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Serious Games Project Asks For Academic Papers
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).
Google's got it.
I'm glad the positive aspects of gaming are finally getting some press. With all the crap the gaming community has had to take from events like Columbine, it's good to see that companies are realizing that games can be very educational and help, rather than hinde, the development of strong communities and teams. Soon , how well we're doing on The Sims Online will be a major factor in job interviews.
Marvin Minsky gave a talk at GDC 2001 that emphasized the role of AI in games. It was mostly a promo for his book , but he took some time to address how important games were to learning and cited examples. Check the following URL to view the entire keynote. Registation with Gamasutra may be required. rtsp://media.cmpnet.com/gamasutra/minsky.rm