‘Playing seriously’, Basilicata promotes itself with video games – Viaggiart

(ANSA) – POTENZA, JUNE 04 – The promotion of the Lucanian territory opens up to the world of younger people through one of the major communication channels: video games. This is the spirit that moved the Basilicata tourist promotion company, the only one in Italy to have equipped itself with a section called ‘Comics and Games’, in joining the European project ‘Be-Cultour. Beyond Cultural Tourism’, financed by the EU, in which Basilicata is the pilot region and which ended this morning in Potenza. The ‘Giocare seriously’ event was an opportunity for discussion with video game experts, designers, psychologists, philosophers and entrepreneurs to analyze online and offline digital games and their use to promote the territory and its values.
Specifically, the Apt “has chosen to adopt the language of video games to translate challenging concepts, such as the circular economy and sustainability, in a fun way”, explained director Antonio Nicoletti. “We thought of addressing the little ones – he added – who manage to involve families, through the story of an ancient Basilicata, rich in culture and which speaks with the language of today”. The protagonist is the Vulture-Alto Bradano area, in which the guide is the Latin poet Horace, in the environments of the Minecraft video games, one of the most used platforms, and with the Roblox video game, which is combined with “slow videos” that tell the story of the territory with immersive images. “The video game creates interest and ‘engages’, it brings back kids who can learn Lucanian history”, concluded Nicoletti who recalled that the company is not new to similar initiatives: “With ‘Metapontum’, we travel to the Ionian coast Lucania, among environmental beauties, history and culture of Magna Graecia and Pythagoras. In two years we have obtained 425 thousand downloads all over the world, with a contact cost of less than five cents”. (HANDLE).