Matmi is a company that was founded in 2001 with a vision to make the internet fun by creating engaging and shareable content. They believe that content drives experiences and interactions online. The company helps clients use virtual and augmented reality as well as "the power of play" to create wonderful experiences for people to enjoy across aspects of life. Matmi has worked with various agencies and clients over the years to bring their vision of interactive online experiences to life.
3. When we started the company in 2001 we had a vision of the future; that
vision has stayed with us. We wanted to make the Internet fun. We did this
by making unforgettable content that users would engage with, send to their
friends and ultimately enjoy.
We believed that content was king and we still stay
true to this belief…
4. The future is about two way
conversations, give & take,
achievements & rewards, social
collateral, responsibility, respect,
tribalism, content marketing and
creating wonderful experiences for
people to enjoy..…it’s what we call
“The Power of Play” which now
covers every aspect of human life.
#PowerofPlay
Hi My name is Jeff coghlan and I am founder of Matmi and I am here Today Im going to talk about Escaping Reality
Matmi is about bringing the digital and physical worlds together, not simply replacing the real world with digital just because we can. By enhancing it with digital thus driving narrative, we create enhanced engagement, changing behaviour using play to create fun original experiences.
In 2001 we realised if we could give people a few minutes of escapism and fun, we could get their attention. Matmi incorporated play into brand engagement, making games for brands (virals, advergames).The results were astonishing, with the ROI outperforming every other type of media.
We delivered solutions bases around Play for all of these brands.
We've partnered with a few agencies and a small amount of celebs like the Gorillaz, Iron Maiden, Lily Allen etc.
Its our 15th Birthday at Matmi. 15 years of making play pay.
Whether its games, exercise, drugs, going to music festivals, having a holiday. Why do we want to escape the reality that we live in? Reality is an illusion , albeit a very persistent one.
Games are an integral part of all cultures and are one of the oldest forms of human social interaction. Games are formalized expressions of play which allow people to go beyond immediate imagination and direct physical activity. Common features of games include uncertainty of outcome, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time, elements of fiction, elements of chance, prescribed goals and personal enjoyment.
Senet is one of the oldest known board games. It has been found in predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt,[2] c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively. it means passing. its 5000 years old. It has an element of luck which the egyptians thought showed you were protected by the gods. So we've been playing games for years,
Games were important as cultural and social bonding events, as teaching tools and as markers of social status. As pastimes of royalty and the elite, some games became common features of court culture and were also given as gifts. GO was invented in ancient China more than 5,500 years ago, and is thus the oldest board game continuously played today. Despite its relatively simple rules, Go is highly complex, and possesses more possibilities than the total number of atoms in the visible universe.
Ive been paying games since I was little,, from lego (for self expression), Pong the all time classic, but nothing could beat my addiction to Star Wars arcade machine. but why did I like the so much. The graphics were awful by todays standard. but I felt immersed
My first experience of having presence in another reality was a toy I had called a viewfinder. This allowed me to peer into another reality. It was a stereoscopic experience. I could not engage, just take a peek.
Then we move on to the body. One of my first experiences in the arcade was a game called Ourtun. I actually felt as though was driving and it was because I was using my mind and body together. The game was massively popular because of the input peripherAL.
When Kinect was realised it allowed us to interact with our bodys. The technology was good but the games we not always. It was great for experiential campaigns. Kinect one was made by prime sense which was bought out by Apple. Similar technology is used n VR sensors. Early Kinect games were similar to early VR games. Normal games ported for the device not designed for the device, Talk about merlin
O.R. was the first of the modern VR headsets and was bought by Facebook for a cool 2 billiion. Zuckerberg said it would be the most important computer platform. This showed confidence in the market.
Samsung worked with oculus nd produced Gear VR which can offer some amazing Mixed reality experiences. Started at around 300 dollars. They now give them away with the phone.
this same year Google released cardboard which seemed a bit of a joke a first With cardboard It was no joke. Now there are millions of cardboards worldwide. My local newsagents even sell them on the counter. Allowed a VR experience for the masses. Many brands are branding these at the moment for experiential campaigns.
AR has many practical uses but gaming AR was properly put on the Map with Pokemon Go is a game that uses GPS location and Augmented Reality (AR) to create a “treasure hunt” type game where users have to collect Pokemon in the real world.
Whilst Vr was making some inroads, AR was making waves as it was easy to apart as users could use just their phones for the experience. AR allowed users to augment images into their reality. We produced a campaign for the Smiler. We wanted to enhance the real world with digital and used the AR to unlock
What we learned from our AR work with Merlin (and our IP) and in the leisure industry we mixed with other IP from rollabear making a new proposition.
