Slashdot Mirror

TecnaDigit writes "The Games for Health Conference, is being hosted this month by the Serious Games Initiative at the Maryland School of Medicine. The writers at GamEnlight have posted an editorial about the Serious Games organization. The organization has an uphill battle facing them, with the way games are so readily scorned these days. But they recognize the potential for this area as well, and work with honest dedication to develop games for a better, more knowledgeable future. The article also has an insightful look at how the uses of technology and gaming changes as we become older."

The fact that Microsoft Game Studios picked and chose from the past in order to make Age of Empires fun is understandable. While recognizing that, the Wonderland Blog brings up the (dubiously laudable but) important role Age of Empires has in educating young people. Alice asks if such a game, helpful to the teaching of the young, should futz with the past the way it does. The Guardian Blog follows up on her commentary by discussing the game and the issue in the context of Serious Games. From the article: "With the snowballing of interest in Serious Games and governmental support for the development of games in the classroom, should this be an issue that is seriously debated in development houses?"

elhaf writes "There is an article running in the Chronicle on Higher Education about the new trend of creating political-message video games for the next round of campaigns. TechNews has commentary on the situation as well. The article mentions that there are actually a few available already, but they mainly just allow opposition-bashing. This is not, I think, to be confused with Serious games, even though both groups seem interested in health care policy."

miller60 writes "At GameJournalism.com we look at Games for Health 2004, a conference which will explore the use of interactive games in treating patients and training doctors. One presentation discusses "Glucoboy," a Gameboy based diabetes monitoring solution, while another looks at the use of video games in improving surgical outcomes. The event is organized by the Serious Games Initiative, among others."

Thanks to the Portland Press-Herald for their article discussing the Serious Games Initiative's attempts to get games used as big business tools. According to the piece, Serious Games have created Virtual U, a freely downloadable collaboration with developers Enlight that "...illustrates the complexities of running a university", 'Sim College'-style. Now, with a new grant, they're "...hoping to expand the idea to hospitals, high schools and even national parks." And, according to the project director for the Serious Games Initiative, it's all about getting tactics as a talking-point: "Video game players love to talk about their games. They love to share strategy, talk about whether it's fair or not. That's all pretty high level talk and it flows out of the activity naturally."

An anonymous reader points out that the Serious Games Project, which is part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars at the Smithsonian, has just submitted a call for academic papers. They're interested in discussing problems such as "what public policy and management issues or challenges are most amenable to computer-based gaming techniques?", and there is already a very interesting Chris Crawford-written paper on the site, "Subjectivity And Simulation" (PDF link).

An anonymous reader points out that the Serious Games Project, which is part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars at the Smithsonian, has just submitted a call for academic papers. They're interested in discussing problems such as "what public policy and management issues or challenges are most amenable to computer-based gaming techniques?", and there is already a very interesting Chris Crawford-written paper on the site, "Subjectivity And Simulation" (PDF link).

An anonymous reader points out that the Serious Games Project, which is part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars at the Smithsonian, has just submitted a call for academic papers. They're interested in discussing problems such as "what public policy and management issues or challenges are most amenable to computer-based gaming techniques?", and there is already a very interesting Chris Crawford-written paper on the site, "Subjectivity And Simulation" (PDF link).