Military Tourism, is without a shadow of a doubt an upcoming segment of Cultural Tourism with sizable potential to be a strong product for the country, having already generated much interest among various sectors, and could greatly benefit from the application of technology used in gaming to its interpretation.
Gamified Immersive Experiences in Cultural Heritage allow visitors to connect to cultural heritage sites through missions and quests, interacting with characters and sites rich in history. It would seem evident that as stated above in terms of military history Portugal has much raw material to offer, game developers and tourists alike, when it comes to cultural heritage sites and characters rich in history.
Research collected during the National Military Tourism Charter Report shows that there is demand for the development of Military Tourism segment of cultural. The armed forces have shown openness to participate in this initiative; businesses are interested in developing Military Tourism products; governmental entities have shown their support for the development of Military Tourism products, and new associations have been created specifically with Military Tourism in mind.
Portugal’s rich military history counts with thousands of years of tribes and peoples who occupied this territory and left it layered with architectonic military heritage and heroes, who can be used as gateways to the interpretation of military history in Portugal through the use of gamification tools.
26 Example of Gamification applied to Military Tourism (own elaboration)
According to theory researched in the works of the above authors, the development of Military Tourism based games has potential to be a lever to the development of this sector
in Portugal. The application of game models such as points, badges, levels and rewards can motivate tourists to select Military Tourism products.
As Military Tourism is still taking its first steps in Portugal, it may benefit from the association with social media games along with all the promotional and low cost publicity, characteristic of social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram through the sharing of photos and experiences between netizens.
Technology such as Augmented Reality games and applications can illustrate national history on site, through a hand held window to the past, carried around in the tourist’s pocket.
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27 Augmented Reality Gladiator School Carnuntum
Current partners involved in the development of Military Tourism, have at their disposition the technology to challenge tourists to discover Portugal, or even through user created challenges created by local people with local knowledge about military attractions.
Location based games can make use of buildings and local heroes to tell the story of certain towns through their association to those heroes and locations, through playful interactions.
According to Ponsen, & Spronck, (2004) RTS (Real Time Strategy) Games are simple military simulations that require the player to control armies consisting of different types of units with the ultimate objective to defeat all opposing forces. Typically the key to winning
32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4-TkpAAuPk
lies in efficiently collecting and managing resources and later distributing these resources over various game elements. RTS games include elements such as construction of buildings, research technologies and military combat.
Buro, (2003) defines Real-time Strategy games such as the million sellers Starcraft by Blizzard Entertainment and Age of Empires by Ensemble Studios are simplified military simulations in which several players struggle over resources scattered over a two dimensional terrain. RTS games not only depict military confrontations but also task the player to develop an economy, research technologies, construct buildings and monuments along with armies and fleets, leading them into battle in real time.
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28 Portugal 1111 RTS game in Visão
In Portugal, April 2004, the municipality of Soure launched a Real Time Strategy game, “Portugal 1111” and according to TSF radio news this game promised to take players back to the medieval era. The original idea for the production of this game lies with History Professor, Joaquim Carvalho who challenged João Gouveia, at the time, president of Soure council to develop this game.
Portugal 1111 tasks players to organise the village of Soure around the castle and collect resources to fund the battles between Arabs and Christians. Over nine levels the player is challenged to manage economic resources, create farmland, fairs and windmills without forsaking the military defensive aspect of the game by building walls, watch towers and a castle, along with religious buildings such as churches, chapels and monasteries.
5.6 - Summary
The use of games have gone from being mere means of entertainment, to being used in non-game contexts as tools for to aid interpretation and education this exercise, known as gamification has been applied to many segments of the tourism industry.
Gamification motivates tourists to connect to heritage sites through missions and quests, interacting with characters and sites rich in history, giving them motives for visitation they did not previously have.
Applied to Military Tourism gamification has a tremendous potential to expand based on the rich military history and heritage of Portugal, and can be a lever to the development and promotion of this segment.
From the literature review it is possible to conclude that society is heading towards an entertainment focused society. Richard Florida states that Cities need to invest in Technology, Talent and Tolerance. This theory affirms that destinations need to mould themselves to develop new technology and talent (in the form of universities researchers and scholars) and lastly tolerance, cities need to be open to accept what technology and talent have to offer. Games are here to stay, gamification has already become a leading factor in how we shape our everyday lives, we must therefore be, not only, open to accept this reality but to get on board and work towards it with our products.