play pay and

by Jon Massey

KO your CEO” reads the zesty pink neon on the wall just inside Platform in Canary Wharf. Recently opened in Crossrail Place between Flying Tiger and Island Poke, at first glance it’s not immediately clear what this new arrival is.

There’s a little box office structure as you go in that has a distinct Wes Anderson vibe – a shelter, perhaps for a concierge. Then there are the glowing pink and yellow lights on the ceiling and the unmistakable sugary aroma of popcorn being made.

The sensory effect is that of walking into some kind of timeless future cinema that’s scrambled all of the best bits of going out to see a movie and come up with something highly refined, a little like the sweetener on the snacks. But Platform isn’t a movie theatre or a place to physically beat on senior executives, it’s a place to play video games in comfort with snacks and drinks.

“I place us somewhere between continued on Page 12

Virtual Viewpoint

by Chris Ezekiel

from Page 10 competitive socialising operators, who are doing things like ping pong and darts, and a traditional cinema,” said Tomaso Portunato, co-founder and CEO of Platform.

“When you go and see a movie you’re consuming content with friends – having food and drinks and it’s much the same here. We have popcorn, a bar and we serve pizzas.

Humans are responsible for driving tech forward

It’s been a busy few months for us at Creative Virtual. We have always prided ourselves on the long-term relationships we have with our customers and partners, rooted in our ability to constantly innovate and continually add value to their businesses.

With the emergence of ChatGPT, like all companies in the Conversational AI space, we have had to ask ourselves some hard questions about how we can leverage this technology to continue to add value. For the past two and a half years, we have been researching and testing large language models.

Understanding that many businesses are grappling with the challenge that this new technology presents, we took the early decision to o er our customers free consultation and proof of concept projects using these models.

This approach was a learning opportunity for us and our customers to really understand the business bene ts and risks associated with deploying such models. At the same time, it really helped our clients understand the issues associated with implementing them. Several of the pilots are now turning into full commercial projects – delivering real business value for our customers and the results are shaping our product roadmap.

In only a few months we have developed native support for large language models and provide the functionality in our product that allows customers to implement them in a safe way, delivering all the bene ts these models o er, but without any of the risks.

Later this year we celebrate 20 years as a company, and I’m proud to say that our rst UK nancial services customer that came on board in 2004 is still with us today.

Customer-led innovation has driven our company for nearly two decades and has never been more important in a world where the rapid rise of AI is disrupting so many industries and business models.

Our recent new product release, Gluon, is testament to our amazing team and long-term customer relationships.

While machines are taking over many human tasks, and AI plays a signi cant part in our own technology, we must never forget that it’s humans that build those relationships and business models and, at the end of the day, it’s humans who design the algorithms that make the machines work.

Chris Ezekiel is founder and CEO of customer engagement solutions specialist Creative Virtual based at West India Quay’s Cannon Workshops

Scan this code for more information about Creative Virtual or follow @creativevirtual and @chrisezekiel on Twitter

“I’m originally from Geneva in Switzerland and I came here to study economics and politics about 10 years ago. Before starting Platform I was doing event management for game companies and helping student associations out, but I never really had a job after university.

“The idea was to start small and to make something out of it. We began as a pop-up – putting on events, selling tickets and generating funding for about a year.

“We had gaming sponsors from doing that and decided, with my co-founders Lucas Weintraub, Jo Highfield and my brother Nicolo, that if we could afford a commercial property, then we would go for it. When I was working in Old Street, I used to go to a pizzeria for lunch – count the customers and try to estimate how much they would spend.

“I was trying to build a business model. Then the pizzeria went bankrupt and we took it over for the first Platform. Shoreditch is now in a really good spot – we have a loyal customer base and we do a lot of gaming events there – but we were also testing the ground.

“It’s still our baby and it’s doing great, but the Canary Wharf branch is closer to our finished concept. Shoreditch was an opportunity to see what we could do with little capital and a vague understanding of what we were doing.

“We tried everything – racing simulators, retro gaming, console gaming and PC gaming. We learnt a lot about our operating model and the type of experience we wanted to be focusing on.

“That’s why Canary Wharf is based on next generation console gaming and how we create a really fun experience around that. It’s streamlined and it’s simpler to operate – you don’t have issues like customers changing the language and alphabet on a PC and then not changing it back.

“But most importantly, we also feel that console gaming offers the most social experience of the lot. It caters for the crowd who want to go out and enjoy themselves, to play, have some food and some cocktails. Plus operators like Nintendo have made it really fun even if you lose – and that’s important. We want to make sure anyone coming to Platform, whether they are an experienced gamer or not, has a really good time. That means we’re careful about the games we select and how we present what we’re doing.”

While the pink glow and sweet aromas of the bar are ground level temptations, the business end of Platform is subterranean. Customers follow pulsating neon arrows downstairs to a surprisingly spacious bar area beyond which are located a series of semi-private booths of varying sizes.

These come equipped with Nintendo Switch and Playstation 5 consoles, a handy neon light to attract staff and plentiful sofa space.

“We have about 30 games to choose from including racing, continued on Page 21 game review

Moving Out, published by Team17 from Page 12 and sports titles, with big names like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Call Of Duty and Fifa

“But we also have cooperative games like Overcooked and Moving Out, which I think are great. If you’re out on date night, you might want to play more cooperatively rather than competitively.

