PUBLIC MARKS with tags games & "serious games"

"Last week gamesblog covered Persuasive Games' latest release Airport Insecurity, "a game about inconvenience and the tradeoffs between security and rights in American airports". I grabbed Ian Bogost, one half of the company (and one-half of the blog watercoolergames) to explain exactly what he means by "serious games"."

With the second annual Serious Games Summit in Washington D.C. [coordinated by the CMP Game Group, as is Gamasutra.com] nearly here, it seems a good time to take stock of ‘the state of serious games.'

Serious games, like every other tool of education, must be able to show that the necessary learning has occurred.

The conference dedicated to Social Change through Digital Games will explore best practices and theory from distribution to funding.

"... I think once games become serious they turn into mere systems in the same way that porn becomes a medical illustration once it ceases stimulating you."

The 2006 Serious Games Summit at Game Developers Conference, a gathering of developers who use games for non-entertainment purposes as part of the larger 2006 GDC, has put out a call for speakers for its next meeting at the conference next March. (The GDC, like Gamasutra.com, is operated by CMP Media.)