New video games play to serious objectives By Mike Snider, USA TODAY
The two-day Serious Games Summit, ending Tuesday in Arlington, Va., features games that involve such real-world issues as gerrymandering, medical education and military operations.
HumanSim, Pulse and netStrike assist nurses and physicians, first responders and military personnel in learning and refreshing their skills, while The Redistricting Game, being developed at USC's Annenberg Center for Communications, deals with the repercussions of tinkering with political boundaries.
"You read about science in a book and it is boring, but if you do something scientific in a game, it can be fun," says Ben Sawyer, co-director of the Serious Games Initiative (seriousgames.org), which held its first summit two years ago.
The 500-plus attendees at the summit include game designers and publishers, along with representatives from academia and business, all intent on exploring the potential of lifelike 3-D games.
Video gamemakers are designing more realistic games, but escalating costs have them seeking additional revenue sources. Possible customers include government and private industry, seeking game-based tools for the classroom and workplace.
"Games can be incredibly motivating," says Henry Jenkins, director of comparative studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a speaker at the summit.
Games may also represent a level of teaching and learning that goes beyond textbooks, says Virtual Heroes CEO Jerry Heneghan. His company is exhibiting a "Virtual Astronaut" game that allows up to 32 players to cooperate on space missions, and its HumanSim game, which tests medical diagnostic skills.
Well-designed serious games, he says, "teach by stimulating the imagination, sparking curiosity, fostering discussion and encouraging a spirit of competitive exploration across a variety of domains."
Serious games are a small fraction of the $10 billion video game industry. But Sawyer estimates they may soon make up 10% of industry revenues.
At Breakaway Games, founder Doug Whatley is even more bullish. Breakaway is set to begin testing its Pulse!! The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab at Yale University School of Medicine and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Its MOSBE (Modeling or Simulation by Everyone) real-time strategy game is being used by military and defense contractors.
Whatley says entertainment games will be dwarfed by serious games. "Will it still be called gaming? I'm not sure. But it will still be the things that we do."
