Being as keenly interested in the world of gaming as we are, Brainworth was recently in attendance at the Game Tech conference in Sydney, where special guests Ian Livingstone (of Eidos Presidential fame, but more importantly the co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series of books) and Lisa Marino (investment banker cum social gaming data enthusiast) have given some impassioned talks from their perspectives on the gaming landscape.

Livingstone spoke at length about his entire history, from humble beginnings with Fighting Fantasy, to opening the first Games Workshop store, to issue one of White Dwarf to creating Lara Croft and beyond. His lesson after years of play and business? Embrace the change that's coming. He doesn't know what, when or where the next evolution will take place, but he suggests we all arm ourselves to be prepared for multiple evolutions at once. Console gaming is changing, of course it is. Handheld gaming devices are having to be more versatile to compete with smartphones. Again, of course. Smart TVs may have consoles embedded in the future. Well, perhaps not.

The point is that Livingstone suggests a multitude of ways the future of gaming is coming to us. They're varied and happening at the same time. We can't sit back and wait for the next home consoles from Sony or Microsoft before we prepare for the future, nor the new Windows tablet nor any other piece of hardware. The change is all around us, on our browsers, in our app stores and even within coding communities. The changes are coming too thick and fast for us to even think in terms of 'the next big thing'. Change is a constant, and we're just happy to be a part of one aspect of it.

Meanwhile, Marino imparted more acronyms per minute that any speaker we've yet seen. She skewers particular demographics based not on who they are but on how they play the various titles from her 38 million consumer strong company Rockyou. So perhaps that should be psychographics, or consumographics. In any case, her message for anyone entering the consumer web space is reflexivity, something we at Brainworth hold dear. To be reactive to change and ready and able to adapt at a moment's notice is key to running any socially charged product or service.

Throughout the entire day, there was a notable omission of anything to do with business as usual. Brick and mortar retail and boxed copy product were so far off the agenda it wasn't funny. Learn by doing, do by being agile and be agile by paying more attention to the digital space than ever before were the overarching messages of the day.