Research Through Gaming’s third birthday is being celebrated really late! Our 3rd birthday was actually on July 17th this year, but with so many (good) things going on, RTG’s birthday came and went and I hadn’t even noticed! However, it is good to celebrate each year that our company has been in business as a marker of another milestone, if nothing else. And this is why we had a gorgeously delicious cake made by local business-owner KatyBakey who even put our Avatars from our Rezzpondents game all around it!
Some of you who have been following our progress from day 1 (when I started the company from my bedroom!) will know that Research Through Gaming has progressively grown its’ presence around the world. We’ve been working more and more with international clients, speaking at global conferences and I’ve become an occasional University lecturer as well; teaching game-based research methods and ResearchGame design to students as far away as Venezuela, India, Bucharest and Canada, as well as a little closer to home in Universities like Brunel, University of Loughborough and the University of Winchester.
The company has evolved over the years; we started off as a company purely making and designing ResearchGames, but more recently we’ve been opening our doors to more to academic work, consultative work and lecturing which has allowed us to meet more people and help their understanding of this methodology, as well as aiding them in putting game-based research methods in place through other types of design.
This past year, we’ve been working with up-and-coming companies as well as agencies and brands alike, and it’s been quite an adventure! No longer is Research Through Gaming designing games for just market research purposes, but for other forms of data collection as well through other kinds of games and apps.
We were also in the GRIT Top 50 Most Innovative firms in the Winter 2014 report, we co-judged in the Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Awards, and I was nominated as a ‘Researcher of the Future’ by CASRO. We also published the first case-study based paper on ResearchGames in the SAGE Book of Methods and for the Association of Survey Computing. I started a PhD (putting our invention of ResearchGames through its academic paces for the first time) in February, and we’ve shared our work and knowledge at conferences like PMRG in Orlando, IIEX in Amsterdam, ESOMAR in Bucharest and we’re on our way to Keynote at AMSRS this September.
We’re so proud that in the last financial year, we’ve also trademarked the terms “ResearchGame” and “Playspondent” which are integral to our brand recognition and the invention of the ResearchGame methodology, and we’ve also been getting much more integrated in our local community in Enfield.
From July 2013 until July 2014, so much has happened that to list it all here would take far too much of your time! But know that your Research Through Gaming is still having fun, growing, learning and true to our original ethos; to produce engaging market research through creativity for better respondent experiences and data quality. We hope to see you at the AMSRS conference in September so you can hear about how we’ve been doing that!
Before I go, it is paramount to thank each and every person who has supported me and this company. The emails I get spurring us on, thanking us for our contributions to the industry and letting us know how we inspire you is such a nourishing fuel which keeps us going. Thank you to conference organizers, magazine editors and University professors who have invited us to share our work and ideas and thank you to each and every one of our existing and prospective clients. You are all brave to have let go of traditional methods and approach us in the first place, and we hope we do you proud!
Happy 3rd Birthday Research Through Gaming, and thank you all for three years of amazing support.
People say that it’s not just one person owning and running a business, but it’s the entreprenuers friends and family that help the entire process, so on a more personal note, thank you to my husband, my friends and family for all their love and understanding of busy schedules for all this time!
Follow me on Twitter as @BettyAdamou for in-the-moment updates on our travel, news and little anecdotes and ideas 🙂
[vslider name=ResearchThroughGaming3rdBirthdayPictures]