Project presentation : Part I

The past couple of days I really needed to focus my attention back to my research. Trying to define in a better way of what it is that I am going to do research on. In this thinking process I came to ask myself three questions. For starters, "What is a board game?", it seemed that everyone had a different opinion on what a board game is exactly. The second question was "Where does a board game ends being a board game and begins to become a video game?". And third, "Why bother?". I can't exactly give you the answeres yet as some are a bit vague, but I kept on thinking and this is the outcome which I presented today.

I became really fascinated on a new way of gaming, a new genre perhaps. It's the question mark which lays between the 'Traditional Board Games' and the 'Video Games'. It's not yet possible to imagin the feeling one experiences when playing an interactive board game. And so my new research question became the following:

"What can a multi-user, multi-touch table mean for the future of board games?"

Before this can be answered a couple of things are needed. First I will need to do research on the possibilities of a multi-touch table, look into the benefits and added value of such a device and write down the restrictions of a board game. But also mention the other way around, what are the added value of a board game and the restrictions of a multi-touch table.

After that schedule has been set I can pick a popular board game and begin experimenting by adding benefits of a multi-touch table into the game and look at the outcome.

Why bother? A very annoying but good question. Well first of all, to keep up with time and technology. We are living in a digital generation, with our mobile phones, computers and so on. It's only a logical step that on some point the board game would get modernized as well. And now that the multi-touch technology here, that is possible! Second of all, to remove the restrictions of a board game and to embrase the new possibilities a multi-touch table has to offer.

I decided that my target audience will be your every day family that enjoys sitting around a game board and playing a game.

Then one last thing, the quest for a beamer may have ended. More news coming up.