Here is the trailer. made for web and youtube. As we made the game, the characters and all the IP why not make the trailer. Magic across media.
No the game influences the TV. This changes the way we work.
AR looks like it will enter a new phase with upcoming developments like Googles Project Tango which allows you phone to see virtual objects augmented into the real world using your Android phone. From what we have seen so far this looks amazing.
Vr looks like the future but it did once before. There are some major issues tear need to be addressed and are being but it is till not perfect. There is a backpack available with a computer to stop the tethering issue.
HTC VIVE is the daddy of the VR headsets. It comes with 2 sensors for your room to stop you bumping into things. It require a decent PC setup and costs £800. It has hand sensors and an amazing Hi res screen. But its still tethered and costly. Problem is most people don't have enough room and money to afford.
There are some solutions for this but they don't see mainstream
How about a massive hamster wheel?
Intel have brought out their Mixed Reality project Alloy, which promises to give the opportunity to merge the physical and virtual world together but more on the VR side. With this and their Real-sense motion cameras this is one to watch. Its untethered
Leap motion as brought out as a way to control your computer with motion control. It is being used more as a hack for VR. This gets rid of the need for hand sensors and works similar to Project Aloy. You can stick the leap motion on a vr headset and see you hands. Seeing your hands allows you to fully interact with the enviroment.
a little demo that one of our developer knocked up with leap motion
This was a quote by the great chinese thinker or was in Benjamin Franklin? It doesn't really matter, It rings true. Its about presence.
Google expeditions is a great learning aid for children. using Google cardboard it allows then to enter a different world from their classroom. 360 dinosaur expereince. I could never imagine from books how big they are. Now I can.
So as we unplug the wires, deal with the motion issues and we get total emergence then what next. If you mind and body is fully immersed, what about your soul? If you could not tell the difference between reality and the virtual Reality
how will that affect our minds?
As you know we work a lot in the leisure industry for Merlin (Alton Towers etc) and we are currently working with the Escape Rooms. We think VR is an amazing experience if it works in the real world, just like The VOID. What would have in a war sim. Would I get stress related to war?
Do we really want to fully escape reality or do we wan to enhanced reality. At Matmi we believe thaT VR does have a future but not as we imagine. We believe in enhanced reality. Vr has its place but the best we experiences will be when we enhance the reality that we are already in. Games may use a mixture of their technologies. This is what Apple are planning with their purchase of Metaio, prime sense etc.
Hololens by Microsoft is an amazing piece of hardware that incorporates glasses that allow users to see AR. If you think Pokemon Go is big, wait until Minecraft releases its location based game via Hololens or MR.
Magic Leap promises to be something completely different. From what we understand you will not need a cumbersome headset. Its had millions of investment from Google and various others and looks like it will stand put from the crowd. Imagine not needing a Tv or phone as they will all be part of an alternative reality. Only when we get rid on the headset will this happen.
At the moment VR is press worthy as its tech allows presence in situations. Although it is still early day, its press worthy and promises to change the way we interact with technology forever, However the big cumbersome headsets will stop in being main stream. When the technology exists in normal glasses or contact lenses then reality will change forever. imagine making your own TV
SO lets talk about gamifictaion. How we went from games to gamifictaion? Matmi. We realised that game theory could be used for other purposes.
Extrinsic focuses on achievements quick spread and awareness. For longevity and keeping users active we must look towards Intrinsic motivational factors. THEY COME FROM WITHIN
EXPLAIN,
We’re currently playing with VR / MR solutions for a host of leisure clients including the Escape Rooms and we’ve been experimenting with alternative realities in the Matmi labs for a number of years. Our recent project for Galactica at Alton Towers also allowed visitors to scan content within the park, creating a virtual swirling portal on the physical ride thus blending the real and virtual worlds together.
One of the reasons we like escape is to have fun. Without Fun our lives are meaningless and dull. Without fun, we have no purpose. Fun is about playing, engaging, commenting. When we have fun we learn more.
So can our love of play change the world into a better place?
We are currently producing platforms that use play for the cinema industry, banking, fire safety, health care, theme parks etc. We encourage user engagement thru the use of play. The intrinsic reinforcement with games helps release dopamine and helps change the wiring of the brain to make us more creative, fast at reacting and masters of multi-tasking. Where will the Power of Play take us next? Can we solve the world’s biggest problems by playing? Watch this space…
If you want to discuss how play can help you, please get in touch. Thanks. I