We had an awesome time at eGames yesterday, the annual gaming conference organised by the Knowledge Oasis Muscat. It was a great opportunity to meet people interested in gaming and technology and it was also a opportunity to hear about the latest applications of serious gaming (gaming for educational purposes), virtual reality gaming, and gaming for the promotion of heritage and culture in the UK. And oh yeah, there was a bit on mobile phone gaming, but we’ll talk about that in another post.

The eGames conference is not your average gaming expo, you will not likely hear about the latest PS3 or Wii game in it, but instead it will hear a lot about using games for creating new effective methods for teaching, the usage of gaming for spread and preserving art and culture, and the usage of gaming for the promotion of tourism.

The majority of speakers were experts in alternative uses of gaming from the UK. Interesting examples were showcased by PIXELearning illustrating the possibility to create effective training programs using virtual words such as a GTA-like game used to train medical staff.

The second most discussed topic at eGames was the use of gaming for the promotion of tourism and culture, which is a topic that our country Oman could benefit easily benefit from if implemented well. Oman is a country rich with culture and unique architecture which the world would enjoy seeing and exploring in cyberspace for sure.

eGames first day was concluded by a session of mobile phone games, which we will discuss in a separate post for reason’s you will soon know! You can learn more about the topics discussed at eGames by viewing the conference’s blog here.