Yesterday I went to the Apply Serious Games and Virtual Worlds Exposition, held at the Society for Chemical Industry, Belgrave Square, London.
Due to a last minute resheduling, the presentations were brought forward from midday to first thing in the proceedings. I found that I had to leave home at 05:30 to get there for about 9 a.m.
David (now Lord) Puttnam the film maker famous for producing such films as Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, The Duellists (Ridley Scott's feature film debut), Chariots of Fire (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), Local Hero, Memphis Belle, and The Killing Fields and The Mission, gave the keynote speech, in which he expressed his keen desire that virtualism should help prevent people travelling all around the world to attend meetings.
Perhaps it was only me that saw the irony when he explained that he recently presented that view during a seminaar in Prague. I think I chuckled alone.
At the conclusion of his speech, the presentations were made. I was called up and went to David to collect the award. As it was presented to me, the crowds cheered, angels sung and.. Oh, no they didn't. But there was warm applause, even from the runners up.
There was an official photographer, but I haven't received the pictures yet.
Unlike the traditional manner for Oscars and BAFTAs, the awards were presented winners first. I thought it was terribly unfair for the runners up that they had to follow Vsteps magnificent achievement of four thousand and ninety-two votes, being 52% of the total votes cast. The next highest vote was Floodsim, with two thousand, one hundred and seven votes.
I had written a speech, but there was no provision for any winner's speeches. A pity. I was going to say something along the lines of (I never read speeches. I just work out roughly what I intend to say and then do something completely different at the time. It's called sponteneity!)
It's an honour to be receive this award.
On behalf of Vstep, I'd like to thank all of the many thousands of people in the Ship Simulator community who voted for Ship Simulator Professional, Version 2.
Vstep is one of the leading developers in the European serious gaming and simulation industry. It provides a range of products designed to assist with such things as safety training in fire-fighting, lock mastering, hospital and prison evacuations, railway station incident management and of course, ship handling.
Customers of the professional version include various Navies, Marine and Naval Academies and Colleges, Shipping Lines and Port Authorities around the world.
We have an active community of over 30,000 people, providing a wide range of support, much of it arising from many years of active seamanship at all levels within the sector, bringing their extensive training and exerience.
From the original professional version of the simulator, a "gamer" version was produced. This proved massively popular and was followed by the latest version, Ship Simulator 2008.
Since then, development has been on a continous basis. Recently Vstep created a version in which the aim was to bring vessels in to port within an allocated timespan, while using the least amount of fuel. This is an up to date reflection of the considerations of modern fleet owners and those owners wishing to reduce their environmental impact.
We now have users of those gaming versions moving across to the professional version. Things have come round full circle.
Picture of the trophy and certificate below.
