One positive legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic we might see is growing webcam use in a diversity of contexts. While we’ve all grown used to video calling in business and education portals, another place you can find video embedded is at the online gaming table.
A new generation of gaming platforms makes use of video tools (initially developed for business) to drive just that kind of deeper connected communication, and enhance the interpersonal aspects of gaming communication - in exactly the same way businesses have been using the technology to replace face-to-face interaction for meetings and conversations, particularly while we cannot meet in person as we might choose.
Enriching the experience
[caption id="attachment_35711" align="alignright" width="200"]
Andrew Song[/caption]
Andrew Song, CEO and Founder at CaptivePlay LLC, has embedded iotum’s video calling functionality in their social poker application, and explains, “Online free poker has been around since the early 2000s. But the online game is less socially interactive, as players are usually by themselves at home, not physically together. With the pandemic, people were forced to stay at home more, enjoying less social interaction. So we thought, wouldn't it be great if we could make the online game as socially interactive as the live version?”
Integrating video solutions into a gaming portal was a new venture for iotum, but the needs were not dissimilar to that of their business customers, and they were game for a new challenge.
The same qualitative difference iotum’s video calling brought to their business customers in fields as diverse as telemedicine, education, and retail is now having impact in the gaming environment, with particular nuance for poker.
Song says winning is really much more about understanding odds and the information available on the table rather than spotting tells or giveaways, but nuances of body language and non-verbal communication are enhanced through video whatever the setting - in any business negotiation, for example, each party seeks to build relationship and trust, without giving away precise details of the cards they’re holding. And when you can look directly at the other participants instead of having your screen fixed on the game play - or the agenda or presentation - it deepens the interpersonal connection, whatever activity you are engaged in.
