together with Power Unlimited some time ago…

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Games to help organizational transitions and as a training tool

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We are currently working on a real cool project for Air Cargo Netherlands, Schiphol Airport and Dutch Customs.
To support an undisturbed flow of goods and speed up delivery times, the three parties mentioned above came up with a concept called ‘SmartGate’.
It basically comes down to a combination of a central database containing all digital data necessary to accompany cargo from A to Z and an integrated process in which all parties work together and provide information upfront (in-time) and complete.
If shippers (like Philips or ASML for instance) send all the information necessary to inform Customs in-time and complete, the risk analysis can be done upfront and cargo can be cleared and marked ‘green’ before it even arrives to the airport. Some cargo (explosives for instance) need to be checked anyhow, but sharing information within the logistic chain is the first step towards an integrated process.
Together with GameWise, BrandNewGame has analyzed the logistic process and defined a game concept to increase awareness of SmartGate and internalize the required future working method.
The plan is to create a central game-dashboard where players login (check screen dump) through their web-browser. After they are logged in, they can play through the logistic process on a virtual airfield where they encounter various mini-games at each step in the process. These games will give insight in specific challenges and dilemma’s. Eventually the games will train the players which information is essential for specific cargo shipments, how completeness and sharing of information will improve the flow of the process.
Hope to inform you soon about more cases, BrandNewGame and GameWise are also working for a large international bank and the port of Amsterdam.

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