Today’s panel discussion at the Videogame Lab was about the present and future of video games and the technology associated with them, with specific reference to promoting and raising awareness of Italy’s vast historical and cultural heritage.
The panel tried to take stock of the current state of the sector, looking at video games that combine recreation with knowledge and educational value, giving concrete examples such as the story of a girl holed up in Volterra’s asylum told in The Town of Light, in which the player is introduced to the terrible experience of living in an asylum, or the discovery of the roaring 1970s with all their contradictions through the story of Lella, the protagonist of Wheels of Aurelia.
They talked about new ways and means of experiencing museums through play and digital storytelling which, when applied to cultural heritage, allows users to get to know a story not just by listening to it, but by experiencing it from the inside.
The institutional panel discussion, which closed the morning session, looked at how video games can be used to support museums, and as a tool for raising awareness of cultural heritage. One initiative mentioned by the panel was Italy for Movies, which teamed up with IVIPRO some months ago as a sign of their common purpose: video games, just like films, can be used as alternative and original tools for raising awareness of Italian territory.
The fact that the role played by the games industry in the wider audiovisual sector has been acknowledged by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, the subsequent extension of tax credits to the sector, the opening up of the ‘new Cinecittà’ to the video games sector, and the partnerships that are being forged between the institutions and the production and creative sectors, are signs of a new awareness that the video games sector can make a difference in promoting Italy’s artistic, cultural and landscape heritage. Ultimately, it is another tool for economic and industrial development.