ARM Community: Enjoying gaming…at last! - ARM Community

With the Game Developers Conference happening this week, I got to thinking about how gaming is becoming so much a part of all of our lives. I’m not sure if I dare say it amongst my gaming obsessed colleagues(!), but I’ve never really been one for games – whether it was board games or video games. My memory of gaming as a child was waiting and waiting til my two brothers would finally say “OK, it’s your go” and hand me the joystick, then within a matter of moments and probably flying a spaceship or suchlike in the wrong direction, I was dead, back to the end of the queue while they seemed to take forever to lose their lives! Not fun!!

But gaming is becoming so much more pervasive now, and it is effortlessly breaking through to so many demographic groups that wouldn’t have typically engaged in gaming. It only took my Mum a few moments to get the hang of Angry Birds on my ARM® Mali GPU-enabled tablet, and my stepdaughter is only interested in me for my smartphone so she can play Teeter! The simplest of game concepts seem to be so universally effective.

So what do I expect to see at GDC, and what will be the hot topics affecting the way that so many more of us enjoy gaming?

Well, games on smartphones are already so easily accessible, but the advances in user interfaces are making this even more the case. The games on offer are plentiful and easily downloaded within a few touches of the screen. The users interaction is much more enjoyable and intuitive with a tap or drag on the screen, or a tilt of the device. And now we’re seeing stereoscopic 3D effects on mobile devices that really enthral and draw the gamer in.

There, I’m now referring to people like me who dip into occasional moments of escapism and fun as a ‘gamer’. Now that’s something I never thought I would call myself!

Everyone going to GDC or interested in what will be going on at the show will have their own history of gaming and different takes on what the future holds and what is improving for the end consumer – what do you think the hot spots will be? Com and see us on the ARM booth at GDC and let us know!

Lorna Dunn, Marketing Communications Manager, ARM, Lorna’s background is set firmly in marketing, in education and experience…giving her a much less technical outlook than many of her colleagues and the ability to see things from a more mainstream consumer point of view. As an accredited Chartered Marketer, Lorna holds the CIM Diploma in Marketing which she went on to after an International Business degree from Aston University Business School and EDHEC, France. Lorna has since clocked up over 10 years working in Marketing Communications for technology companies. Working with the Media Processing Division at ARM to communicate what Mali can deliver to the outside world gives Lorna an incredible insight into the technology and partnerships that come together to deliver the devices that are really now part of our everyday lives – however technical we are!