On the 19th June, the 101st edition of Tech Days@Altice Labs was held, under the theme Serious and Not-So-Serious Gaming 101.

This session was attended by Professor Leonel Morgado, Professor and researcher of INESC TEC / Open University and president of the Portuguese Society of Video Games Sciences, which in his keynote presentation addressed the dynamics of games, involving cognitive sciences, critical thinking and complex relationships , as well as how human psychology reacts to the challenges they present.

This was followed by Telma Mota, from the Digital, Internet and Television department, who presented the Sharing Cities project. One of the aspects of this project is the citizen involvement and the change of behaviors to improve the sustainability of a community. This goal was addressed through the use of gamification: an application rewards a citizen’s desired behaviors and, in turn, the community of that citizen is rewarded for its behavior.

In turn, Rita Maçorano and Francisca Canais, co-founders of the Nevaro startup, presented their project, which consists in the use of gamification to treat anxiety. The use of virtual/augmented reality associated with the use of neurological and biological signal reading sensors allows a more comfortable and simple approach to the anxiety and phobia treatment, with less medication and less cost.

Finally, João Cício de Carvalho, general manager of Inygon, presented this company focused on the electronic sports (esports) events and competitions market. This is a fast-growing marketplace, involving professional teams, monetary prizes and mobilizing several million viewers around the world. In Portugal, the Portuguese League of the League of Legends and the Portuguese League of Counter-Strike are two of the Portuguese championships that Inygon promotes, mobilizing not only spectators in the arena but also their transmission on InygonTV. The evolution of this market has been exponential, it is even being considered that esports may become part of the Olympic Games.

The session was concluded with a discussion panel, moderated by Professor Leonel Morgado, which was well attended and where the participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the various speakers.