[A.Russell]

Some interesting points here about marketability. I’ll try to cover them as best I can.



Ø I don't think the suggestions are exactly pouring in for you.



True. Most ESL notice boards are not exactly high traffic sites, and this is one of the busiest that I know. A large number of the posts here are from learners trying to find answers to their grammar questions and kind teachers taking some time out to answer them. Probably a lot of the learners here have trouble following our conversations or are shy to contribute. However the response to the survey question has been very encouraging. I expect I will get a lot more feedback once I have the first playable release for teachers and students to try. I’ll keep you all posted with my progress.



Ø Mind you a lot of kids here do not have access to any video games and probably never will.



??? Where don’t kids have access to video games these days? In fact, it is now a larger industry than the movie business.



Certainly, the technology is not the greatest in every part of the world. We are spoilt here in Japan with our high speed connections (I have 36M –enough to run a school LAN, and now for the same price I could get over 100M if I wanted it) and new technology. Schools often don’t have the newest or greatest hardware either. I will take that into consideration when designing the game to try to make it able to run on weaker/older systems.





Ø Mr. Russell will never rule the world with this piece of software…I do, however, believe that there is a wide enough market for people to be interested in a product like this



Please call me Alex J. I am not gunning for the next big AAA title FPS, RPG or RTS game and going up against EA, Blizzard or Microsoft Games with their massive multi-million dollar budgets. These games have become so high budget and high risk now that they are often becoming increasingly formulaic. The game play rarely deviates much from the titles that have gone before, and all that is added is more stunning visual effects and the big name franchise branded on them.



It is certainly a risk that I am taking. It is quite expensive to even prototype a video game. Although predictably training and educational games will become more prominent, and possibly even boom, over the next five years, right now they mostly aren’t a dramatic success. As stated, this could change if the games had a more mainstream and fun element to them. It also needs to be shown that video games can provide real solutions to government and private organizations; how in certain situations they can provide improved training simulations, cut costs, motivate learners and arouse awareness of certain issues. This is fairly uncharted territory complete with all the potential risks and rewards. I hope this will turn out to be a nice little niche that hasn’t yet been exploited by the big companies.



Indications so far, from talking to people in the industry and on forums like this, are that this type of software is needed and useful to a lot of learners and teachers of English. I am interested to hear as many opinions for and against as I can gather and more specific comments regarding the particular application that I am proposing. From the overwhelmingly positive response so far, I am confident to go ahead with the project and build a prototype.



Ø I really don't feel the market is there for this stuff



So cynical for one so young ;). I like to hear arguments against the project as well. Please keep them coming.