Deering: We need to educate parents

Industry legend Chris Deering believes that the market needs to eradicate the ‘stigma’ surrounding games amongst parents and educators – echoing the recent words of Sony UK boss Ray Maguire on MCV.

Speaking at the recent Games Based Learning conference, Deering said that many stakeholders in UK education still believed that games are something kids run off and do in their rooms in front of the TV.”

Games Based Learning strives to use games to create and deliver training and education for all ages.

Deering said: The first thing we need to do is to expand the concept among the average educational worker – not the handful of people who have grasped it.

We need to increase the acceptance factor of off-the-shelf games in schools.

Once that becomes acceptable, I think there’s room for the industry, government and educational bodies to collaborate.

There’s still a bit of stigma about video games as something boys run off to do in their bedrooms. But everyone also knows they’re a great way to engage kids.”