“Our larger booths can accommodate up to eight people but we can easily arrange tournaments for our guests and take corporate bookings for up to 60.

“Most of our customers pre-book online, but people can just walk in too and we’ll do everything we can to accommodate them.

>> Oh God. What’s going on?

I just threw a chair through a window, my head is a toaster and it’s just fired two charred pieces of bread into the air. Now a giant turtle is repeatedly slapping me. Worse still, I can barely move this fridge by myself...

These are just a few of the thoughts likely to run through your head as you and your friends take on Moving Out

Published by Team17 and developed by some clearly very disturbed Swedes and Australians, this 2020 “cooperative moving simulation game” pits players against that timeless foe –moving day.

While the real-life process of relocating from one home to another is generally said to be amongst the most stressful things a person can do, playing Moving Out is curiously liberating. Despite the oddness – you can play as a humanoid toaster, a unicorn or even a person – the simple act of frantically battling exaggerated physics against the clock to stuff a van with furniture and other ephemera is curiously relaxing.

Behold The Mario, one of the pizza options available at Platform. This doughy disc has clearly passed through the mushroom kingdom and come out all the better for it, complete with the stringy cheese you remember from your childhood. Ideal as a side order to a session of Super Smash Bros

True, you can be painstakingly careful (breakages are penalised to some extent) and go for a high score. But the game doesn’t seem to mind too much if you decide that tossing a sofa through a plate glass window is a better way to expedite its journey to a new home.

There’s a cooperative element too. Heavier items must be carried with a pal and there’s an obvious temptation to invoke the sacred mantra of the Chuckle Brothers. Failing that, keeping a selection of expletives handy is advised for the inevitable time your colleague is less than useful. There are plentiful obstacles to contend with – rakes, ghosts, fires, a giant turtle – that serve to make the experience of play richer and more bizarre. Fans of Overcooked (also on offer at Platform) will doubtless find this a silly, frantic blast with an unhealthy toaster obsession.

>> Wharf Life has teamed up with Platform to bring you a series of reviews of games playable on its consoles. Stay logged in for more of this kind of thing in our June 28 issue

“Typically people book 90 minutes (£13.50 per person) and can always top that up if they would like to stay longer. After that, they are welcome to hang out in the bar, of course.

“We also offer packages such as £28pp for two cocktails and gaming or bottomless brunch for £35pp, which includes a pizza or nachos for each person and bottomless beer, Prosecco or Mimosas for 90 minutes.

“A lot of people want to get together to play games and the traditional way of doing that would be to meet at someone’s house on a Friday.

“Platform allows a larger group to meet with all the latest games in a comfortable environment.

“For some it will be a pit-stop when they’re out in London. But equally it could be a place to go with mates from work or on a date.

“For businesses it’s a way for colleagues to have fun and we can offer whole-venue booking for corporate customers with drinks, food and unlimited gaming.”

Following the success of the Shoreditch branch, Tomaso and the team were already looking at Canary Wharf as a place to open in 2019.

“I initially thought it was interesting because of the corporate scene,” he said. “But since then Canary Wharf Group has done an amazing job of developing the area – picking the right operators to attract people.

“The deciding factor for us was the Elizabeth Line and the area is seeing massive footfall during the week and at weekends.”

Gaming at Platform starts at £5 for sessions off peak on Mondays. Go to experienceplatform.co.uk for more information

Scan this code for more about Platform in Canary Wharf take a breath

by David Lefebvre Sell

The challenge is to escape thoroughly and then come back stronger to deal with reality

My first and greatest addiction is to escapism, now and forever. It is the tendency that I most struggle against and that I always revert to when I’m stressed and overwhelmed. My idea of escapism is a good sci-fi or fantasy book series – yours might be a rom-com, reading about celebrities or telling yourself that immigrants are somehow the cause of all the country’s problems.

My point is that the drive towards escapism can be both a positive and a negative in our lives. Escape is, obviously, a response to a perceived threat, but our modern experience of that is a bit different to our ancestors.

How do you escape from money troubles, health issues or that relentless bastard, time? The answer is through imagination. No, it didn’t die when you were a teenager, it just levelled up to begin its job of keeping you sane.

The urge to escape from these worries is very addictive. Modern life presents us with so many lovely ways of not thinking about the things that are actually troubling us.

This is the threat of escapism. It’s always easier to avoid than engage. The challenge is to dive back into the real world, and to engage with the things that frighten us and the parts of ourselves that may hold us back.

But there is more to fantasy and escapism than mere avoidance. We are also nourished by our favourite stories. Things make sense in our escapism – there is a clear right and wrong, heroism and villainy.

Benjamin Disraeli said, “Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic, makes heroes”. Children use their inner world of imagination in order to escape from – but also to make sense of – their outer world. So do adults.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but being an adult is frequently crap. The challenge is to escape thoroughly and then return stronger.

David Lefebvre Sell is a Greenwich-based psychotherapist and Yoga instructor who teaches at Third Space in Canary Wharf

Follow @davetheyogi on Twitter and Instagram and @DavidLefebvreSellYogaAndPsychotherapy on FB

Scan this code for information about David’s work as a transpersonal counsellor and psychotherapist