(Finance) – In Italy the gaming sector is rapidly expanding globally: the market in 2022 was worth 336 billion dollars and in 2027 it is expected to reach 522 billion, with a net +9.2%, according to estimates by Klecha & Co, a European investment bank specializing in the tech sectors. The number of players is also growing: they will become around 3.6 billion by 2025, of which 50% in Asia, considering the 3.2 billion today.
In Italy, according to IIDEA (Italian Interactive & Digital Entertainment Association), the turnover of the video game market exceeded 2.3 billion eurosa good 5% more than in 2022, confirming our peninsula as one of the five most important markets in Europe. Video gamers in Italy are approximately 13 million31% of the population between 6 and 64 years old.
It is now known that video games are much more than a pastime for kids: their application in various fields, from educational to rehabilitation, belongs to the universe of “serious gaming”, which currently has a value of 8-10 billion dollars which is estimated to become 33 in a decade. At the basis of this type of gaming are all the areas in which real simulations are difficult, expensive and dangerous, therefore healthcare, defense, aerospace.
Already today the British armed forces use a virtual reality training platform built on the engine of the famous game Fortnite, while in the healthcare sector, especially in patient support, a digital therapy based on the popular video game Roblox is used.
The area of choice remains the educational one, where gamification is enriched with nuances and where – it is worth saying – role-playing games also come into play.
The LARP, Live Action Role Playing or in Italian Live Role Playing, is a reality with 35 years of history behind it: it is a theatrical-type recreational activity in which the participants physically interpret the characters and represent fictitious situations in the real space that surrounds them, with of costumes, equipment and sets. Effective EDU-Larp protocols have already been tested in Italy, in particular in the city of Rome with the support of both the Municipality and the Region: the UTOPIA method has the objective of defining and testing the application of Larp to the system Italian education and training program and in 2025 it will network throughout the country, proposing consolidated formats and a new project that will involve secondary schools and universities.
At Lucca Comics & Games, considered the most important Italian exhibition in the sector, it will be officially presented the International Larp Database (ILDB)a one-of-a-kind platform that aims to collect, organize and archive live action role-play (LARP) events from around the world. The inaugural conference will be held Saturday 2 November, from 4pm to 4.45pmat the Library of the IMT School of Advanced Studies Lucca.
ILDb will be a unique tool, capable of mapping a phenomenon and a cultural movement, but also of consolidating a community and bringing people from different geographical, cultural and social backgrounds into contact. The formalization in the database of Italian harp cultural production of the last 35 years is a step forward for the institutionalization of this artistic form. It will therefore represent a useful tool for bringing other realities, such as academic, scholastic or informal training ones, closer to the educational potential of live role-playing games.
“The inauguration of the International Larp Database represents a point of arrival for research and technical development and a starting point for free use by the end user and organizations active in the sector – declared Umberto Francia, screenwriter, director and larp designer, creator of the ILDB project – In this phase we will consolidate the Italian section of the platform which will help us complete the necessary running-in for the system, will provide us with important data on the state of the art of larp in our country and we hope it will become a tool essential for all larpers. In the meantime we are preparing with trepidation for the expansion to a European and then global level. We thank the Ministry of Culture for believing in this project, the partners for being at our side with their authority and competence, but especially the larper community who are the true protagonists of ILDB.”
(Photo: Photo Flavio Mancinelli)